New York Knicks fans, do you remember your reaction after hearing National Basteball Association commissioner Adam Silver announce Kristaps Porzingis as the team’s No. 4 pick in this year’s draft? Following his Summer League debut where he scored 12 points in 18 minutes, Worthy said, “He’s a freak of nature”.
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Knicks head coach Derek Fisher said that Kristaps Porzingis has shown that he can be a pretty good defensive player. Like Dirk, Porzingis can shoot the ball from the outside, and like Durant, he can face up his opponents out on the perimeter in a surprisingly effective manner for someone his size. He’s been compared to Nowitzki and Pau Gasol before, but not so much Durant.
“Dirk didn’t have any time to develop”.
The big man had been dealing with pain in his hip, which he originally injured in his pre-draft workout with the Knicks, but Porzingis appears ready to officially get his Knick career underway after rehabbing the injury over the last few weeks. Although a former-Maverick assistant coach; who saw first-hand how Nowitzki developed, does see the similarities between the two global players. Porzingis had a solid outing in his first National Basteball Association action in the Summer League.
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There are several areas he’ll have to improve on in the interim, and perhaps the most important one was exposed during his debut.
