Happy Birthday

Boston Celtics @celtics
about 2 hours ago
Happy birthday @kporzee pic.twitter.com/WgT222Kzul


Bob
MY NOTE:  The Unicorn, Kristaps Porzingis, is 28 years old today and, technically, in the meaty middle of his prime.  It's remarkable, given how long he seems to have been around, that he's still just now turning 28.  As we all know, it's all about his health.  If he's healthy he makes us extremely difficult to play against because we now have a low post threat like we haven't had since, when, Robert Parish and Bill Walton?  I don't really consider KG a low post threat and I certainly don't consider Perk that.

The Zinger has played in 402 NBA games, a total of 12,506 minutes.  That's 31.1mpg average, but in only 7 seasons (8 seasons in the league, out for the entire 2018-2019 season).  402 games in 7 seasons is 57.4 games/season played.  That's really not that bad.  For comparison purposes Al Horford has averaged 63.3 games/season (16 seasons) and Robert Williams has averaged 41.8 games/season (5 seasons).  We know that RWill is injury-prone but Al?  Nope, and yet he has averaged only 6 more games/season played than Zinger.  So, is Zinger as injury-prone as we say he is, or are we just focused on that year plus he missed because he had knee surgery.  Grant Hill was very injury-prone in his early years, had multiple surgeries, but played until he was 40.  He retired after 17 seasons in the league, getting his injuries "out of the way" early.  That could be Zinger's story.  He played in 65 games last season.  He played 72 games in his rookie year when he totaled 2047 minutes, 66 games in his sophomore year when he totaled 2164 minutes and 65 last year totaling 2120 minutes.  27 years old and he played just 44 fewer minutes than the career high year when he was just 21 years old and played one additional game.  

I loved Marcus Smart, always will, but Godzingis (not my name for him) diversifies us in a way Marcus couldn't.  We are no longer strictly a perimeter offense or pnr lob team.  

.

Bob, Washington benched Zinger for many games last year as it tried to tank. He could easily have played 75 games in 22-23.

worcester wrote:Bob, Washington benched Zinger for many games last year as it tried to tank. He could easily have played 75 games in 22-23.

That's what I read as well.

Zinger fits the timeline for a guy who should perform well over the next 3 years, barring injury.

Making the trade for him has risks but also the potential for great rewards.  

This team is going to look a lot different with him in the lineup.  He has never played with 2 allstar/all NBA guys and the jays have never played with a center with his size and skill level.  

His addition and its' impact will depend on the degree of responsibility that Joe gives Derrick White in running the offense.  Also, the Jays need to share the ball a lot more so that KP becomes a big part of their offense.  I think that if you can get him his career average in FGA per game (15.3)  things will work out quite well. He took 15.7 shots per game last season

KP will not be playing for a new contract and that is a good things.  He will have  a $96 million security blanket going into the season.

Everybody will miss the toughness that Marcus brought to the table.  They will not miss he penchant for taking a high volume of 3 point shots.  

We go to the 2-big lineup with DW running the point and KP will be taking the shots that Marcus got, plus.

The Celtics offense should be better due to having more pure fire power.  Teams will be playing a lot of zone against us because there is no way to double the Jays and KP at the same time.