Add Kristaps Porzingis to the list of New York Knicks who are excited to play for new head coach Jeff Hornacek.
From ESPN.com’s Ian Begley:
“There were a lot of names, coming up — David Blatt, [Frank] Vogel. Hornacek just came out of the nowhere,” Porzingis said in an interview with ESPN this week from his youth camp in Liepaja, Latvia. “I think it’s a really good decision from [team president] Phil [Jackson] and [GM] Steve [Mills].”
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“I think he’s a very smart coach. He knows how to use his players and that’s exactly what we need,” Porzingis said. “And we’ll see if we can get some more players this offseason. But I think we have enough talent and having [Carmelo Anthony] makes everybody better. So if we know how to go from there, using Melo, myself and involving everybody, using everybody’s strengths and putting it all together, then we’ll be a different team. We’ll be able to succeed.”
Porzingis should end up being a great fit under Hornacek, who has made it clear he intends to use the Rookie of the Year runner-up in a variety of ways. We can expect to see more Carmelo Anthony-Porzingis high pick-and-rolls for starters, and that’s a great thing. We should also see more of Porzingis dotting the arc as a spot-up shooter, orbiting the three-point line both in transition and on Melo drives.
The 7’3″ wunderkind should be seeing more time at center as well. That his best position in today’s NBA. He can get by at power forward, largely because he’s able to switch on to smaller, quicker players on the defensive end. But as he continues to add some bulk, he’ll be more of a unicorn at the 5, a position that is less likely to catch up to his skill set anytime soon.
Nothing is for certain, of course. Porzingis has to actually play for Hornacek before we coin this an unequivocal match. But knowing what we know, it most definitely seems like the Knicks made a “good decision” by hiring Hornacek, if only because his offensive ideologies should help unlock the full extent of Porzingis’ potential.
