It seems only fitting that since Luka Doncic gets to join a cool club practically every night, Kristaps Porzingis is working toward an invitation to one that excludes even the more decorated Maverick.
Example of the first: Doncic’s back-to-back games of 40-7-7 (points, rebounds, assists) propelled him into a group of 10 since 1980 that is as exalted as one might find. It includes Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant at the platinum level, James Harden, Steph Curry and Russell Westbrook at the slightly lower MVP level and Clyde Drexler, Dwyane Wade and Jamal Murray on the ground floor.
Ahh, but Luka has never done what Porzingis is attempting in the month of February.
For the first eight games, KP has joined the super elite shooter’s club known as 50-40-90. Those who shoot 50% from the floor, 40% from 3-point range and 90% from the foul line for an entire season are the rarest breed of dead-eye shooters. Dirk Nowitzki did it in his MVP season of 2006-07. The only players who managed it more than once are Steve Nash with four (all in Phoenix) and Larry Bird twice.
For Porzingis, this is, admittedly, a small sample. But that’s where great things must begin, right?
In Dallas’ eight games this month, while averaging 22.8 points, Porzingis is shooting 50% from the field, 42.3% from the arc and 90.3% from the foul line. In his last two games — one includes the 36-point night in which he and Doncic combined for 82 against the Pelicans — Porzingis scored 54 points while taking 30 field goal attempts. That is 1.8 points per field goal attempt, and the only player among the league scoring leaders who is close to averaging that is Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid. You have to spend either an extraordinary amount of time at the foul line (Embiid does, KP doesn’t) or shoot lights out to manage that kind of production.
Many of you are free to suggest, “Yeah, let’s see Porzingis do this for 82 games. Or even play in that many.” I have been part of that chorus during his first two seasons in Dallas, a sense of frustration mounting with the club’s uber-cautious approach to playing time. In fact, that may be his biggest achievement in February, playing on consecutive nights as he did two weeks ago, contributing 49 points and 16 rebounds against the Hawks and Warriors.
But, belatedly, I have determined it’s not about playing 82 games for Porzingis. That may never happen. Long before the knee injury in New York that caused him to sit for 20 months, Porzingis was missing games for the Knicks. Seven-foot-three players are going to miss games; it’s practically a given.
If you’re going to view Porzingis’ time here, or especially his five-year, $158 million contract that ties him for 20th in average salary, in terms of consistent production or the ability to play 82 games, he will be a disappointment. So why don’t you view it in a more significant light?
Winning titles in the NBA is really hard. You know what the list of great players who never won one, including Barkley, Malone, Nash and so many others, looks like. So the Mavericks, having been successful in stealing Doncic out from under the Atlanta Hawks at the 2018 draft, are trying to win one more. Ponder multiple titles if you like, but let’s try one more for now since Dallas’ 2011 championship is the only one to be delivered here this century.
The Mavericks would love Porzingis to play at a high level as often as possible, and the trainers and medical staff will do all they can to make that happen. But what they really need is him to play at peak Porzingis level in one two-month playoff run. Play like he is during the month of February, averaging 22.8 points and 8.5 rebounds while still ranking in the top 10 in blocked shots per game even if our man, ESPN’s Hubie Brown, called him “not a shot blocker” the other night.
It’s not like the Mavericks don’t have other holes to fill to reach the point where Doncic and Porzingis can direct this team to a title. But I hear the Mavericks need a better “2” than Porzingis, and that’s just not true if he’s hitting more than 40% of his 3′s, redirecting a few shots at the other end and grabbing about 10 boards.
In the 2011 playoffs, the Mavs’ “2” to Nowitzki changed from series to series if not game to game between Tyson Chandler, Jason Kidd and Shawn Marion.
This Rick Carlisle team has to play far better defense if it wants to even sniff the playoffs, which is a topic for another day. But when it comes to Porzingis, he is showing us why the Mavericks committed those picks and players to New York. He’s not the final piece in the puzzle, but he’s the most worthy sidekick to Doncic as this team points toward one more banner-raising ceremony in the next five years.
Don’t sleep on 50-40-90 guys. They pass this way once in a generation.
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