Washington Wizards: deep dive into Kristaps Porzingis’ play this season

While he may be having the best season of his career, Kristaps Porzingis has been going unappreciated by the larger NBA community this season. This is proven by the fact that he was not named an All-Star.

He missed the All-Star game despite averaging monster numbers across the board. He is posting the ridiculous stat line of 23.2 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.5 blocks, and 0.8 steals per game. He has also been ridiculously efficient as he is hitting 49.7% of his shots, 38.7% of his three-point attempts, and 84.7% of his free throws.

Of the five major statistical categories, Porzingis leads the team in three areas, those being points, rebounds, and blocks, and is top five in the assists and steals as well. His statistical dominance has been a major reason that the Wiz have been able to stay afloat this season.

He is an all-around monster in every aspect of the game. From post hooks to pull up shots from 30 feet out, Porzingis is hitting from everywhere this season. What’s more impressive is the fact that he is third on the team in shot attempts, nearly three shots per game behind Kyle Kuzma, and is still leading the team in scoring. He is also only third in minutes per game.

Along with teammate Bradley Beal, Kristaps Porzingis has one of the most complete shot charts in the league. His scoring approach has been incredibly evenly distributed. This brings a level of unpredictability to his game. An underrated aspect of elite scorers in the modern NBA.

For example, a big reason why players like De’Aaron Fox and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander have seen recent leaps in their game was the addition of the pull up midrange jumper. It keeps the defense on their toes and causes them to play honest defense from everywhere on the floor.

Things haven’t been all great for Kristaps Porzingis this season though.

Despite his statistical dominance, the eye test forces the audience to question the impact of the seven-foot three forward a little bit deeper. There are a few areas where Porzingis has been incredibly questionable.

The star forward has had problems all season long when it comes to defending perimeter players. It has become the go to gameplan for opposing guards and even quicker forwards to force a Porzingis switch and proceed to run an iso play.

This has been extremely effective against the Washington Wizards as Porzingis is not anywhere close to quick enough to keep up with most point guards. Although, to his credit, he is occasionally able to recover for a chase down block, although this is not overly common.

Porzingis has also had problems when it comes to physical defenders. If you’ve ever seen the viral photo of Karl-Anthony Towns trying to post up DeMarcus Cousins from five years ago, that’s what Kristaps Porzingis looks like against Jrue Holiday.

In the latest matchup between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Washington Wizards, Porzingis often looked like he couldn’t do anything but shoot over players. Guards like Aj Green, Jevon Carter, Jrue Holiday, and Grayson Allen caused the star forward to be stopped in his tracks and often times was knocked to the ground.

Often times, his response was to just turn around and shoot over these players. An effective strategy as he is a foot taller than most point guards. Although, it is unfortunate that he is forced to take a jumper rather than being able to just back down the defender then turn around and dunk on them.

While his statistical impact has been nothing short of dominant, as has 90% of his on the court play, Kristaps Porzingis is far from a perfect player. Still, the Washington Wizards have managed to bring a player who was once one of the greatest “what if” stories in the league back to being a high impact player and that is reason enough to celebrate the season that the Latvian forward is having.