Porzingis Unicorn #3 Thread

[E-Balla]

Porzingis' skillset is perfect for today's game, like Towns, Turner or Jokic. But his ceiling is higher than other big men, and that's the reason for the Knicks should clean the house and create an environment of a good team, with good ball's movement and chemistry. He doesn't need to play hero ball, or play lottery ball every year looking for a change that not will come (Cousins or A. Davis have the talent, but his organizations are failing to them). He needs a good organization, sometime the Knicks doesn't have right now. Clean the house, hire the right people to the front office and staff (I like Hornacek, I believe he could be a good coach with good elements around him).

The potential is there, but the organization needs to help to develop it. Otherwise his ceiling only will be a nostalgic thought like Sampson's (similar skillset) or Webber's (multiple all-star but could be a legend).

Why is his ceiling so high? Why is it higher than Towns or Jokic, who have shown the ability to put pieces together of advanced offensive games, while KP struggles to with nearly all facets outside of hitting open 3's and coming off screens to hit open mid range jumpers? Every 10 games or so he flashes a crossover, hits a dream shake or makes nice running hooks around the basket, or even "gasp", a play where he's posting up and for whatever reason isn't bodied away (like 99% of the other times) and he makes a nice fundamental bankshot. It's year 2 and he's shown no greater inclination or ability to make those moves than year 1. I'm not sure I can totally buy the "ceiling is higher than everyone" argument as readily anymore.

Well its higher than Jokic because Jokic will only be an average defender unless he transforms his body completely and offensively his mind is already amazing and so are his skills. Not much room for improvement just conditioning (I mean Bird didn't improve tons after his rookie year). Now Jokic is already top 30 level so saying he won't improve much isn't bad.

Towns on the other hand just doesn't look like he'll ever be a good defender and he doesn't want to be. Its painful watching him on that end.

KP is the best natural defender of the 3, and offensively he's easily the most raw but he's also the softest which is a big negative. Potential wise I'd put him under Towns but well over Jokic.

[E-Balla]

Dingis Zingis needs to get his **** together. 2nd year or not...A lot of 2nd year/young big men are out playing him.

Towns can't defend a chair and Okafor is injured and trapped in the Embiid show. Myles and Jokic are outplaying KP but screw comparing him to other 2nd year bigs we can compare him to his rookie season. He was noticeably better last year defensively. Horny needs to smack him and tell him to rededicate himself to defense. That unicorn **** must've got to his head or something because last year I saw way more effort.

I agree. Last year he had some sort of of creed that even if he isnt scoring he will pour his effort on D. What happened to that?

I'm guessing the same thing that happened to Dad Melo. Horny told him focus on getting his in isolation and not to focus on D and make the smart play.

[King of Canada]

He banged his knee on Dec 22nd and hasn't been the same since. You know that contributed to the achilles injury too. I hope he's not holding something back from the Drs or that they are letting play through something. Add to that this whole Melo mess and the atmosphere that is getting more and more toxic, if not on a personal level on a basketball level, and it's no wonder things are falling apart for everybody.

[F N 11]

He banged his knee on Dec 22nd and hasn't been the same since. You know that contributed to the achilles injury too. I hope he's not holding something back from the Drs or that they are letting play through something. Add to that this whole Melo mess and the atmosphere that is getting more and more toxic, if not on a personal level on a basketball level, and it's no wonder things are falling apart for everybody.

Play this man at center and get him into the game early and no one will be saying this.

[thebuzzardman]

He banged his knee on Dec 22nd and hasn't been the same since. You know that contributed to the achilles injury too. I hope he's not holding something back from the Drs or that they are letting play through something. Add to that this whole Melo mess and the atmosphere that is getting more and more toxic, if not on a personal level on a basketball level, and it's no wonder things are falling apart for everybody.

Better hope that's the reason. On a negative note, one injury and the guys game falls apart isn't a great sign either. Everyone else in the NBA plays nagging injury free?

[BeagleBoss]

I honestly believe a big reason for the recent struggles is the toxic environment and selfish teammates. We need to surround KP with players who take an interest in his success and make it a priority to keep him involved.

[Marty McFly]

Dingis Zingis needs to get his **** together. 2nd year or not...A lot of 2nd year/young big men are out playing him.

Jokic in particular looks like the better talent atm..

Pretty much everyone looks better than KP atm.

But again, Jokic was playing like 25mpg in his first 20 games, and not even averaging 10ppg.. While KP was scoring 20+ shooting 50%+ from the field.

jokic looked liked ass earlier in the year because of nurkic didn't he? can you imagine what him dealing with the **** on this team?

[NBA Fan 1234]

We all know defense starts on the perimeter and ends in the paint - KP already has the paint locked up, but I think part of his perimeter struggles are due to the lack of defense. Rose and Jennings can't guard a chair and are constantly making life difficult for KP. One day we'll have good perimeter defenders that don't put the big playing defense behind the 8 ball every **** game. One day...

(He still has a lot to learn on that end, but I do think Rose/Jennings are parts of the problem.)

[ny-n-md]

We all know defense starts on the perimeter and ends in the paint - KP already has the paint locked up, but I think part of his perimeter struggles are due to the lack of defense. Rose and Jennings can't guard a chair and are constantly making life difficult for KP. One day we'll have good perimeter defenders that don't put the big playing defense behind the 8 ball every **** game. One day...

(He still has a lot to learn on that end, but I do think Rose/Jennings are parts of the problem.)

I was going to say the same thing. Also add in Robin Lopez's rim protection gave KP more leeway as a defender. Now the defense suffers at the top when Rose gets screened and gives up on the play. Everything from that point on is a complete collapse and mess of rotating and recovering. It doesn't help that the corpse of Noah is the last line of defense.

[ChaosHamster]

Jokic in particular looks like the better talent atm..

Pretty much everyone looks better than KP atm.

But again, Jokic was playing like 25mpg in his first 20 games, and not even averaging 10ppg.. While KP was scoring 20+ shooting 50%+ from the field.

jokic looked liked ass earlier in the year becuase of nurkic didn't he? can you imagine what him dealing with the **** on this team?

Kind of..

coach thought Nurkic looked better, and Jokic himself didn't help, being in a foul trouble almost every game..

But as we all know on this board, everything is just a dumb excuse. Dude was trash. (Is trash? Last two games 11 and 13 points, and 5 rebounds combined )

[DOT]

He banged his knee on Dec 22nd and hasn't been the same since. You know that contributed to the achilles injury too. I hope he's not holding something back from the Drs or that they are letting play through something. Add to that this whole Melo mess and the atmosphere that is getting more and more toxic, if not on a personal level on a basketball level, and it's no wonder things are falling apart for everybody.

Better hope that's the reason. On a negative note, one injury and the guys game falls apart isn't a great sign either. Everyone else in the NBA plays nagging injury free?

http://stats.nba.com/player/#!/204001/traditional/
I wouldn't say hs game fell apart, just looking at the January numbers, his efficiency from the field and ft line were well above his season average, he just stopped making his threes
The main thing I can tell from this is his fouls per game spiked from 3.6 in December to 4.5 in January, as well as his rebounds being halved from 8.8 to 4.3, as well as his minutes going from 35 to 29 per game
On the positive side, Willy is averaging a double double in February and shooting 55% on 10 shots per game

[K_ick_God]

I honestly believe a big reason for the recent struggles is the toxic environment and selfish teammates. We need to surround KP with players who take an interest in his success and make it a priority to keep him involved.

We just have a low energy, here we go again look about us now. It's impressive that Guillermo seems unaffected by that but KP may not be as strong mentally as Willy and many young players may be the same. Also KP does not play with that kind of motor.

So he's highly affected by the toxic environment but he's also got to figure out how to push through it. Both things are true.

[Handledatruth]

In the end it is very tough to play on a team where your front court players are the most reliable shooters. I know Courtney Lee is shooting his open shots well, but teams would leave him open quicker than a Melo or KP. Add that to the fact that DRose and Jennings have no confidence in their jump shot and the spacing eventually gets poor. KP suffers from the same problems Melo does because its impossible to operate in space with PGs that can't or are unwilling to shoot. The off-season and draft should be dedicated to finding a PG that can shoot and play defense. Melo or no Melo.

[King of Canada]

He banged his knee on Dec 22nd and hasn't been the same since. You know that contributed to the achilles injury too. I hope he's not holding something back from the Drs or that they are letting play through something. Add to that this whole Melo mess and the atmosphere that is getting more and more toxic, if not on a personal level on a basketball level, and it's no wonder things are falling apart for everybody.

Better hope that's the reason. On a negative note, one injury and the guys game falls apart isn't a great sign either. Everyone else in the NBA plays nagging injury free?

http://stats.nba.com/player/#!/204001/traditional/
I wouldn't say hs game fell apart, just looking at the January numbers, his efficiency from the field and ft line were well above his season average, he just stopped making his threes
The main thing I can tell from this is his fouls per game spiked from 3.6 in December to 4.5 in January, as well as his rebounds being halved from 8.8 to 4.3, as well as his minutes going from 35 to 29 per game
On the positive side, Willy is averaging a double double in February and shooting 55% on 10 shots per game

I really think that the injuries are bugging him but the main reason he hasn't been up to snuff is the the other stuff going on. KP at this point in his career really seems to feed off the energy of his teammates. When the team is fired up and running the floor he beasts, and takes over games. When they are all walking around moping and playing the slowest game possible, we tends to slow down a lot. Obviously this isn't good, but being 7'3" and one of the younger guys on the team he isn't exactly equipped to take the ball in his hands and change the course of his teams play every single night. Maybe if we were playing more uptempo, but expecting him to create his own shots in the same way that Melo does in the half court is crazy.

[Dr. Detfink]

Last night, every one's wet coochie, Nikola Jovic's minutes were cut to 24 min, against Dallas on 2/6 it was 21 min...the coaching staff GOT the message after he aggravated his hip and was out after 15 min vs the Spurs on 2/4.

Oh and for all the "NBA Experts" in this forum, Embiid has been OUT for the last few games. An example of a dumba$$ coach overplaying a guy who is coming back from an injury that kept him out for all of last season...

The Phoenix Suns' Circus act is exciting and makes for splashy highlights and makes Fantasy sports clowns wet like a virgin on Prom Night.

However...

The Phoenix Suns use a short bench and notorious for burning out players. Again, this is a franchise who has won, NOTHING. Not one NBA Championship to crow about.

But...for whatever reason, the NY Knicks KEEPS making trades, signing free agents, and most baffling of all, hiring their ex-coaches.

RUBBISH!

If you re-roll the tape where DJ Jazzy Jeff Hornacek, a coach is a lower winning percentage than Vinny del Negro and David Blatt (I'm not even going to bother with Thibs because we know THAT answer)...is playing KP back to back games 30+ minutes...before, during, and after he injured then re-aggravated his achilles...

That shows me, a coach who cares MORE about himself than the team.

The Knicks have a good bench, USE IT dammit.

As for KP's defense, he's never going to be a 1:1 lockdown defender but he's GOOD at giving help and being a team defender. The Knicks should NEVER have entertained the thought of man on man defense. Again, THAT's the coach's fault...no, the OTHER dildo's fault, Coach Kurt Rambis.

[BadNewsBarnes]

We don't need to trade KP. We do need to get him off of those Adidas shoes that is causing his Achilles problems.

[Amsterdam]

He banged his knee on Dec 22nd and hasn't been the same since. You know that contributed to the achilles injury too. I hope he's not holding something back from the Drs or that they are letting play through something. Add to that this whole Melo mess and the atmosphere that is getting more and more toxic, if not on a personal level on a basketball level, and it's no wonder things are falling apart for everybody.

Play this man at center and get him into the game early and no one will be saying this.

Unless he gets 2 guards, not one, that can actually guard, he'll be averaging 5,6 fouls a game.

[E-Balla]

Last night, every one's wet coochie, Nikola Jovic's minutes were cut to 24 min, against Dallas on 2/6 it was 21 min...the coaching staff GOT the message after he aggravated his hip and was out after 15 min vs the Spurs on 2/4.

Oh and for all the "NBA Experts" in this forum, Embiid has been OUT for the last few games. An example of a dumba$$ coach overplaying a guy who is coming back from an injury that kept him out for all of last season...

The Phoenix Suns' Circus act is exciting and makes for splashy highlights and makes Fantasy sports clowns wet like a virgin on Prom Night.

However...

The Phoenix Suns use a short bench and notorious for burning out players. Again, this is a franchise who has won, NOTHING. Not one NBA Championship to crow about.

But...for whatever reason, the NY Knicks KEEPS making trades, signing free agents, and most baffling of all, hiring their ex-coaches.

RUBBISH!

If you re-roll the tape where DJ Jazzy Jeff Hornacek, a coach is a lower winning percentage than Vinny del Negro and David Blatt (I'm not even going to bother with Thibs because we know THAT answer)...is playing KP back to back games 30+ minutes...before, during, and after he injured then re-aggravated his achilles...

That shows me, a coach who cares MORE about himself than the team.

The Knicks have a good bench, USE IT dammit.

As for KP's defense, he's never going to be a 1:1 lockdown defender but he's GOOD at giving help and being a team defender. The Knicks should NEVER have entertained the thought of man on man defense. Again, THAT's the coach's fault...no, the OTHER dildo's fault, Coach Kurt Rambis.

Jokic played 24 minutes because they blew out Dallas, 15 minutes vs San Antonio because they were blown out, and played 32 minutes vs Milwaukee because it was a close game his first game back from injury.

Embiid plays 25 mpg, misses back to backs, and hasn't played 30 minutes once all year. He's barely playing as it is the coach isn't to blame at all.

And Horny has his issues but Blatt and VDN had players. Horny lead a team that was supposed to get the first pick to the 9th seed. He just needs players that fit and a defensive assistant and he doesn't have that.

[thebuzzardman]

He banged his knee on Dec 22nd and hasn't been the same since. You know that contributed to the achilles injury too. I hope he's not holding something back from the Drs or that they are letting play through something. Add to that this whole Melo mess and the atmosphere that is getting more and more toxic, if not on a personal level on a basketball level, and it's no wonder things are falling apart for everybody.

Better hope that's the reason. On a negative note, one injury and the guys game falls apart isn't a great sign either. Everyone else in the NBA plays nagging injury free?

http://stats.nba.com/player/#!/204001/traditional/
I wouldn't say hs game fell apart, just looking at the January numbers, his efficiency from the field and ft line were well above his season average, he just stopped making his threes
The main thing I can tell from this is his fouls per game spiked from 3.6 in December to 4.5 in January, as well as his rebounds being halved from 8.8 to 4.3, as well as his minutes going from 35 to 29 per game
On the positive side, Willy is averaging a double double in February and shooting 55% on 10 shots per game

Maybe this is backwards of me, but I just don't care what the stats say. I do know his scoring average is down by greater than 2 points, so clearly he's scoring less, somewhat, not that it's the greatest drop off. I just see he needs more shots to do less, is less assertive, and his shooting percentage can't possibly be better than it was in December. Now, maybe he got more shots in December? Anyway, even though I bash KP to rile people for entertainment sake, I like him and think he's a good player, who will at the very least be very good. But he's just looked bad for at least two weeks, regardless of stats.

[thebuzzardman]

I honestly believe a big reason for the recent struggles is the toxic environment and selfish teammates. We need to surround KP with players who take an interest in his success and make it a priority to keep him involved.

We just have a low energy, here we go again look about us now. It's impressive that Guillermo seems unaffected by that but KP may not be as strong mentally as Willy and many young players may be the same. Also KP does not play with that kind of motor.

So he's highly affected by the toxic environment but he's also got to figure out how to push through it. Both things are true.

Willie strikes me as that happy go lucky doofus who doesn't notice enough to care