NBA Draft: adding perspective to Kristaps Porzingis workout hype

Kristaps Porzingis is an impressive physical specimen to watch and certainly brings NBA-caliber athleticism, but open gym workouts must be taken at face value.

Kristaps Porzingis is capable of a lot athletically. When he finishes, his head is level with the rim, his arms extended high over it. He can comfortably lace his way around the arc and drill three-pointers with a pretty, fluid stroke. All of the tools are there for Kristaps to be an impressive NBA player.

But tools are just tools, and it has to be remembered that Porzingis is working in a controlled environment with a dictated gym workout featured on Draft Express. This is not game play, and he is not encountering actual defenders in these drills. It shows the raw outline of a player who can be imposing with his athleticism who has feathery soft shooting touch.

However, for all of these features to take form into an NBA talent it requires a lot more than just being able to run the floor, dunk and shoot threes. The NBA is a mental grind, and it is a club of the most elite 400 players on the planet.

Next: An Impressive Workout

All NBA-level talents can be impressive in open gyms at least to some extent, and observing a guy shooting with no defenders is a poor judgement of how well he will adjust to NBA-level defenses. It is a good sign he is impressive, but there are people reading far too deeply into it:

We could speculate if Porzingis had played in a major conference domestically he would have been a monster. The eye test dictates he would have been at least very good. Yet, we do not know what he can do against the best athletes in the world, and the NCAA products we see are much safer selections in many senses. They at least have greater exposure to American audiences and schedules and training regimens more similar to the NBA.

To be fair, Porzingis has played in the ACB league in Spain. He is a pro-level talent with skills that are readily observable in actual game play.

But in some senses, he is still an unknown. What we see in videos are highlights from his play, the glazing on what may be a mediocre doughnut underneath.

He shows all the polish of a great prospect, but the casual fan can consistently comment, “What makes this guy different than Darko Milicic?”

Next: Separation is all mental

Off hand, there is likely very little difference between what each brought to the table as a 19-year-old.

Milicic never failed due to a lack of talent necessarily, but largely due to a lack of development and poor career circumstances. In flashes, Milicic always showed he had skill, whether it be hitting soft hooks or blocking a few shots. He ran the court exceptionally well, could shoot and was tough. He showed much of this when he finally got a chance playing alongside and behind Dwight Howard in Orlando.

And he became one of the most talked about draft busts ever.

What needs to be highlighted is Milicic lingered on the Detroit Pistons bench during critical years of career development — and his progress stagnated. He became disinterested in basketball, just counting the days until the season ended. Milicic was very apathetic (and he eventually chose wisely to take care of his mother in Europe as opposed to continue a career that had ultimately proved disappointing).

At this early juncture, Porzingis at least appears far more focused than that. There is an energy and drive in his eyes that is associated with being interested, competitive, driven. He shows all the tools of being a perfectly suited stretch-4 and an offensive talent that could help change the Orlando Magic.

Swarm and Sting

For as enamored as Magic general manager Rob Hennigan has been in the past with defensive talents, the team is just not good enough offensively to pass on a guy who may be able to play both ends of the ball extremely well. Because in the highlight tapes, we see Andrei Kirilenko-like length coming across to swat shots from the weak-side. He is doing things Channing Frye has not dreamed of.

So, the Magic would be getting a talent. It is really just a matter of how well that talent and that person adapts to the NBA.

There is no sense pretending that a large part of the NBA is not mental toughness. If Porzingis can endure the fatigue of not getting calls his rookie year, of being abused by thicker and stronger forwards, then he will come out of the other end as a very good NBA player.

Next: A more apt comparison

For all the notions of comparing Porzingis to Dirk Nowitzki, or Andrea Bargnani (both European players) — there are two very different examples that stick out as better comparisons: One is Chicago Bulls forward Brad Sellers, and the other is Kevin Garnett. Both are slender, seven-footers and great athletes, and both were skilled with a basketball.

The difference is one had the mind set of an NBA champion and the basketball IQ to bring it altogether into a real NBA player. Given that younger fans have likely never heard of Sellers, there is no sense explaining which talent had the mental acumen to thrive.

Hardwood Houdini

And like Sellers and Garnett, Porzingis is a rail-thin seven-footer with a lot of skills — but is still said to be too thin for his position. It would seem he needs to add bulk to be an NBA power forward, because there is no illusion he could play the three-spot.

That drove Brad Sellers out of the league after having been selected No. 9 overall in the 1986 draft. The 7-foot, 210-pound forward remained in the league until he was 30, but he only saw more than 20 minutes per game in his first few NBA seasons while the Bulls thought he might still develop. By his third season he was still good for just seven points and three rebounds per game, while offering no other real positive values as a player.

That is Porzingis’ failure-model.

The Garnett model is he becomes tough as nails or his offense is otherworldly in the same way Garnett’s defense became so. It does not matter if he adds the bulk or not. He will will himself past the point of allowing bulkier guys to get the best of him or make opponents downsize to stay with him on the perimeter.

Garnett never got big; he is still thin, and he has carved out a legendary career as a power forward. Skills and toughness can compensate for lacking physical bulk.

Porzingis could continue to get stronger without ever becoming bulky in build. Polymetrics are a great way to do so.  It may be an utterly moot point if the guy can flat out play ball.

This is not to imply Porzingis is Garnett anymore than those who are asking if he is the next Nowitzki. It is to illustrate his mindset is going to be what determines if he is better than Milicic and better than Sellers. What kind of player he becomes is solely up to him.

Right now, the drive in his eyes seems to say more than any of the verbiage he has thrown around about not being soft. We want to see it in play, and gym workouts just do not do that. Scouts that think they can see a gym workout and quickly conclude he would have been the best NCAA talent in the draft are fooling themselves. We just do not know that nor can conclude that after watching his workout.

Milicic was an impressive prospect or he would not have been the No. 2 overall pick in 2004. He became the butt of jokes, but his prospect profile and his skill set painted the picture of a guy that was drafted ahead of Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade. He was that impressive, too, at one point.

What separates a great gym specimen from an actual NBA All-Star is all mental. The tools are there with Porzingis — it is time to see if he has the mind to accompany it.

Next: Kristaps Porzingis May Be Orlando's Man