Phil Jackson is doing his best to turn the New York Knicks into a complete dumpster fire, and that includes acting funny toward Kristaps Porzingis.
The Knicks took excessive flack when they picked Porzingis fourth overall in the 2015 NBA Draft. Flabberghasted fans showered him with boos as we walked up to shake Adam Silver’s hand. Porzingis was a nobody. We didn’t know much about him except for his odd combination of size and skill. At 7-3, Porzingis can play on the perimeter or the block and has the rare ability to handle the ball and attack bigs off the dribble. In theory, he’s indefensible.
To an extent, that’s the case. But Jackson and the Zinger aren’t seeing eye-to-eye. It first started when Porzingis skipped his exit meeting. Since then, neither party has talked to each other. I get that he shouldn’t have done that, but we have to place equal blame on the front office for not making any attempts to reconcile with their future centerpiece. New York picks eighth in this year’s draft. There’s a great chance that they pair Porzingis with Malik Monk, Dennis Smith Jr. or Frank Ntilikina. There’s also a chance that Jackson deals the budding star.
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Al Trautwig interviewed Jackson on Wednesday night, and he said that the Knicks are taking calls about a Porzingis deal. I’m not a Knicks fan, but if I were, this wouldn’t be the annoying part. Reports say that New York wants a grand package for the 21-year-old unicorn. However, what Phil said on live television is more than enough to outrage the fanbase — “so we’ve been getting calls and we’re listening, but we’re not intrigued yet at this level. But as much as we love this guy, we have to do what’s good for our club.”
Maybe Porzingis is fed up with management. Could you blame him? Jackson’s upset he skipped an exit meeting, which is far less egregious than when Derrick Rose went AWOL and missed a game earlier this year. Granted, Rose is entering free agency, so it’s not entirely the same. Still, Jackson’s talk about the future of the team is contradictory when Porzingis improved from his rookie to his sophomore season.
ESPN’s Ian Begley and Ramona Shelburne said that the Knicks are looking for a top-five pick and a young player in exchange for Porzingis. They’ve also been in talks with the five teams making the first five picks. The issue here isn’t a potential deal — it’s the reasoning for it.
Players like Porzingis don’t come around that often. He almost single-handedly started the unicorn trend. The injuries that KP dealt with are off-putting, but he averaged 18.1 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in the 66 games he suited up in. Moreover, Porzingis boasted a true shooting clip of 54.6 percent. As bad as the Knicks were, they have a lone bright spot, and that’s slowly burning out thanks to the actions of their President, who’s also doing his best to butt heads with former star Carmelo Anthony.
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It’s amazing that Porzingis has been able to thrive given these circumstances. Not only are the Knicks a mess off-court, but their systematic approach to basketball is also archaic and painful to watch. All Phil Jackson wants to do is run the triangle. (I hope you find a partner who loves you like Jackson does the triangle.) He wants to force his players to execute an old offense opposed to constructing one that would get the most out of Porzingis. If Gregg Popovich isn’t running the triangle full-time, no one is. It’s that simple. There are ways to get it around it, however. Coming down and using it just to get some action every couple of possessions is fine. You could even sprinkle it into your usual playbook! The triangle is a read-and-react offense. It — in theory — shouldn’t be hard to integrate.
But no, Phil doesn’t want to do that. And it wouldn’t shock me if they made their pick on someone they believe can execute the offense efficiently.
I sincerely hope that this situation figures itself out. I’m not a Knicks fan, but Porzingis is an incredible talent, and it’d be a damn shame to see his production wasted in New York.
Maybe nothing will get resolved until Jackson’s contract runs out. Zach Lowe tweeted how guys in the NBA don’t look at the Knicks with the kindest light, and free agents would be reluctant to go there. Last time I checked, it’s hard to build a competitive roster relatively quickly if you can’t attract talent. Draft picks are nice, but there’s always the chance they don’t pan out, and I wouldn’t want my front office to bank on the success of unproven players. If the Knicks do in fact deal Porzingis, they’d have two top-10 picks. They’re looking toward the future while looking at their future.
Jackson could easily build around Porzingis, but, then again, it’d be a lot easier to get players to buy into your system if they hadn’t already spent time learning something else. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but that franchise is so mind-boggling that, literally, anything is possible at this point.
It’s only a matter of time before things start to get ugly, and this snowball is rolling faster and faster as the weeks go on. Anybody can get traded if the right deal presents itself, but do you see the Denver Nuggets open about trading Nikola Jokic? What about the Philadelphia 76ers and Joel Embiid? No, because they’re not taking the future of their team for granted. All three of these unicorns are different, but they’re at the forefront (along with others) of reinventing the center position and bringing it into the 21st century.
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