PORZINGIS IS KEY TO KNICKS’ REVIVAL
The New York Knicks, long an extremely profitable, but perennial laughingstock NBA franchise, ventured north of the border on Friday night on a rare roll.
The Knicks came in with victories in seven of their last 10 games, significant progress for a franchise that last reached the playoffs in 2012-13 (though last year’s group had a similar strong early stretch before free-falling).
The difference between this Knicks team and the previous iteration is simple: Kristaps Porzingis has taken a sizable leap in Year 3 without Carmelo Anthony hogging the ball, and the spotlight.
He has had help from the likes of Tim Hardaway Jr. and Enes Kanter on offence and Kyle O’Quinn and rookie Frank Ntilikina on defence, but Porzingis easily has been the main reason why New York has returned to relevance so far this season.
Porzingis entered the meeting with the Raptors ranked No. 3 in the NBA in points and blocked shots per game and fifth in player efficiency rating. His scoring has more than doubled from his rookie season.
Porzingis has also been a defensive terror (third in block rate), while also giving opponents fits at the other end because he can easily score inside, while hitting a whopping 40 per cent of his three-point attempts so far. At seven-footthree with elite athleticism, Porzingis is extremely difficult to game plan against.
In a recent win over Sacramento, Porzingis scored 34 points in 26:37, the most points by a Knicks’ player in fewer than 30 minutes in a game since Patrick Ewing in 1988.
“He’s a heckuva a player. His confidence is growing each game now,” Raptors point guard Fred VanVleet said at shootaround on Friday morning.
“With that size and skill, it’s hard to find other guys his size who can match up with him. Guys like that who are big-time scorers, all you can do is make it tough on him, and make him work for it.”
Toronto has faced a difficult early schedule, having to match up already with the league’s new breed of absurdly skilled giants like Anthony Davis, DeMarcus Cousins, Lauri Markkanen, Kevin Durant and now, Porzingis.
Raptors coach Dwane Casey won a championship as an assistant in Dallas with the forerunner of these sweet-shooting bigs, Dirk Nowitzki, and sees some similarities between the German legend and the Latvian upstart.
“It’s funny, I saw them they were working together this summer,” Casey said.
“He’s got all the footsteps, the one-leg step-back (the Nowitzki staple), and all the moves, all of the shots that he has. He gets up about five threes a game. The most lethal part of his game is his early post-ups. He gets down there early in the block and goes to work in that situation,” Casey said.
Once the thin 22-year-old adds some more bulk as he ages, Porzingis should become even more difficult to contain.
He’s a load already, the first New York player to average
30 a game through the first 10 games of a season and, according to Kanter, the king of the five boroughs.
That’s a long way from the lanky kid many Knicks fans loudly booed when the team selected him fourth overall back in 2015.