“The kid can flat out shoot,” a Western Conference executive said. “Now he’s really, really thin, but he’s athletic. A 7-footer who can step out and hit 3s is something.”
Bobby Marks, the former Nets assistant general manager, likes Porzingis for the Knicks as well. He stressed that a lot of others feel the same and at very worst, the Knicks could pick up a valuable asset for a future move.
“I’d take Porzingis at four,” Marks said. “Then I’m talking to the fans and the media about how the team is going to be built going forward. I’d make sure the pressure on Porzingis is not too high, and I think that he’s a piece of the puzzle.”
One problem Porzingis may face immediately would be Knicks fans who have had Okafor, Towns and Russell on the brain.
“As a native New Yorker, I know the fans will not be happy to see him walk across the stage, because there’ll be somebody the Knicks haven’t drafted who played college basketball this year who the fans at least have heard about,” former St. John’s coach and now ESPN NBA analyst Fran Fraschilla said on a conference call Tuesday.
“If you’re picking four, you’re essentially … gambling,” Fraschilla said. “I don’t know how you can come up with a better gamble than a guy that’s 7-feet-1 on his way to 7-2, who’s athletic, graceful, shoots the ball from three, blocks shots and is 19 years old. I get the idea of the buzz factor, but after Okafor, Towns and Russell are gone, you might as well gamble and draft a kid who potentially could be along the lines of Dirk Nowitzki, (Pau) Gasol, (Andrei) Kirilenko. He’s a graceful player. His English is great. He’s a basketball junkie.”
So you would have an athletic shooter who speaks English well enough to avoid ordering a plate of well-done galoshes.
“He’s got a chance to be very good,” said Gregg Polinsky, the Nets’ director of player personnel. “The body is not there yet; he’s very thin. Everyone talks about how he shoots the basketball, but what separates him is he’s really competitive. He’s so skinny yet he’s willing to take a pounding. Most guys built like that are not. He has that special quality mentally to go along with a skill that’s valued in our league.”
Chris Ekstrand, an NBA consultant, stressed one key point about Porzingis’ frame.
“You’re talking about a league that values speed and shooting ability,” Ekstrand said. “You don’t see Charles Oakley and Dale Davis and Otis Thorpe any more, so he’s not going to have to play those types. It’s made for a stretch-4, guys who are tall and can shoot away from the basket. That’s what Porzingis does.”
