NBA Draft: Kristaps Porzingis hits the stage
Kristaps Porzingis is one of the two international prospects providing the most intrigue in the NBA Draft. This month, everyone will get to know him.
Orlando Magic fans have a tough time with international prospects with a Lottery pick. They are pretty gun shy.
Darko Milicic still dances around in the minds of many basketball fans (as does former top overall pick Andrea Bargnani). Fran Vazquez haunts the franchise as the man who never came to the team. It is hard to get over the first sting of a first-round international pick spurning you.
I guess, there is some solace in that the Magic still own his rights should the 30-plus-year-old center ever want to try the NBA. Do not hold your breath on that.
Kristaps Porzingis and Mario Hezonja very much carry this weight when it comes to discussing them with the Magic. It feels like everyone has gotten past the phase of asking: Are they really coming over to the NBA next year?
Yes, Porzingis and Hezonja will be taking that step. The next step is figuring out whether they should actually draft one of these two players.
The focus for many has turned to Kristaps Porzingis, the 7-foot Latvian stretch-4. Like so many European big men, scouts want to call him the next Dirk Nowitzki. But they did that with Nikoloz Tskitishvili, Andrea Bargnani and Danilo Gallinari too. Besides the fact Nowitzki is a one-of-a-kind player, none of those players ever really came close.
How the story winds with Porzingis in the next month will be very interesting. The Magic have already been connected to Porzingis because of an obvious need at power forward.
Through the Draft, Danny Chau of Grantland is following Porzingis and getting to the bottom of this mystery man in the Draft.
Porzingis is going to spend the next month dividing draft experts and scouts.
Chad Ford of ESPN.com loves Porzingis. He has said repeatedly that if Porzingis had played in the United States in college, he would easily be talked with Karl-Anthony Towns and Jahlil Okafor.
Then there are plenty who believe Porzingis is too rail thin to play center in the NBA or work down on the block.
Chau writes:
"Despite their physical similarities, Porzingis isn’t quite the athletic anomaly Andrei Kirilenko is and was. Still, there’s a giraffelike quality to the way Porzingis runs the floor — his foot speed is very good for his size, but because of his height, there is an oddness to how it’s all happening.But Porzingis differs from a player like Vesely, for example, in that his major selling points don’t primarily revolve around his incredible athleticism. There are reasons to get excited about Porzingis’s potential, and they start with his shooting ability. He has a gorgeous, fluid, quick motion, and is adept at coming off a screen or shooting off-balance or off the dribble. He’s developed a pretty sweet bank shot from working out with Audie Norris, Sevilla’s assistant coach and a onetime Trail Blazer. There aren’t many 7-footers anywhere who can operate functionally like a shooting wing, getting open looks on flare screens and pin-downs. It’s Porzingis’s most bankable skill, the one that seems most likely to translate immediately in the NBA."
Porzingis has made his way to the United States. He will have a workout in Las Vegas very soon. This will be NBA scouts’ chance to talk to him actually for the first time. Not to mention this time can be used for Porzingis to get used to being in the United States and continue to work on his body.
This is obviously a big month for Porzingis as he looks to find his way into the NBA. There is still a lot of work to do before any team feels comfortable drafting him.
Whether Magic fans like it or not, the Magic will be one of the teams interested in him.