New York Knicks: How Kristaps Porzingis injury impacts team
What will the New York Knicks do now that star power forward Kristaps Porzingis will be sidelined with a torn ACL?
The New York Knicks and the league in general suffered a big loss on Tuesday night when budding superstar and 2018 NBA All-Star Kristaps Porzingis injured his knee.
When a player of that sizes goes down, everyone holds their breath. He needed help to get off the court, making people even more nervous. Unfortunately for the Knicks, their worst nightmare has come true.
Porzingis was obviously ruled out for the game, but will miss significantly more time than that. Porzingis has been diagnosed with a torn ACL in his left knee, ending his season. Usually, an ACL injury takes about a year to come back from, so we may not see KP back on the court until next February, at the earliest.
This is a huge injury for the Knicks. Porzingis is the franchise cornerstone and was looking like it in his first season as the go-to guy. People who are 7’3″ are not supposed to possess the skill-set that Porzingis has, which helped earn him the nickname of the Unicorn.
The play on which Porzingis injured his knee is the epitome of how special of a player he is. Porzingis dunked on the Milwaukee Bucks‘ superstar, Giannis Antetekoumpo.
The injury bug crushed the Knicks on Tuesday. As if losing Porzingis wasn’t enough, the Knicks also lost Enes Kanter and Tim Hardaway Jr. While we will see Kanter and Hardaway Jr. back on the court this season, the same cannot be said for the Zinger.
The loss of Porzingis is one that will greatly impact the Knicks. For starters, replacing him in the lineup is an issue. The Unicorn was thriving as the go-to man, averaging 22.9 points, 6.7 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 2.4 blocks and 0.8 steals per game. The Knicks will not find one player to replace those statistics; it will have to be a team effort.
His impact is felt on both ends of the court. He can stretch the floor offensively, knocking down 39.4 percent of his looks from behind the 3-point line. Porzingis is a difference-maker defensively, as his 2.4 blocks per game lead the NBA and he alters numerous more during the course of the game.
With Porzingis sidelined, the Knicks’ trajectory in the immediate future is changed. With Porzingis, it was conceivable that New York could’ve made a playoff push in the Eastern Conference. Without him, those slim hopes have been dashed.
As a result, expect the Knicks to get aggressive at the trade deadline as sellers. There were whispers that the Knicks were in the market for help on the wing, which would indicate a playoff push.
Those whispers will disappear as the Knicks’ plans for the 2018 NBA Trade Deadline should be clear. Without Porzingis, the Knicks should become sellers at the deadline in a buyer’s market.
New York Knicks
Veterans such as Kyle O’Quinn and Courtney Lee were said to be the likeliest Knicks traded. At this point, the Knicks should push to trade them away. The playoffs are unlikely to be in the cards without Porzingis, so they should maximize the trade value of some veterans on the team.
The Knicks have a glut of centers on the roster. It was expected that O’Quinn, Kanter, Willy Hernangomez or Joakim Noah would be traded, and the first domino (Hernangomez) fell Wednesday morning. O’Quinn, given his reasonable contract and production this season, is someone that will draw interest from contenders, and he reportedly has already.
The Knicks would love to unload Noah, but that was an unlikely proposition. With Porzingis sidelined, holding onto future assets such as young players and draft picks is even more imperative now. Those draft picks will be better than expected with their best player out.
Lee is in the middle of a career season. His trade value will never be higher. By the time the Knicks are good, there is a good chance Lee isn’t even on the roster any longer. Flipping him for future assets would be a smart move at this point.
Other veterans such Jarrett Jack, Lance Thomas and Michael Beasley could, and probably should, be shopped.
The Knicks’ outlook on the remainder of the season has changed. While some players were hoping to make a playoff push, including Porzingis, that should not be their focus any longer.
Head coach Jeff Hornacek said earlier in January that this season was more about development than wins and losses. That has become even more true with Porzingis sidelined.
Expect to start seeing youngsters such as Damyean Dotson receive more minutes. First round pick Frank Ntilikina should see his role increase as well once he is healthy, along with Trey Burke.
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The time is now for the Knicks to turn to their younger players and see what they have. Evaluating the youngsters in meaningful regular season games will help the Knicks gauge where they need to improve this offseason. A playoff push would have been fun to watch, but the injury to Porzingis had put a halt to the Knicks’ plans to take a step toward a postseason push.