Kristaps Porzingis is at his best when he is playing from the perimeter, and his head coach thinks that it would be foolish to move away from that.
Speaking with reporters on Thursday, Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle rejected the notion that the team should post up Porzingis more often.
“A post-up is not a good play anymore,” he said, per ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. “It’s just not a good play. It’s not a good play for a 7-foot-3 guy. It’s a low-value situation.”
The Mavs had drawn criticism from the TNT broadcasters during their game against the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday for Porzingis’ lack of post-ups. But Porzingis, a volume three-point shooter who is at a solid 35.6 percent from distance for his career, creates a tremendous amount of space for the Dallas offense with his shooting ability. Furthermore, the Mavs are only averaging 5.5 post-ups per game as a team this season, but there are still seven other teams who post up even less than that (per NBA.com).
When you see some of the absurd shots that Porzingis can splash too, it’s very hard to argue that he would be better off playing with his back to the basket.
