Anyone else concerned about Porzingis?

[mavsluvr]

So ya I am concerned. He does look like he's lost. I do agree he's better when he just has to shoot. I don't understand why they don't set off-ball screens for him. I thought that was a big part of his game and would let him just shoot open jumpers. At this point, until he gets comfortable I would like to see more sets that just get him open shots. Even if he's missing them (such as open 3s) they usually start falling after a while. His other parts of his game just aren't there right now and they shouldn't try to force it too much.

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Another thought, I wonder if Mavs are eventually going to punt on the idea of KP being a full-time center. He may just play better along side a more traditional big. We have seen him play well with Boban. KP at the 5 creates all kinds of space which is nice but then I think it might be negatively affecting his overall game.

KP has made it very clear that he has no interest in playing center, so they are using him mostly as a PF with another big. I assume that he is willing to play some center if they need him to. 

Carlisle talked about KP some on the Lowe post today. Zach asked him why they don't run more Luka-KP pick and rolls. Rick said that such a strategy was likely to lead the opponent to switch, which could result in isolation play, slowing the game down, which was undesirable. Zach brought up Carlisle's use of the switching strategy in San Antonio in their last 7-game series, which was successful in drawing the Spurs into a series of isolation plays as a possible example of what Carlisle was talking about. (FWIW, not sure i'm totally buying Carlisle's reason. Maybe just coach speak for letting us know that he doesn't want KP posting up very much, for whatever reason. In this regard, Phil Jackson, suspecting that KP's ceiling might be lower than a franchise player, noted his difficulties posting up.)

Zach also asked if spotting KP up marginalized him in the offense. Carlisle said they are working on getting him integrated, and it's a work in progress.

Porzingis is known for his subpar postplay. This season so far 0.55 ppp on post ups. This might be exaggerated due to his injury, but it was never his strong suit.


It seems to me that KP plays like a guy who is quite afraid of getting hurt. I haven't gone back and seen if he played more confidently before his injury -- it's possible he's always been like this. But some players have a tendency to be scared of certain types of plays and try to avoid them, consciously or unconsciously, after they return to the court.

Pairing him with a traditional center and screening more might really help. Dallas is below average in screen assists so far.

Porzingis plays like a 7.3 Klay Thompson, he is no Dirk yet, he has the potential to become more Dirk like but he really isn't as of right now.


Further he has problems rolling to the rim. On defense he is a five while on offense he is a shooting guard. That's a unicorn but hard to integrate. Probably need a rim running small forward to complement him. Shawn Marion would be ideal for the current version of Porzingis.

Agree that he plays better next to a center, and that he plays well with rim-runners. However, he is often relegated to spot-up duty in a rim-running situation. Don't know why they don't often screen for him, except for Rick's announced fear of switches. 

I don't know why Carlisle doesn't want to play slow. We play great at a lower pace. Luka is even better in a slow half court game than in 7 seconds or less play. Feels like an excuse if he said that.

It sounded somewhat excuse-y to me. It was an answer to why they didn't run more Luka-KP PNRs. Maybe Rick didn't want to say that KP isn't yet that great at rolling to the rim or posting up, and instead said that it might not be good to play that way. Rick certainly knows what he is planning far better than I do, but it sounded like it could have been an effort not to diss KP to the media. They run pick and rolls for other guys, so they must not be THAT terrified of switching and/or posting up on mismatches.