What Happened To Kristaps Porzingis

Kristaps Porzingis has had quite the journey as a 7 foot 3 big man and now he’s been traded again so what happened to Porzingis? #Porzingis #NBA #Tall
Gaming/Streaming- @MJPLAYSALLDAY
Twitter- @MJ2KALLDAY

Kristaps Porzingis in his third season was averaging 22.7 points, 2.4 blocks while shooting 39.5% from 3 as a 7 foot 3 power forward. He went from being booed on draft night to exciting putbacks, jumpers, chasedown blocks. He was an all-star, a guy you wanted to watch, the first wave of unicorn big men.

If you look at that stats in his time in Dallas, it’s not bad. He’s averaged 20 points every season, grabbing 8+ boards, last season he shot a career high 48% from the field. But Porzingis isn’t even in consideration for All-Star. \What happened to Kristaps Porzingis?

I remember the reactions of everyone to this trade to the Wizards, how the heck was a Porzingis trade centered around Spencer Dinwiddie.

Porzingis left the Knicks on less than great terms. He missed the exit meeting, told the front office he didn’t want to be there anymore, gave them a 7 day deadline to trade him or he was going to go to Europe, and the Knicks scrambled to find a trade before it became public knowledge that Porzingis wanted out. They traded him, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Courtney Lee for Deandre Jordan, Dennis Smith Jr., Wesley Matthews, a 2021 first round pick and 2023 first round pick that was top 10 protected.

Porzingis tore his ACL on Feb 6, 2018. he didn’t play the entire 2018-19 season so you could argue that maybe his value was down because of injury concerns. The expectation for Porzingis was that he was supposed to be the second star alongside Luka. They were friends before Porzingis was traded, guard big man, this was it. Porzingis signed a max extension, two young stars on the Mavs.

See Porzingis couldn’t stay on the court. If we just scroll through his injury history, yeah that’s quite a bit. In the past 3 seasons with the Mavs, Porzingis has missed 68 games out of 202 potential games. He’s missed one third of all games. And it’s not like it was all in one go. No it’s 5 games here, 3 games there, 10 games here. Luka and Porzingis played 110 games together in that stretch, only 54%.

Over time, these injuries seem to have sapped away one of the most important parts of Porzingis’s game, his defense. On the Knicks, I’m not gonna say he was explosive because he’s 7’ 3”, but he could move just quick enough laterally to use his length to be everywhere. He was at times reckless to be honest. Chasing players down, doing a solid job blocking them, getting a contest on pick and roll switches.

On the Mavs, it just hasn’t been the same. It’s the same drop coverage that we saw him on in on the Knicks, but just that he’s not as springy. And because he can’t guard on the perimeter either, he’s become a liability. On the Knicks, his defensive field goal percentage was a -3.8%, now he’s a positive 0.3%.

His blocks per game are down to 1.7 compared to 2 on the Knicks, in the time he’s supposed to be getting better, he’s regressed.

The 2021 playoffs was the tipping point.In 7 games, Porzingis averaged 13 points and 5.4 rebounds a game, and that’s where you get this from. (shooting 3 on fast break) Especially against the Clippers who didn’t have a dominant big man. Keep in mind that Porzingis had signed a max contract, he wasn’t some role player. 5.4 rebounds at 7’3”.

Somewhere through the injuries, Porzingis became exclusively a 3 point shooter. The NBA went 3 point crazy and about 40% of all of his shots became 3s. And part of that is coaching, because they were using Porzingis as a spot up shooter.

Now Porzingis has never been good at posting up. And while 3 point shooting is great for spacing the floor, Luka needed a presence inside to take defense away from the perimeter, he needed a guy he could dump to in the post, especially in the playoffs so Luku wouldn’t get gassed in the 4th quarter which is exactly what we saw in the 2021 playoffs where all his numbers dropped. Porzingis was in the 27th percentile in post ups in 2020 and the 58th percentile last year.

Porzingis on the Wizards is definitely interesting, let’s see what they decide to run. Bradley Beal and Porzingis along with the supporting cast of Kuzma, Harrell is interesting. Porzingis has all the talent, now he’s gotta stay healthy and develop, he’s only 26 years old, **but yeah that’s what’s happened to Kristaps Porzingis, injuries, expectations, chemistry, leading him to the Wizards, but what do you think? Will Porzingis become an all-star again?**

Видео What Happened To Kristaps Porzingis канала MJ2KALLDAY