How Kristaps Porzingis Feels He’ll Fit Playing Alongside Celtics Stars

Ever since Brad Stevens became the president of basketball operations for the Celtics, he has made it his mission to add players that accentuate the talents of stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

That’s his goal this offseason again with Stevens being given the “green light” by Boston’s brass to keep on spending.

Stevens already made a big splash this offseason by acquiring Kristaps Porzingis in a three-team deal that sent Marcus Smart to the Memphis Grizzlies and Danilo Gallinari and Mike Muscala to the Washington Wizards.

There were always questions about how Smart fit in playing alongside Tatum and Brown, especially with Smart seeing himself more as their equal and not a key supporting cast member. Those same questions will arise with the 7-foot-3 Porzingis entering the mix, but he made it clear that he doesn’t see any glaring problems sharing the court with Boston’s dynamic duo.

“I want to come here to make life easier for those guys,” Porzingis told reporters at his introductory press conference Thursday from the Auerbach Center, per MassLive’s Brian Robb. “Hopefully with my skillset and my talent I can take some pressure off of those guys. And that’s it. I come here to try to make this team better. And I’m excited to play with such high-level guys that have been there from year-to-year and have that experience already. So, I think it can be a great combination.”

Porzingis is coming off one of the best seasons in his NBA career. The 27-year-old played in 65 games with the Wizards — his most since his second year in the league — and averaged a career-high 23.2 points per game on 49.8% shooting from the floor and 38.5% shooting from 3-point range. He also tallied 8.4 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.5 blocks per game.

But Porzingis won’t only have to learn how to play off of Tatum and Brown, he’ll have to get comfortable coexisting in Boston’s front court next to Al Horford or Robert Williams.

Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla doesn’t see any issues popping up there, either.

“It just means that we have a guy who can play complimentary, you can play them both, and so the pairings work well,” Mazzulla told reporters, per Robb. “You can pair Al and Kristaps, you can play Kristaps and Rob and you can continue to play Al and Rob. But I think it just continues to help us in our identity on both ends of the floor.”