When the New York Knicks selected Kristaps Porzingis with the fourth-overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft, they were rolling the dice.
Here was a talented 7-footer with, at the time, the ceiling of a generational talent and the floor of a bust. It was a risky move and a gutsy, dare-to-be-amazing call by team president Phil Jackson. There are not a lot of good things you can say about the Knicks and the way they’ve developed players, but they swung for the fences when they could have settled for a double in the form of a trade or played it safe and invested in Justise Winslow.
Not every team would have done that. Porzingis was projected anywhere from in the top five to outside the top 10. Being a relative mystery, he could have slipped much lower—unless, of course, the Knicks were drafting higher than fourth. Then there’s a chance he would have been scooped up sooner.
From the New York Post‘s Marc Berman:
Knicks president Phil Jackson wasn’t that much of a basketball genius that if Duke center Jahlil Okafor and Kristaps Porzingis were both on the draft board last June, he wouldn’t have gone Latvian.
According to an NBA source, as much as Jackson’s top adviser, Clarence Gaines Jr., wanted Jackson to take Porzingis even if the Knicks had the No. 1 pick, that wasn’t the way the Zen Master would have gone if it was a choice between the two big men.
Okafor was Jackson’s man.
“He had to draft Okafor — too much a sure thing,’’ the source said.
If the Knicks landed the No. 1 pick, and if Jackson’s top advisor, Gaines, had his way, the team could’ve ended up with Porzingis anyway. That’s certainly something to consider as the 20-year-old rookie continues playing his way into the hearts of fans and onto Rookie of the Year ballots everywhere.
It’s also something to doubt. It’s more likely that the Knicks would have taken Okafor or Towns with the No. 1 pick. Towns was rated higher on most draft boards leading into the prospect pageant, but as Berman noted, Jackson, like many others, was enamored by Okafor’s polish.
In a way, then, the Knicks are lucky they didn’t land the top pick. Towns is no doubt better than Porzingis, but it’s not clear if New York would have even chosen him. And they’re most definitely lucky they didn’t end up at No. 2 or No. 3, where they would have selected D’Angelo Russell or Okafor, both of whom haven’t been as impressive as Porzingis.
And that’s fine. Luck is part and parcel of any NBA rebuild. The Knicks made the right call. And even if they would have made a different call in a different situation, that doesn’t take away from the gall they displayed when they gambled on Porzingis at all.
