HOLY KRISTAPS: All Things Porzingis | TRADED to WAS

[Jason Terry]

The Minnesota game was good for him, in terms of interior rim protection. He was guarding a smaller guy who didn't have much in his bag, and the opposing team didn't really do much to force KP away from the paint, meaning the journey involved with being in the paint at the same time as the ball was a really easy one, relative to other games. But, I'll give him credit for that one. You can only defend what the opponent is making you defend, after all, and he did his job that night.  

In today's game, a center has to be able to COVER GROUND, going from the paint all the way out to show hard on a ball-handler coming off a screen, and then to recover to the screener who could be rolling, popping, whatever, and then if the screener is rolling, the 5 will sometimes have to get all the way out to the corner to contest a shot once he has taken the lob away. He MIGHT even have to make it back to the paint again after that. 

OR, he can play in drop coverage, which is essentially creating a sort of one man zone in the paint. This puts a ton of pressure on the guard to be almost superhuman with their recovery time against certain players, and it STILL requires lightning fast reflexes from the 5, as he now has to face (possibly) a ball-handler AND a screener, both going downhill, and possibly even a back-door cutter. Not knowing which of those scenarios to prepare for, the guy whose quickness you're trying to hide by choosing this approach ends up even more screwed by a good offense, imo.

OR, you can just switch everything, which will result in Chris Paul going 1-on-1 in an iso situation against KP. We saw how that worked in the last PHX game (which was KP's best defensive effort of the season, imo). Not really an option with Porzingis. 

This is why guys like DAJ and Drummond really shouldn't be in the league, and this is why teams are literally (this is not hyperbole) targeting Porzingis with their actions the entire time he's on the floor. 

There are more 5's than Davis who can move well enough to be a force on defense. We just saw one last night in Capella. Gobert, Bam, Embiid (when he's playing hard, like this season). I'm not going to list them all, but there are plenty more. For KP to be a viable option as a foundational building block with his defensive shortcomings, he'd have to be as big of a deal on offense as Jokic, in my opinion. Is there ANY chance he ever reaches that level? I think not.

^excellent post that everyone should read. One thing is that even if KP doesn’t have the athleticism to cover out to the 3pt line and provide elite defense in all scenarios, we could still run a zone to combat that PnR in certain cases. We have the G/F personnel now to do it. Trap a player like Young using Maxi and Richardson or whoever. Then rotate around if Young beats the trap. Problem is even in these situations KP has looked like he can’t protect the rim. Too many easy layups and offensive rebounds for the opponent. 

Then the question becomes what CAN he do on defense if he can’t rebound, rim protect or guard out to the perimeter? That player is not worth max or the name “unicorn”

The biggest frustration I have is he was solid during the regular season last year. He’s been able a few games this year to give us that. So then why can’t he bring that every game? It becomes more about effort. Add that to the injury concerns and all in all there’s great question over how many nights a year we have a max level player