With his absurd wingspan, sweet shooting stroke, refined instincts, and putback dunks of fertility, 20-year-old Knicks big man Kristaps Porzingis has quickly emerged as a top contender for the 2015-16 Rookie of the Year Award. Though the Latvian was drafted No. 4 overall last June, many detractors at the time claimed that he was still too raw and needed at least a couple more years before making a consistent contribution at the NBA-level. But with 12.3 points per game, 8.3 rebounds per game, and 1.2 blocks per game in just 24.0 minutes per game through his first six contests, Porzingis is making the whole lot of them look foolish, including one Byron Scott and his Los Angeles Lakers.
In an interview with Baxter Holmes of ESPN on Saturday, Scott revealed the Lakers’ thought process behind passing on Porzingis in the 2015 Draft. The former NBA Coach of the Year revealed that the team believed Porzingis would take some time to develop and went on to essentially concede defeat on that front.
Byron Scott said LAL were concerned @kporzee would take “a little time" to develop: "Obviously, we were probably a little wrong about that."
— Baxter Holmes (@BaxterHolmes) November 7, 2015
That’s not necessarily to say that the Lakers, who ultimately chose Ohio State point guard D’Angelo Russell with the No. 2 overall selection, would have done things differently had they been able to get a mulligan on the pick today. Instead, it’s a simple insight into how the Lakers (and possibly a few other teams) goofed on their individual assessment of Porzingis before the draft.
Still, even if the Lakers had drafted the Porzingod, with Scott’s Draconian commitment to his rotations, his delusions that he can field a winning team in Los Angeles, and just his general gross incompetence as a head coach, it’s hard to envision that the Latvian getting an optimal role and enough playing time to thrive as he has so far in The Big Apple. As for Russell, he has seen his talent completely mismanaged so far by Scott, whether through benchings, being forced to play off-the-ball, or public admonishment. It has almost gotten to the point where Russell probably wishes that the Lakers had thought he would take some time to develop as well.
It’s definitely not the first time that Scott has been wrong about a member of the 2015 draft class (see: Mudiay, Emmanuel). And in all honesty, I probably could have just ended that preceding sentence after the word “wrong.” But nevertheless, I’ll just let the Vines prove Scott’s point about just how mistaken he and the Lakers were in evaluating Porzingis.
Get dunked on Love..PORZINGIS https://t.co/PM75yrX2Ig
— gifdsports (@gifdsports) November 5, 2015
Kristaps Porzingis appears to be the best basketball player in the history of time: https://t.co/T4iULDoBMN https://t.co/e9xNh28ZfV
— SB Nation (@SBNation) October 30, 2015
Power. Put-Back. Porzingis. #NBAVine https://t.co/18xGpkdBGr
— NBA (@NBA) November 3, 2015
Kristaps Porzingis is at it again. This time against the Bucks: https://t.co/ugjdGuorSQ https://t.co/109CrjUHg6
— SI NBA (@si_nba) November 7, 2015
H/T NBA Reddit
