There has been a lot of talk about how good of an NBA player Kristaps Porzingis will be before he has even stepped on the court for an NBA game. Porzingis is just 20 years old and had a solid summer league showing but New York Knicks fans are so desperate for their team to be relevant that they can't fathom seeing Porzingis not live up to his potential. Knicks fans won't be happy with Phil Jackson's most recent comments regarding his 2015 first round pick and those were that Porzingis might be "too tall" for the NBA, according to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News.
Jackson said he realizes there was a huge risk in taking the 7 foot-3 forward because there is a real chance he could be a literal and figurative huge bust. Jackson compared Porzingis to another former NBA player who he considered "too tall."
"Like Shawn Bradley, who was nevertheless a pretty good player, K.P. might almost be too tall for the game. What I mean is that his core strength might never be good enough, and that he might not be able to get low enough to get himself into prime defensive position to body power rebounders or drivers," said Jackson.
Shawn Bradley was a 7 foot-6 center that was taken with the second overall pick in the 1993 NBA Draft but ended up being a bust and not having a good career. Knicks fans won't be happy to hear the guy that drafted Porzingis compare him to a very famous NBA bust, but he did later say that the Latvian forward will put on ten pounds and he is much more athletic than other people of his size.
Jackson said that the hope is to get Porzingis about 20 minutes per game in the beginning of the season and gradually increase that as he becomes more acclimated to the NBA game. Jackson is still unsure whether Porzingis will end up as a power forward or a center but it will come down to where he is more comfortable.
The "too tall" comments are definitely concerning coming from Jackson but overall he seems to have a lot of confidence in Porzingis' ability to overcome his lankiness. If Porzingis does end up not being able to defend quicker and stronger guys and becomes a bust Knicks fans will go back to this story and ask why Jackson drafted him if he thought he might be too tall.
