The Rise of the Unicorn - Official KP6 Thread

[Johnny Firpo]

KP clearly improved his ball-handling and offensive game, but he is yet to put together two-way consistency. His stamina is improved though, so it should be in the cards. He just had two bad shooting games basically for the first time this year (consecutively), but was still excellent last night from a rebounding and shotblocking standpoint. Cousins is obviously a load to handle, but the Kings forward made it a little bit easier on the Knicks by shooting lots of threes.

Back to KP6, his team clearly stated after last season that they will not put too much weight on Kristaps, and that was the best decision. I don't agree with the notion that his future is at center, right now, he is clearly a PF on offense, and can play defense at the center spot against most foes. I think he is versatile right now as it is, and should grow into this mostly PF, sometimes C role. His core is stronger, and his ball-handling is vastly improved, last night he had this move (at 1:27).

Watch on YouTube

I'm confident that there is no 7'3 player in the history of the game who could do this. Maybe Yao? The ball is very low, he should not be able to pull that off, and that's not his first crossover this year. His three ball has also improved, right now he is shooting at or close to 40%. If he can keep up this year's production, he will probably get voted in as a starter for the All-Star game, but let's see if he can find his shooting form soon.

[AussieBuck]

Best case if you really want to go wild is some kind of Dirk/Gobert. So I guess you'd be figuring where he ranks in the top ten all time with Russell/Kareem/Lebron/Jordan/Giannis and co.

[Johnny Firpo]

Best case if you really want to go wild is some kind of Dirk/Gobert. So I guess you'd be figuring where he ranks in the top ten all time with Russell/Kareem/Lebron/Jordan/Giannis and co.

I'm down with that! Maybe with Giannis in the neighborhood? (Cubes, you MORON!)

[AussieBuck]

Best case if you really want to go wild is some kind of Dirk/Gobert. So I guess you'd be figuring where he ranks in the top ten all time with Russell/Kareem/Lebron/Jordan/Giannis and co.

I'm down with that! Maybe with Giannis in the neighborhood? (Cubes, you MORON!)

I have Giannis there.

[Jose7]

He fumbled 5+ rebounds last night. Missed a ton of open shots. He can do better.

His games super fluid and he's almost automatic from three when he's uncontested which happens often. The starting guards can do a better job of finding him. He does a lot of damage when he's the primary scorer on the 2nd unit.

[NBA Fan 1234]

I'm here to say I've been watching him since 2014 when he entered his name into that draft (and subsequently pulled out) and he was tied with KAT for #1 on my board in the 2015 draft (starting the official bandwagon on the Knicks forum). I'm done with the patting myself on the back for the time being.

He's going to continue to improve and be a problem for the rest of the league. He seems like he's a great guy, he's a hard worker, and he legitimately loves playing the game (and you can tell he has fun while watching him) - that's awesome to see and I'm happy for him.

Even though he's taken a step back defensively and rebounding this year, his offense has taken a big step forward. It's unfortunate we are playing for a bottom 4 seed when we should be looking for a PG (in a loaded class) to pair him with (even though I will admit that playoff experience will be important going forward). Oh well.

[ChaosHamster]

I`m not sure how much of a step back defensively was because of a 3 new teammates in the starting line-up (in the beginning, they were missing switches/rotations like crazy, and KP was over helping a bunch), right now, it seems he is at least getting back to his rookie season defense (19 blocks in last 6 games) and looks a lot better overall.

[NBA Fan 1234]

I`m not sure how much of a step back defensively was because of a 3 new teammates in the starting line-up (in the beginning, they were missing switches/rotations like crazy, and KP was over helping a bunch), right now, it seems he is at least getting back to his rookie season defense (19 blocks in last 6 games) and looks a lot better overall.

Yeah definitely better recently (I don't blame him entirely for the threes early on in the season), but rather than staying where he was last year, I wanted a step forward defensively as well. I'm selfish and ambitious. One year of getting to know the NBA game goes MILES in terms of development and understanding on the defensive end. Granted, it's still 20 games into the season and he can get better as the season progresses (and I expect him to), but IMO as of right now, he hasn't taken "the step" overall defensively that I wanted.

[Kabookalu]

Back to KP6, his team clearly stated after last season that they will not put too much weight on Kristaps, and that was the best decision.

Can we get some of those guys that made this decision on the Raptors? We're intent on making every promising euro big man we have fat.

[Johnny Firpo]

Can we get some of those guys that made this decision on the Raptors? We're intent on making every promising euro big man we have fat.

Ain't that the truth? I always agreed with the handful of Raptors posters who were sure that Bargs' career was derailed after his rookie season. He looked like a completely different player back then, he even shot the ball differently. Granted, with his work ethic, he probably never would have become great, but he could have been a lot better if they don't put that much weight on him. Same with Jonas as you imlied, alhough he is also severely underutilized. The guy is a beast down low with a career TS% north of 60% and one of the best hook shots in the game, yet the coaches and players rarely call plays for him.

[tsherkin]

Interesting player who has flashed a lot of things since draft day.

Looks to have regressed some on D, and that's a part of why the Knicks are so useless on defense this year; a part, but obviously not a top cause. He's young, so that'll take some time to figure out, especially while balancing offense against defense. Fairly unimpressive rebounder this season. He was better, at least by rate, last year. Looks like crap on both sides of the floor as a rebounder, and on the worst defensive rebounding team in the league, too, so it's not like he's competing against a lot. That'll need to improve. The offensive rebounding, I understand; dude is a 3PA factory, bombing away mercilessly from downtown, so he's away from the rim enough that he has no impact there. He CAN, I mean we've all seen him swooping in for put-backs and stuff. I wish he'd shoot a few less threes and mix it up in close a little more for those OREBs... but that's actually a major point of strength for the Knicks, so it's probably not going to happen and might even be a point of coaching emphasis. We'll see what happens when Derrick Rose stops hitting the offensive glass so much, but having Joakim Noah around is really helping in that regard, it's basically his best skill.

But what's really interesting about him is his offense. There's nothing bad to say there. He's building on the shooting he flashed last year from 3 and has a solid base of performance below the arc. He's still a narsty shooter above the foul line and most of all, BEST of all, he's learned how to finish inside (at least so far) and is playing big on the interior. I suspect he'll finish around 37% from 3 by season's end, if only because I expect him to cool down a little from the corners, but KP is looking very good.

All in all, a really compelling young man.

[tsherkin]

Ain't that the truth? I always agreed with the handful of Raptors posters who were sure that Bargs' career was derailed after his rookie season. He looked like a completely different player back then, he even shot the ball differently. Granted, with his work ethic, he probably never would have become great, but he could have been a lot better if they don't put that much weight on him.

Eh. Doubt it. He was a lazy pile of crap who had one move, the perimeter pump fake, and a nice shot. That dude's ceiling was Keith Van Horn from the start. He was a 7-footer who played SF all through his time in Europe and then came here with BC expecting his quickness to translate meaningfully, and that flopped, particularly given recent trends. That he was an abysmal rebounder and an idiot of a defender did him no favors. I don't think he was derailed much at all. We overutilized him and tried everything in the book to make him look good and it didn't work... because he sucked. It's a little tougher to say because there was some actual talent there, but he would have been far better off going like 23rd in the draft and being used like a Channing Frye or Steve Novak or something.

Same with Jonas as you imlied, alhough he is also severely underutilized. The guy is a beast down low with a career TS% north of 60% and one of the best hook shots in the game, yet the coaches and players rarely call plays for him.

Yes, and no. Jonas is a fairly limited straight-out isolation player. He isn't a great passer from the post and when he's outside of the lane trying to work in, he's clumsy, slow and not that impressive. Where he's most impressive is where you find most value in bigs as far as scoring: he's good at establishing paint position off-ball for a touch-post into a quick move, he's a strong roll man, he runs well enough in transition and he's a pretty strong offensive rebounder. You give him a couple of isolations per game to keep him interested, and then spam PnR with him while barking to keep him making late dive cuts after dribble penetration. You hope he scores 18 ppg, unless he's got a way favorable matchup to exploit in a given game. That's what he should be doing offensively. He isn't Shaq, and post isolation sets aren't that efficient, leastwise not any more so than perimeter isolations, for most people (including Jonas).

We should use Jonas more, but what that really means is that we need to be more consistent about making certain kinds of passes to him. The biggest issue we have with him isn't handing him enough isolations, it's Demar and (to a lesser extent) Kyle looking him off when he sets them a screen and bulls to the low paint. They miss him for quick passes and lobs all of the time, and it's a little frustrating. Those are highly effective sets, and we're getting a much worse possession instead.

It's nice to see that in New York, Porzingis has been integrated into the core of the offensive attack.

[76ciology]

Tough to stop on offense when his shots are dropping. Almost unfair.

[tsherkin]

Tough to stop on offense when his shots are dropping. Almost unfair.

Yeah, this is like a younger Dirk, only with 3 extra inches, as far as how that height/perimeter game thing is working out for him. Been fun to watch.

[CptCrunch]

Good player, Dirk level ceiling. Dirk led Mavs to a championship.

My Knicks don't really have a clear trajectory to contender status (yet). If Zingis can lead the Kicks to a championship, his career would be considered to be a great success.

Many people underestimate how difficult it is to be top 20 in the NBA. You take some of the best players in the league right like LeBron, Harden, Durant, Beastbrook (heh Presti) and Curry, only LeBron is top 10. Maybe Durant is a few season or two from top 20. Harden, Westbrook are still looking in from the 30's right now assuming they continue to remain healthy for another half a decade. I don't know about Curry's current position.

[Up-And-Coming]

I don't quite understand the Dirk comparisons in terms of playing style. When I watch KP play I see a combination of Kevin Durant and a little obit of old school Pau Gasol. I think he will end up having a great career (specifically individually), but the only thing I see holding him back in terms of legacy is winning a championship(s). Not sure how it will work out in New York

[babyjax13]

I don't think he has the lateral movement to be an effective power forward. The KP-Noah defensive tandem has teams feasting on mismatches because they are both too slow to be effective on switches (especially Noah), and I think KP causes more mismatch problems at center anyway. That being said, he is clearly going to be a fantastic player, and it *should* be really easy to build an effective team around him since he does so many things well.

[tsherkin]

I don't quite understand the Dirk comparisons in terms of playing style.

7-foot plus player with 3pt shot, good quickness for his size and some post game. Nice and easy. It's not a complete comparison, mostly just a reference to that.

[Riko]

Do you understand that Paul Gasol is an HoF who wins basically everything in his career, right?

[F N 11]

Derailing/Backseat Moderating