The New York Knicks are fully invested in Kristaps Porzingis as a key piece to their future and they are willing to do everything they can to esnure he reaches his full potential. They basically turned away LaMarcus Aldridge in free agency so that they could let Porzingis develop so they are pretty serious about him being their future. While it isn't a lock yet it seems pretty certain at this point that the Knicks will start Porzingis in his first career NBA game, according to Frank Isola of the New York Daily News.
The Knicks came into training camp with a couple of questions in their starting lineup but Isola reports that Derek Fisher hinted at Porzingis and Arron Afflalo starting in the spots that were open. Porzingis was the fourth overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft and although a lot of people weren't happy with the Knicks selecting the Latvian he has a lot of talent and potential and the Knicks will let him learn the NBA game through experience.
Porzingis has struggled with minor muscle injuries throughout the preseason and has missed a decent amount of practice time and some games but he believes he is 100 percent ready to go with less than a week until the Knicks play their first game.
Porzingis hasn't played that well in the preseason and has actually been outplayed significantly by his biggest competitor for the starting power forward spot, Kyle O'Quinn, but that reportedly won't stop the Knicks from starting him. The Knicks feel as though in order to develop Porzingis he needs to start at least at the beginning of the year although that could change if he doesn't play well and O'Quinn continues to impress.
The 7 foot-3 forward should be able to protect the rim right away and hit some jump shots for the Knicks but it will be interesting to see how he deals with stronger players. It is well known that Porzingis is rail thin and that the Knicks wanted him to put on weight, and although he has put on some weight he still likely isn't big enough to deal with some of the big power forwards in the NBA.
The Knicks are probably doing the right thing in this situation by committing to the 20 year old and making sure they take all of the proper steps to develop him. He may not deserve a starting spot based on his play so far but the Knicks see the talent and want to give him every chance to be the type of player they expect him to be.
