New York Knicks rookie Kristaps Porzingis defends Dallas Mavericks' Dirk Nowitzki. (Photo : Getty Images/Al Bello)
New York Knicks center-forward Kristaps Porzingis is arguably one of the best rookies in this year's freshmen class if you look at it stat-wise and the value each one contributes to their teams.
The 7-foot-3 Latvian is averaging 13.6 points, 8.4 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks in a little over 27 minutes a night through 25 games for Derek Fisher, making him an early candidate for this season's Rookie of the Year award.
However, the New York Post reported that Porzingis is lately "hitting the wall" as he had struggled during the team's three-games-in-four-nights road trip out in the West, going 6-of-25 from the field in all three games while scoring 5.7 ppg and 4.3 rpg, both of which quite low for his early season standards.
In their Western swing's fourth night, Fisher benched Porzingis in the final 16 and a half minutes of the game against the Portland Trail Blazers as the head coach may have finally recognized his rookie's tiredness.
"I was struggling out there," the 2015 fourth overall draft pick said following New York's 112-110 victory over Portland, halting their four-game slide. "I was already feeling bad if we lost this game. I'm happy we won the game. That's all that matters. I know the team needs me every night. I'm just happy tonight, when I wasn't there, they still managed to win the game."
Newsday noted that the grind of an NBA season is something "new" for Porzingis as the 20-year-old has only played "50 games in Spain last season and totaled 1,072 minutes (21.4 per game)".
Right now, after the Knicks' 107-102 win over the Timberwolves on Wednesday where Porzingis is again prominently featured with seven blocks in almost 30 minutes of playing time, he had already played half of those in Europe as the season had just passed its quarter mark.
The report continued that Porzingis simply needs time to adapt to life in the NBA as other than adjusting to the playing time load, "he's also been asked to do more, is playing against better and more physical talent, and is traveling more than he ever has".
