Philadelphia 76ers Critical Opponent: Kristaps Porzingis

The Philadelphia 76ers will have to watch out for rookie New York Knicks center Kristaps Porzingis on Wednesday night.

Kristaps Porzingis was that “poor guy” on draft night. No New York Knicks fan appreciated the Latvian player when his name was called by the Knicks that night, but someone calling the shots sure knew what they were doing.

As Porzingis worked his way up to NBA commissioner Adam Silver at the podium in the Barclay’s Center that night, he was booed by the large amount of Knicks fans in attendance. He has gone on to prove them wrong in huge ways.

Adam Silver has said in interviews that he told Porzingis when he came to the podium, “they’re booing me, not you, you know.” Porzingis, a funny guy, replied with, “I know.”

Although the power forward was dunked on by Dwight Howard recently, his image hasn’t been completely tarnished, and it’s one of the biggest match-ups of the year that I’m looking forward to, that is Jahlil Okafor vs. Kristaps Porzingis.

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Porzingis and Okafor, along with a lot of other big-name rookies like Karl Anthony-Towns and Emmanuel Mudiay are all making names for themselves in the league, and starting to state their case for rookie of the year. Both Porzingis and Okafor have helped turn their team around.

Both the Knicks and Sixers were pitiful last season. The Knicks ended the year with just 17 wins, and the Sixers with 18. The Knicks are already coming close to half of their amount of wins last season, and not even halfway through the year so far. Jahlil, on the other hand, has been trusted with more of the team, and has been unable to singlehandedly turn the team around. Porzingis has had help from guys like Carmelo Anthony.

So far this season, Porzingis is averaging 13.7 points, 1.9 blocks, and 9.3 rebounds per game. This is a center that’s very tough to defend, because he really spreads out his shots. With the court split up into five categories of distances, the largest percentage of attempted shots in any given area is 23.6%. Okafor, on the other hand, is not as spread out, and takes over 40% of his shots within three feet of the hoop.

Porzingis isn’t necessarily a stretch four, only sinking 30% of his three-pointers, but he’s got versatility.

Because of how he can move around the floor, and really hit a decent amount of shots from a variety of places, Okafor can not play defense on Porzingis. They will have to throw Nerlens Noel, or maybe even a quicker guy such as JaKarr Sampson or Jerami Grant on him.

This matchup won’t be as enticing as KAT vs Jah was, since they won’t always be battling in the post together, but still, it’s an exciting one to pay attention to when they will get tangled up in the post. Both guys are doing huge things as rookies for their respective teams, and certainly deserve a lot of credit.

Next: Sixers Are In Need Of Vets, But Not Chaperones

The Sixers will have to shut down Porzingis if they want a shot at winning. That’s not all the Knicks have coming for them, but it’s a huge piece of the puzzle.