New York Knicks Need To Have Kristaps Porzingis At Center More
Tom Bogert, CBS Local Sports
It's not a half bad idea to zig when others zag, but, I'm sorry Phil Jackson: Unicorns cannot be confined to triangles, they need the whole damn rectangular court.
Kristaps Porzingis must spend more time playing center with other shooters around him rather than Jackson force feeding them the triangle offense.
The New York Knicks shouldn't start the game lineup, but a five of Porzingis-Carmelo Anthony-Courtney Lee-Derrick Rose-Lance Thomas (when he's fit) need to play together. The latter two can be tinged to include Brandon Jennings and Mindaugas Kuzminskas if that works better.
With Porzingis, the Knicks have stumbled into a time machine to the future, not too dissimilar to how Christopher Columbus stumbled upon America.
Despite their best efforts to trade out of the fourth overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, an unearthed transcendent talent landed in their lap. Whilst it wasn't love at first sight for the fans, it didn't take long for Porzingis to woo his city.
In the 2016 NBA, there is no entity more delicate than a player who's jammed two uber-important qualities into one gangly body: rim protection and floor spacing.
Those two traits being consolidated into one jersey rather than outsourced to two is the lynchpin that holds together the league's most devastating lineup in Golden State, where Draymond Green slides to center and is able to deputize the paint on defense and spread the floor on offense. Anthony Davis, Porzingis, Karl-Anthony Towns and Joel Embiid are the next evolution of the undersized Green.
As such, the Knicks need to push Porzingis to center. Of course, the Knicks version of Golden State's death lineup is of the discount/black market/inadequate variety due to its dearth of quality players, but, it's a start. With Porzingis as a pillar there's always the potential. Plus if the Knicks ever do figure this whole NBA roster thing out and surround him with adequate teammates, Porzingis will be well versed in how to operate as a small ball center.
Another immediate benefit includes putting Joakim Noah and his antiquated tornado of hopeless jumpers, the NBA version of a dog chasing his tail as he's always juuuuuuust a step behind everything on offense, on the bench some more, which would significantly improve the offense. (Related: can't wait to see what he's like when he's 35 years old in the final year of this contract!)
Just look at this. A friendly reminder that this is a HUMAN GIANT AND 7 FEET 3 INCHES TALL HITTING A STEP BACK 25 FOOT JUMPER. HUMANS AREN'T DESIGNED TO DO WHAT HE DOES.
At any rate, Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek has been savvy in his use of the second year ascendant. He likes to have PorzinGOD anchor the bench unit regularly, putting him on the floor with other players who want to run like Jennings and Kuzminskas (or just 'KUUUUZ' for European-name-challenged Knicks' announcer Walt Clyde Frazier), as well as Porzingis' former teammate in Spain Willy Hernangomez.
When Porzingis has these pieces around him he gets to play on the front foot more than when next to Anthony, Rose and Noah. More importantly, his usage goes way up when he's with Jennings and anyone else outside of the starting lineup as he's so clearly top dog. It's a great way to get the best out of the Latvian in the interim, as well as to continue incubating his development. (Good luck, it's franchise's best hope at anything even resembling success since Patrick Ewing, don't botch this.)
Not even Golden State can run their death lineup for too long, and that's certainly not what the Knicks would be tuned to do. But some minutes here and there every game could be beneficial, both now and later. The problem for the suits in New York (or, more accurately, Montana) is that it's surely not the triangle. It's the new wave NBA and simply the smart route to pursue.
Jackson is an ideologue of his beloved triangle. This isn't necessarily a call to put the system in its coffin, but, this roster just isn't tuned for the triangle. They just look so much better when they're running a more simplistic spread pick and roll.
Wherever Hornacek decides to put the amorphous Porzingis, Knicks fans must enjoy the ride. It's the most sustainable potential form of happiness. It took delusion to assume that Linsanity was going to have much of a shelf life and Amar'e Stoudemire's knees gave the Knicks about three months of a positive return on their five year investment.
Bill Simmons said it best.
Enjoy it. Don't be complacent. Clutch it and never, ever let go because you deserve this after all you've been through the first 16 years of this century.
