Kristaps Porzingis Already Proving Importance To Celtics’ Success

Jayson Tatum is one of the five or six best players in the NBA. No one in the league is paid more than Jaylen Brown. But is Kristaps Porzingis actually the most important player on the Celtics roster?

Let’s not get it twisted: If Tatum goes down with some injury that costs him the rest of the season, the C’s are screwed. If the same thing happened to Brown, that would be far from ideal, especially if it’s the Brown who showed up Monday in Washington. So, it’s hard to straight-up say Porzingis is the most valuable Celtic, but his flexibility and versatility might make him the most important player Joe Mazzulla has at his disposal.

The early returns are excellent in Porizingis’ Boston debut campaign. The Celtics are 3-0, with those three victories carrying varying levels of impressiveness. The opening night win over the Knicks a tone-setting victory on a big stage in a tough place to play. Win No. 2 was a statement game against Miami, the team that knocked out Boston a year ago. And then Monday night’s win over the Wizards was a game Boston could have won by 60 if it really wanted to (after leading 77-51 at halftime).

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Porzingis has done all that’s been asked of him. The 2015 No. 4 overall pick poured in 30 on opening night with four blocks and was remarkably efficient in the two games after, especially Monday night when he hit on seven of nine shots and pulled down six rebounds in just 24 minutes.

It’s cliche, but his impact goes beyond the stat sheet, too. As Mazzulla pointed out, having Porzingis “changes (the team’s) late-game frequency,” as it gives the Green an opportunity to change its looks.

“It forces teams to kind of match up with us a little bit more traditionally and it allows us to kind of get to our spots,” Mazzulla said, according to The Athletic. “So he continues to be a guy that — his matchup will dictate kind of how we need to play in particular times because of his ability to make two guard one. And I’ve seen him make the game a little bit easier for (Tatum and Brown) because of those matchups and because of our spacing, and we’ve just gotta continue to get better at that.”

That was on display Monday night when Porzingis was able to torment a smaller Washington lineup.

“I just wanted to take advantage of them not having a big out there,” Porzingis told reporters, per The Athletic. “And that’s what I did in the first quarter: Just pop up, post up. … I think if teams are going to guard me that way, it’s going to be a different kind of game.”

That’s how, despite playing limited minutes in the Wizards blowout, Porzingis was still able to register a plus-30. The Celtics seemingly found every mismatch, particularly in the first quarter when Porzingis scored 10 points. Boston led 42-19 after the first 12 minutes, and that pretty much was that.

There should plenty of those sorts of quarters this season.

What really matters, though, is what Porzingis and the Celtics do in the spring. Perhaps the most encouraging takeaway from Monday night’s game was that Mazzulla was able to rest his starters, especially Porzingis. Boston isn’t very deep and must take advantage of those opportunities every time it can, especially given the well-documented injury history of a player like Porzingis.

It’s clear, though, through just three games that this mixture of players can be extremely efficient and nearly impossible to stop. It’s just a matter of making it last and peaking at the most important time of the season.