Porzinga! Kristaps Porzingis appreciation thread.

[doclinkin]

Watch on YouTube

Welcome to DC. The original Unicorn. This should be fun. When healthy. And if he can find his 3 ball range again.

[doclinkin]

NOICE debut:

Watch on YouTube

[AFM]

Very real chance he goes down in history as the greatest wizard of all time.

[FAH1223]

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

[dirkdiggler4177]

Good game by KP. I will probably sound like a hater, but when he was a mav I tried to like him as much as I could, but I clearly now see why he got so much hate. He is 7.3, but he shoots contested 2 pointers, a really low % shot, but not low enough for him not to shoot it. Rick Carlisle hated those shots. He does not like contact and he can't drive past big men, can't dominate with his size. He can take the mid-range, but he won't dominate with it. It is surprising he could never develop a pick-and-roll game with Luka when Luka can run it with everybody. With that said, he is a great shot blocker, he actually hustles and he has a drive/motor but is overall fragile. I wished we could have kept him, but he clearly did not enjoy it here with Luka.

[badinage]

I thought he looked great last night in the season-opener.

If he were all the things you wish for, he would be the best player in the league — better than Giannis. Better than anyone. By far.

[payitforward]

He did look great last night! & very fun to watch too.

But the problems dirkdig mentions are real. It's not that he fails to match Giannis. On his career so far, he fails to reach average productivity for a guy at the 5. Plus he's fragile.

Those are the reasons Dallas was willing to give him and a R2 pick for the privilege of paying Bertans & taking a chance on Dinwiddie.

Would you have given Porzingis & a R2 pick for Dinwiddie & Bertans?

[doclinkin]

Would you have given Porzingis & a R2 pick for Dinwiddie & Bertans?

I would for sure give up Russell Westbrook & Bertans to land Porzingis and Ish Smith though.

[prime1time]

Porzingis will be a good player for us, but with a few tweaks he has the potential to be great. He's not a good enough shooter to live by the jumper but that is precisely how he plays. To often Porzingis settles for an outside jumper when he should be fighting to get closer to the rim and get an easier look. If Porzingis is willing to do a little extra work, he should be able to find 8 to 10 easy points a game just by being active. Rudy Gobert averages 16 ppg and all he does is be active. Porzingis on the other hand is only averaging 19.4 ppg on a very low 45% from the field and 29.4% from 3. Porzingis should be able to give you everything high energy bigs give you and more. Beal's style of play should mesh more with Porzingis offensive strengths than Luka Doncic's did. The key for Porzingis is finding easy buckets and getting to the free-throw line. As an 86.1% we want Porzingis on the free-throw line as much as possible.

I know health is a concern, but just talking about his ability, size and skill level, Porzingis is oozing with potential. With just a couple of tweaks, Porzingis could be in the conversation for the 3rd best center in the league after Jokic and Embiid.

[prime1time]

He did look great last night! & very fun to watch too.

But the problems dirkdig mentions are real. It's not that he fails to match Giannis. On his career so far, he fails to reach average productivity for a guy at the 5. Plus he's fragile.

Those are the reasons Dallas was willing to give him and a R2 pick for the privilege of paying Bertans & taking a chance on Dinwiddie.

Would you have given Porzingis & a R2 pick for Dinwiddie & Bertans?

Porzingis has ability but he needs to stop living by the jumper and start utilizing his size. Look at the oop that Deni threw him at the 4th quarter. Porzingis needs to be a rim diver. That could get him 6 to 8 easy points a game. Porzingis needs to punish opposing teams when they switch smaller defenders on him. Not with one legged fadeaways from the mid-post like MJ but with dunks. All Porzingis needs to do is simply add to his game, what unskilled big men do. If he does that in addition to his normal offensive game he will be more than fine. The problem is that Porzingis plays so soft and often shies away from contact.

[prime1time]

Watch on YouTube

;ab_channel=TheRinger
Good video

[Ruzious]

He did look great last night! & very fun to watch too.

But the problems dirkdig mentions are real. It's not that he fails to match Giannis. On his career so far, he fails to reach average productivity for a guy at the 5. Plus he's fragile.

Those are the reasons Dallas was willing to give him and a R2 pick for the privilege of paying Bertans & taking a chance on Dinwiddie.

Would you have given Porzingis & a R2 pick for Dinwiddie & Bertans?

Porzingis has ability but he needs to stop living by the jumper and start utilizing his size. Look at the oop that Deni threw him at the 4th quarter. Porzingis needs to be a rim diver. That could get him 6 to 8 easy points a game. Porzingis needs to punish opposing teams when they switch smaller defenders on him. Not with one legged fadeaways from the mid-post like MJ but with dunks. All Porzingis needs to do is simply add to his game, what unskilled big men do. If he does that in addition to his normal offensive game he will be more than fine. The problem is that Porzingis plays so soft and often shies away from contact.

No question he's been overrated from day 1 in the NBA. He got used to people (including Carlisle btw) raving about a 7'3 guy shooting 3's, and he was spindlier in his early days, so he got used to relying too much on his j. The last year or so, he's built his body up, and I think there's room for him to continue getting stronger. So, I agree - it's time to do what lesser skilled players - like Gafford - do and get more of the easier baskets closer to the hoop - and blend that better with his perimeter game.

[DCZards]

No question he's been overrated from day 1 in the NBA. He got used to people (including Carlisle btw) raving about a 7'3 guy shooting 3's, and he was spindlier in his early days, so he got used to relying too much on his j. The last year or so, he's built his body up, and I think there's room for him to continue getting stronger. So, I agree - it's time to do what lesser skilled players - like Gafford - do and get more of the easier baskets closer to the hoop - and blend that better with his perimeter game.

I agree that Porzingis would be more effective if he worked harder to score more of his baskets closer to the rim. But there's a good reason KP shies away from contact. He may have built his body up some but it's not ready to bang with big men like Drummond, Vucevic, Embiid and some of the other centers in the NBA. That's a recipe for KP spending even more time on the injured list.

I'd prefer that KP work on improving his mid-range game, bring that 3pt % back up to what it was 4 or 5 years ago, take advantage of mismatches against smaller defenders when they're there, and learn to use his quickness to beat bigger Cs off the dribble.

This is not to say that there won’t be games and situations where KP needs to bang in the paint. But those will likely be rare given his physical makeup.

[Ruzious]

No question he's been overrated from day 1 in the NBA. He got used to people (including Carlisle btw) raving about a 7'3 guy shooting 3's, and he was spindlier in his early days, so he got used to relying too much on his j. The last year or so, he's built his body up, and I think there's room for him to continue getting stronger. So, I agree - it's time to do what lesser skilled players - like Gafford - do and get more of the easier baskets closer to the hoop - and blend that better with his perimeter game.

I agree that Porzingis would be more effective if he worked harder to score more of his baskets closer to the rim. But there's a good reason KP shies away from contact. He may have built his body up some but it's not ready to bang with big men like Drummond, Vucevic, Embiid and some of the other centers in the NBA. That's a recipe for KP spending even more time on the injured list.

I'd prefer that KP work on improving his mid-range game, bring that 3pt % back up to what it was 4 or 5 years ago, take advantage of mismatches against smaller defenders when they're there, and learn to use his quickness to beat bigger Cs off the dribble.

This is not to say that there won’t be games and situations where KP needs to bang in the paint. But those will likely be rare given his physical makeup.

With teams going to smaller quicker centers, I don't see that working well against most teams. He's not going to out-quick many players off the dribble. Bottom line - his game hasn't worked real well, and it's time to change to something that can. The mid-range game is only effective if you're great at it, and he's not. The last thing I want to see is him shooting 18 to 20 footers. I'd much rather see him take advantage of his size and bounciness inside rather than be a soft center - as he has been usually to his team's detriment. In today's game, there aren't a lot of brutes, so I don't think playing more inside is going to make him any more injury-prone.

[DCZards]

No question he's been overrated from day 1 in the NBA. He got used to people (including Carlisle btw) raving about a 7'3 guy shooting 3's, and he was spindlier in his early days, so he got used to relying too much on his j. The last year or so, he's built his body up, and I think there's room for him to continue getting stronger. So, I agree - it's time to do what lesser skilled players - like Gafford - do and get more of the easier baskets closer to the hoop - and blend that better with his perimeter game.

I agree that Porzingis would be more effective if he worked harder to score more of his baskets closer to the rim. But there's a good reason KP shies away from contact. He may have built his body up some but it's not ready to bang with big men like Drummond, Vucevic, Embiid and some of the other centers in the NBA. That's a recipe for KP spending even more time on the injured list.

I'd prefer that KP work on improving his mid-range game, bring that 3pt % back up to what it was 4 or 5 years ago, take advantage of mismatches against smaller defenders when they're there, and learn to use his quickness to beat bigger Cs off the dribble.

This is not to say that there won’t be games and situations where KP needs to bang in the paint. But those will likely be rare given his physical makeup.

With teams going to smaller quicker centers, I don't see that working well against most teams. He's not going to out-quick many players off the dribble. Bottom line - his game hasn't worked real well, and it's time to change to something that can. The mid-range game is only effective if you're great at it, and he's not. The last thing I want to see is him shooting 18 to 20 footers. I'd much rather see him take advantage of his size and bounciness inside rather than be a soft center - as he has been usually to his team's detriment. In today's game, there aren't a lot of brutes, so I don't think playing more inside is going to make him any more injury-prone.

You're right that there are more smaller, quicker centers in the league than before. So, yes, KP is not likely to be able to take many of them off-the-dribble.

When I say mid-range I'm talking about 10-15 footers and not 18-20 footers. I also see KP's ability to knock down the 3 ball as a real asset for him as a center. Hopefully, he gets better at it than he's been the last couple of years.

But you're right that it's time for KP to tweak his offensive game. That will likely wait until the offseason when the Zards know whether Beal is going to continue to be on the roster and what, if any, changes are made at the PG position. Those things will largely dictate the type of offense that the Zards will employ next season.

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

I do wonder if he'll regress to the mean with a 43.85 PER after his debut.

[DCZards]

I do wonder if he'll regress to the mean with 43.85 PER after his debut.

I’m not worried about what KP’s #s look like the balance of this season. What’s most important is that he stay healthy.

I’m more interested in what KP’s #s look
like next season playing with Beal and, hopefully, a passing, playmaking PG.

[badinage]

What we saw the other night was what, I hope, we’re going to see: the Zinger working out of the high post.

He doesn’t need to be on the block — and actually he shouldn’t be. Nor should he be allowed to drift out to 3 with regularity. The high post is where his skills are showcased. It’s perfect. And we saw the offense when he was there. Pulling defenders away, or even just making them watch him. And the ball swung. Lanes were open. Space was created. A thing of beauty.

He doesn’t have to bang, and yet he can still be a force.

It’s a new season. A new team.

I loved the brand of ball I saw. Fluid, dynamic, things moving. Very, very intriguing.

They hung 133 points on a Rick Carlisle squad — without Beal and with the best player on the team having only just arrived that night.

[payitforward]

badinage radiating true-believer vibes!

To me, it seems obvious that if KP simply continues to shoot 75% on 3pas, keeps getting to the line 18 times per 40 minutes while posting 80% there, & just goes on blocking 4 shots per 40 minutes while never turning the ball over... we'll probably be all right.

I mean... it's not like this is some kind of ala-Dinwiddie-as-a-Maverick situation where you expect the guy to return to his usual performance level, right? Why would that happen?

As badinage points out, "the best player on the team... just arrived." But, you know what's really amazing, if you think about it, is that we haven't even exercised that R2 pick KP brought with him -- about a #50 pick probably, so we should expect to get the 2d best player on the team by using it this June.

What a trade! Am I right?

Edit: Let me add that it's great to have something to feel good about! Go KP!!

[Ruzious]

Which reminds me - if we do make a trade with Philly, please get them to include the 50th pick from the 2021 draft - Filip Petrusev.