Baseline to Baseline: October 30th
- Kristaps Porzingis … not being very fair.
It’s hard to believe that there was a 72-hour window where the Knicks trading Porzingis to either the Celtics or Suns was not only possible, but a likely circumstance. Could you imagine the angst fans of the Knicks would be feeling right now as they watched him casually tickle the twine from the logo? THE LOGO.
Porzingis has eclipsed 30 points in four of the first five games — the only player in franchise history to do so. He is a unicorn, a holy combination of poise, length, and shooting. A perfectly sculpted center for today’s NBA. Unfortunately for the rest of the league, he is beginning to figure out how to leverage his height, how to manipulate his defender with footwork in the post, and all while retaining his buttery stroke.
Poor Paul Millsap can’t do a thing. Nobody can really.
2. The Boston Celtics and the art of the extra pass.
Boston has more than stayed a float without the presence of Gordon Hayward. Jayson Tatum has exceeded expectations that were already pretty high, Jaylen Brown has taken many steps forward, and Brad Stevens is pushing all of the right buttons. Nobody would have expected the Celtics to showa strong cohesion on the defensive end due to the amount of roster turnover they had to withstand, but that is exactly what has happened:
Boy wonder strikes again.
The offense is still finding its stride, but Kyrie Irving has shown more playmaking chops than in year’s past, and Al Horford continues to fill all of the holes when needed. They are good for a few pinging possessions each game that require a rewind.
Boston’s ceiling may have been capped with Hayward’s ankle injury, but they are still a talented bunch with a scientist as their coach and they should only get better from here.
3. Mareese Speights gets hot and Joel Meyers gets upset.
Mo Speights heat check alert!
“Why? Why is there nobody on Mareese Speights?”
Meyers is one of the best voices in the game, and every so often he will grow so disgusted with what he is watching that he uncorks a gem like the one above. He toggles between a mixture of sadness and anger when the Pelicans don’t show requisite effort, and it is glorious.
His disgust was warranted in this situation — Speights had already made four threes to that point and it’s not like the Magic did anything special to spring him open.
Related: Are the Magic good? The Magic might be good!
4. Ben Simmons.
Simmons has quickly become my favorite player to watch on a night to night basis, and I am sure I am not the only one that shares that sentiment. He is elusively in control in the open court — jetting past brutes and bullying through smaller guards that try to halt his momentum. In the half court he is a wizard, flinging bullet passes across the court, piercing tiny windows with bounce passes, and throwing alley oops with just the right amount of touch.
Everything he does is with the right pace and manipulation — that no-look lob is exhibit A — while being a burden to contain even without a jumper that stretches past the elbows. It might not even matter if a jump shot never surfaces — he is so big and smart with his movements that he compensates for that deficiency. The only drawback to his game may be that he needs to have the ball in his hands to be maximized, but you can say that about more star players than not. (He can also be used a fulcrum in the post because of his size. That should be the next step in his development in my opinion.)
I said when I saw him during Summer League in the summer of 2016 that he was being used/reminds me of a young LeBron James and I don’t feel like that is a stretch.
