If the NBA’s Rookie of the Year award was given to the player who most exceeded draft day expectations, Kristaps Porzingis would be the runaway winner.
The lanky Latvian, if you’ll recall, was booed at the 2016 NBA Draft when the New York Knicks selected him with the fourth overall pick. Since then, Porzingis has proven the haters wrong.
The 20-year-old rookie enters Friday’s game against the Boston Celtics averaging 14 points per game, third among all NBA rookies. He’s pulling down 7.4 rebounds per game, has an 18.4 player efficiency rating that’s second only to Carmelo Anthony on the Knicks and is averaging 1.95 blocks per game, good for fifth-best in the NBA.
But what Porzingis brings that has New York fans so excited in an otherwise dismal season is his versatility. In addition to his inside presence and ability to protect the rim, the 7-foot-3 forward also can operate behind the arc. He has hit 68 3-pointers this season, second only to Los Angeles Lakers point guard DeAngelo Russell among all rookies.
“They’ve got a number of good players,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said of the Knicks on Wednesday. “But Porzingis is just a problem because, a little bit like Kelly (Olynyk) for us, his ability to stretch the floor just puts you in a bind. Because it’s hard to switch screens with a 7-foot-3 guy. He’s a good player. We’re going to have our hands full.”
In any other season, a player drawing that kind of praise would be an easy selection for Rookie of the Year. But this isn’t any other season, and Porzingis’ achievements still pale in comparison to those of Karl-Anthony Towns.
The 2016 first overall pick is having a monster season for the Minnesota Timberwolves, leading all rookies in rebounds per game (10.3) and player efficiency rating (22.8) and trailing only Philadelphia 76ers forward Jahlil Okafor in points per game (17.3) despite averaging fewer field goal attempts.
Towns is a double-double machine — he has 35 in 61 games so far — and, like Porzingis, also can stretch the floor by hitting outside jumpers. The Celtics know this all too well, as the Kentucky product drilled a 3-pointer during a 28-point, 13-rebound performance that helped the Wolves beat Boston last week.
“We had no answer for him,” Stevens said of Towns after that game. “We had no answer for him in any type of isolation, I thought. … Towns had his way with us the whole night. Obviously the other guys did too, but certainly, he stood out.”
This season’s rookie class is a strong one, especially in the frontcourt, where the likes of Porzingis, Towns, the Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic and the Indiana Pacers’ Myles Turner have the potential to usher in a new era of big men.
But while Porzingis may draw the most headlines of that group playing in the Big Apple, Towns still is the cream of the rookie crop and should be taking home the Rookie of the Year hardware when postseason awards roll around.
Thumbnail photo via Brace Hammelgarn/USA TODAY Sports Images
