The Secret to Kristaps Porzingis’ Evolution

NEW YORK — The Boston Celtics were the first team to break out the tactic last season.

It was a January game at Madison Square and Kristaps Porzingis, thanks to an array of deep bombs and silky jumpers, was torching the visitors to the tune of 20 first-half points. In the locker room prior to the third quarter Celtics head coach Brad Stevens decided to try something that later (that evening) he’d call “kind of crazy”—slotting 6”4’ guard Marcus Smart onto the Knicks’ 7”3 dynamo.

Smart responded by getting up in Porzingis’ chest. His foot speed took away the advantage Porzingis so often had when facing lumbering bigs. The comfort he had defending away from the basket was something Porzingis had rarely faced. 

The Knicks tried to answer by featuring Porzingis in the post, but that didn’t work either. He struggled getting position. The few times he did get the ball, he looked unsure of how to attack. He got off just six shots in the second half and connected on only three of them.

Nearly a decade earlier, NBA coaches had discovered that smaller and quicker defenders could stifle Dirk Nowitzki. That same strategy was now being deployed against Nowitzki’s clone.

Back then Nowitzki responded by learning how to take what the defense was offering: If opposing coaches were going to guard him with smaller defenders, then he’d have to learn to shoot over them. And so the one-legged fadeaway, a simple move that would morph Nowitzki into an unguardable force (and, eventually, NBA champion) was born.   

Porzingis knew all this. As a kid growing up in Latvia, he studied Nowitzki video clips. The Knicks even tried setting up a joint workout with two players this summer, but their respective schedules didn’t gel.

Still, Porzingis devoted time and energy over the offseason to becoming a weapon closer to the basket, to developing his own version of the one-legged fade-away. His counters might not be as distinct as the shot Nowitkzi invented, but they’ve accelerated the clock on his stardom and transformed Porzingis into a dominant offensive beast. 

“He’s not just a pick-and-pop guy anymore,” Pops Mensah-Bonsu, who played with Porzingis in Spain and now serves as an advanced scout for the San Antonio Spurs, said to Bleacher Report.

“Seeing the footwork he has now down there, and seeing how he’s aware of the advantage he has a 7’3” guy and that he can just turn and shoot over defenders—he’s really developing and he’s only going to get better.”

Porzingis this year is shooting a proficient 52.2 percent on post-ups and averaging just over a point per possession, which, according to NBA.com’s Synergy Sports data, places him in the 79th percentile. He’s also finishing a blistering 71.4 percent of his looks at the rim. Compare these numbers to last year when he connected on just 40.5 percent of his post-up field goals, averaged a measly 0.82 points per possession and finished in the 44th percentile and you can see how his offseason work is paying off.

The evolution starts with the mentality he now has with the ball down on the block: Nowitzki had to get creative with his post move.

All the taller and longer Porzingis has to do is turn and shoot.

“I didn’t add 1,000 moves to my post (game), it’s just—I’m much more calm, when I’m in the post and I get the ball and take my time and turn around, nobody really gets to my shot,” Porzingis said recently. “I’m realizing how long I am and how difficult it is to bother my shot, so I think it’s more that than—obviously I worked on my post game but it’s more knowing how to use my length.”

Switching pick-and-rolls is no longer a viable option. Defenders guarding him now have to worry about both the ball-handler and Porzingis. This has created a plethora of pick-and-pop looks. 

The Unicorn melts ICE defense https://t.co/O6VT40YJ4W

— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) November 14, 2016

“If he can eliminate the ability to switch, that helps him but also helps the ball-handler turn the corner,” ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy said to Bleacher Report in a telephone interview. “So it’s not just for him, but it makes others and the offense as a whole better too.”

The Pistons tried putting Tobias Harris—a solid defender with the foot speed of a two-guard and the body (6’8” and 235 pounds) of a forward—on Porzingis last week. Harris did all he could to stay glued to Porzingis’ body, waving his arms in his face. Even he, like the Mavericks during the game before, had no answers for the Dream Shake and turnaround that Porzingis has added to his game:

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