Ask most Knicks fans about the team’s prospects for the future and the first words they’ll mention are Kristaps and Porzingis, the first and last name of the player that future rides on. The Knicks’ “Unicorn” got off to a monster start this season, averaging 30 points through the first 10 games of the season and vaulting himself into the Kia MVP conversation early on.
That fire has fizzled since then, though. Yet another post-holiday season decline has some in the Big Apple questioning whether or not Porzingis is truly ready for the leap from good to great and whether or not the Knicks’ future is as bright as it seems in theory. Marc Berman of the New York Post provides some questions and answers about Porzingis and if he’s built for this:
The 2017-18 season started with such a bang — perhaps sharper than opponents after an August and September training and starring in the European Championships for Latvia. That could be taking its toll physical and mentally — all that basketball that began with Latvia’s training camp in late July.
Since December, Porzingis is shooting just 39.4 percent to bring his shooting percentage down to a middling 43.2 percent, his scoring average to 23.6. Symbolically or not, Carmelo Anthony, in his final season as Knick, shot 43.3 percent — a number that was unpleasing to Hornacek.
Porzingis and Karl-Anthony Towns, the No. 1 pick of the same draft in 2015, are often compared. Towns looked so much more a complete player Friday in Minnesota, it was scary. Towns was one assist away from a triple-double. Porzingis is averaging 1.3 assists per game.
Which brings to mind Porzingis saying before his sophomore campaign that posting a quadruple-double was a goal. There was none of that cocky banter after the Knicks dropped to a season-worst four games under .500 on Friday. A portrait of congeniality, Porzingis was dejected. On the court, too.
* * *
