NBA Draft: Kristaps Porzingis fighting off the European “soft” label

Latvian power forward Kristaps Porzingis showed off his wares Friday. It was his first showcase to fight off the stereotype of European softness.

Friday night in Las Vegas, Kristaps Porzingis held his lone workout in front of NBA scouts and executives. The 7-foot Latvian power forward is something a tantalizing mystery.

By all accounts, Porzingis blew away scouts.

The early scouting reports on Porzingis noted he was a stellar shooter for his size. Throughout his workout he was probably taking and making shots like the ones in the two videos above. It is still a little jarring to see a 7-footer doing all of that so smoothly and easily. That alone makes him draftable.

But in the videos you can also see why some have criticized him or slowed down on the praises as the Draft comes near.

He does not have a ton of weight on him yet and is going to be more of a perimeter-oriented stretch-4 rather than a traditional power forward. In today’s NBA, that might be good enough. But he will have to prove it against NBA competition.

And in this Draft process, Porzingis will have to shake off the biggest detracting label against him. The dreaded “soft” label.

It comes to all European big men at some point, it seems. They cannot handle the rigors of the NBA post game and they cannot hold their own against American-born behemoths. Never mind that the Warriors just started a center-less lineup in a critical Game Four of the NBA Finals — was Draymond Green officially the center Thursday?

While Porzingis was showing off his shooting, the questions about that other thing were certain to arise.

In an interview with Jake Fischer of Sports Illustrated, Porzingis had the perfect answer to those questioning his toughness (and that of his fellow Euros):

"“I don’t want people to label me as soft because I’m not. That’s the number one thing that comes to my mind right now, for sure. There are a million different opinions of people comparing me to some Europeans that didn’t do well in the NBA and some Europeans that did do well in the NBA. People have a lot of opinions, but I just have to keep working, stay focused.”"

Porzingis already seems pleasantly annoyed with those trying to compare him to other European failures who were all size, supposed shooting and little in the ways of defending the post.

Fair or not, this is the perception Porzingis is fighting against. And, worse of all, he is not going to be able to fight this perception much until he steps on the floor for an actual game.

He can impress all he wants in workouts, and he is impressive as you can see in this more complete video below from SLAM.

Porzingis clearly has all the physical tools a scout can ask for. He can shoot it really well. Has incredibly long arms and a ton of athleticism. He seems like he has a lot of these skills already put together.

It will just come down to whether he can do this at the NBA level.

And putting on some muscle and some weight could be a big part to what he does. Even though he will likely play power forward, people want to see if he can grind for rebounds, cover the big man on help in the pick and roll and take the pounding a rim protector needs to take.

Maybe he is not all that.

Until he disproves it though, the stereotype about a sweet-shooting big man like Porzingis will persist.

Unfortunately for Porzingis, there remains only one way to disprove it: By playing.

Next: Justise Winslow not on top of Magic's Draft list?