By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Kristaps Porzingis is not your typical NBA big. He can post-up defenders, dribble and drive to the basket, or take an opponent outside of the perimeter and drain a 3-point shot. And we will finally get to see all his arsenal in the upcoming re-start of the NBA season.
“KP is a great player — just flat-out,” Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said on a Monday morning Zoom interview from the bubble in Orlando. “He’s a great team player, he has high impact defensively, offensively he’s changing the game at the (center) position. If I’m a young (center) coming up through the AAU system, I would aspire to have his skill set, his physical skills. Here’s a guy who is 7-3 that can dribble, pass, shoot, make plays, and he has an amazing feel for the game.”
However, Porzingis believes that he is now one of the reasons for basketball becoming practically positionless.
“I think the game now is kind of open,” he said. “There’s no specific positions any more as there used to be. I play a lot on the perimeter. We find ways how to utilize my skill set. If it’s a (small forward, power forward or center), it doesn’t really matter. In some situations, I’m going to maybe be playing the point guard. It’s going to be pretty open. I think now coach Carlisle is going to find ways how to really — he’s already found ways how to put me in good positions. But he knows I can be dangerous wherever I can help the team.”
During a 13-game stretch bridging the All-Star break, Porzingis collected a double-double in 10 of those games while averaging 26.2 points and 10 rebounds and that he clearly means what he is saying.