New York rarely buzzed as loudly as when Jeremy Lin shocked the world in 2011 with an insane run that would become known as “Linsanity.” It’s happening again with 7’3 rookie Kristaps Porzingis, but this fever isn’t going to die out.
The Latvian big man, who was booed loudly on draft night when the Knicks selected him fourth overall, has become a sensation in the Big Apple. He’s already hearing MVP chants from the crowd, and after hanging 29 points and 11 rebounds on the Hornets (and Lin), he needed to pause during his postgame interview so fans could roar.
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The Linsanity era was a fun, but short-lived time, and deep down fans knew it wouldn’t last. Lin turned the ball over too much, and wasn’t good enough on defense to be a legitimate NBA A-list star. Lin has now become a little underrated – he is scoring 11 points a game off the Charlotte bench and has the team’s fourth-best PER (18) – but the Knicks have been justified in letting him walk. Porzingis, on the other hand, is a 7’3 prototype for the modern NBA, and he’s only scratching the surface of his potential.
Most expected Porzingis to be a long-term project when he was picked. He’s barely 20 years old, and looked like a razor-thin, potentially fragile player unprepared for the physicality of NBA forwards and centers. Fast forward to now, and he has shattered that perception. Porzingis is averaging 12.8 points and 8.6 rebounds, as well as three offensive boards. He has also quickly become a master of the putback slam. On defense he can be posted up, but he’s also shown he can alter shots, and averages a block a night.
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He has captured Knicks fans in the same way Lin did, in just 12 games, but the biggest difference is that Porzingis isn’t going anywhere. The selling point of Porzingis was his incredible outside stroke; he’s generated this attention and his shooting hasn’t shown up yet.
Last week he was all over the highlight reels with a game-winning trey vs. Charlotte that wound up not counting, but overall he’s made just 26 percent of his 3-pointers, and averaged 2.8 attempts. Overall, he’s shot 40 percent from the field, a number that will surely rise once he gains more NBA experience.
On top of it all, Porzingis has the confidence befitting a New York star. He wasn’t fazed by the draft day boos, and is handling the current adulation calmly. “Sooner or later (I thought they’d be chanting my name),” he said.
Even Carmelo Anthony, the Knicks star who was reportedly unhappy with the choice on draft night, was praising the big Latvian. “It is still a learning process for him but it was a big game,” Anthony said. “I am sure it is going to be the first of many.”
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