The staggering size of Kristaps Porziņģis caught everyone off-guard at the Celtics’ practice facility. Al Horford thinks he might exceed his listed 7-3 height. Luke Kornet received a wakeup call when he looked up at a teammate. Dalano Banton, in a Celtics social media post, struggled to reach up and contest the big man as he barreled toward the rim. Reporters reached up similarly to capture his quotes on Tuesday after his first practice.
“Yeah, I’ve played with KP before and when he first got back here … it’s always a little staggering for me to see someone taller, and KP is quite significantly (taller),” Kornet said. “Well, we had Tacko a couple of years ago.”
Porziņģis’ arms seem to stretch on forever, and his impact will have to prove wider for the Celtics’ Jrue Holiday gamble to work. The big man defended his health at media day, deeming many of his past injuries contact-related events, while illness mostly kept him off the floor one year ago. He also begins training camp closer to the ground floor of fitness after a six-week layoff with plantar fasciitis that has since healed. The Robert Williams III trade likely forces him to play center often, at least to close games, something he feels prepared for.
Basketball Reference listed nearly 100% of his minutes during his time with the Wizards at center, though Daniel Gafford often patrolled the floor with him covering the opponent’s screening action. Porziņģis said he prefers to defend closer to the rim, and with Joe Mazzulla teasing a matchup-based starting lineup, he’ll start alone covering opposing centers on many nights. Despite defensive improvements and increased muscle, that could challenge him.
“I love playing in both positions,” he said on Monday. “I think it’s a tough job for other fives to guard me and we have very few real post-up fives, it’s probably, Joel and Nikola, right? Two guys that really post-up and play that kind of game…so for me, it doesn’t really matter.”
“You need to know how to play every position defensively,” he continued on Tuesday. “There’s gonna be switches, there’s gonna be mismatches. I have to be able to be put in any situation.”
The Celtics will likely shadow those Jokic and Embiid matchups with Horford when they arrive. Scheming can minimize the challenge those burlier centers present against Porziņģis. The real worry with him playing center occurs at the three-point line. While positions don’t exist generally anymore, center does because of the responsibility with covering screening actions.
Film revealed Porziņģis could play at the level of screens when necessary, show and recover, while retreating to the paint for the defense to reset. Just as Jokic and Embiid can exploit him in the post, the Steph Curry and Damian Lillard style pick-and-rolls could lead to Boston allowing quality three-point looks in droves. Lillard himself devastated Porziņģis when the Blazers and Mavericks met in the Bubble. He’s improved drastically on the defensive end since, defending favorably alongside some of the league’s best pick-and-roll defenders last year, but his role in the defense becomes the most intriguing puzzle piece after the Holiday deal.
“I think he’s shown that he can be up. He’s shown that he can also be back,” Mazzulla said. “I think he’s one of the better drop defenders in the league and if you look at some of his stats, he’s actually fared well as a center against switching. He has to be able to come here and play defense in different layers, and do different things. We’ll use his flexibility on the defensive end to do some things differently that’ll give our defense more looks as we go throughout the year.”
Zone could enter the equation, though Celtics players and coaches shied away from discussing the possibility during the opening days of camp. Tony Dobbins and Boston’s Jordan Walsh-led Summer League team played significant amounts of zone in Las Vegas, something the Celtics haven’t done since the Brad Stevens days despite the drop carrying some zone elements. Whether zoning or dropping, the Celtics will receive Porziņģis’ best when he takes away the rim and keeping him there will require some changes in how the team defends.
Derrick White and Holiday will have to fight through screens, Horford and Porziņģis will need to share the floor often, and that requires another rotation big emerging. Stevens alluded to intriguing offseason strides from Luke Kornet, Neemias Queta and recently-signed Wenyen Gabriel, who’ll supplement the remaining duo in the front court. Stevens also committed to monitoring the center market after trading Williams III.
Porziņģis even felt the loss of Williams III’s charismatic voice over the two weeks he spent with him, and a colder, more business-like tone took over the early days of training camp. The practice facility looked different for day one, numerous new coaches like Amile Jefferson, Charles Lee and Sam Cassell spread across the floor. Bench signings will compete for roles. The loudest voices who logged several years together as faces of the team leave massive gaps as personalities and leaders. Structurally, the Williams III loss alters Porziņģis’ arrival slightly, and the greatest risk in the deal comes if, or when, the team’s new starting center battles an ailment.
Camp already marks something of a ramp-up from his offseason foot injury, focusing on getting in shape through todays’s double session. Still, he sees joining a new group as easier the longer his career progresses. Holiday helps, the disruptive, connecting perimeter defender watching in the corner in a sweatshirt — awaiting his practice debut that’ll come on Wednesday.
“Most of the guys, I’ve seen many year in the league play and what they’re capable of,” Porziņģis said. “The most interesting part is seeing the dynamic, adding some players, playing with some new players and how quickly we’re gonna be able to play off each other, read each other, read each other’s minds so we can be seamless … Dallas took me a little bit longer. Washington was very smooth. I think also, it’s important to have a good summer. Before last season, I was with the Latvian national team, so that helped me to be in a good rhythm, to be in a playing mindset. This year, I had to miss the national team to be ready for this … I look forward to getting in that rhythm, in that playing shape. I think it’s going to be easy.”
