Dallas Mavericks: Is there really a Kristaps Porzingis problem?

The Dallas Mavericks have started their offseason early this year. With the team out of the NBA Finals once again, General Manager Nico Harrison and Coach Jason Kidd have a lot on their plate this summer as they hope to get the Mavs back to the promise land.

One of their big items on the agenda will be the handling of Kristaps Porzingis.

The biggest question the Mavericks management must address is: whether or not there is really a KP problem?

Last season Porzingis averaged 20.1 points per game. He was the second leading scorer for the team this past year. Compare his average points to the season before, and well not much has really changed.

During the 2019-2020 campaign, the Mavs’ big man scored 20.4 points. So basically, his number of points stayed consistent. As far as rebounds per game, the team’s second leading scorer only decreased his numbers by .6 a game. Anyways, he was never had huge rebounding numbers.

All the other statistics such as assists, blocks and minutes were all consistent as well. One key area the Mavs’ star did improve upon were his shooting numbers.

For example, the “Unicorn” enhanced his three-point percentage by sliding from a .352 percent the year before to a .376 percentage this past season. Porzingis was close to shooting 40 percent from beyond the arch.

To break it down in terms of his overall  field goal percentage, the seven-foot shooter went from having a .427 proportion to .476.Basically, he is shooting 47 percent from the field. This is actually really strong for a player who is suppose to be the team’s number two option.

However when you compare his numbers in the playoffs, he did sort of take a dip.

This postseason KP averaged 13.1 points per game and shot 47 percent from the field. And from three, he only hit 29 percent of his shots. He deeply struggled to crash the boards and failed to match his intensity from the previous postseason.

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During the 2020 playoffs the “Unicorn” hit a median of 23.7 points a game. Not to mention he played four less games in comparison to the year before. He also shot 52.9 percent of his threes from deep.

Everything about last year’s playoffs seemed better than this year. He had three more rebounds, including three more defensive rebounds and a higher field-goal percentage.

So if you break it down, KP’s season numbers were consistent from year’s past, but his playoff digits took a huge deep.

Just plain and simple though, his potential in the playoffs should be a minor concern at most. The Mavs’ second option had one of his best games in Game Three of the Clippers series. Back on May 25th, he scored 20 points and hit 75 percent of his threes. He also had a 66.7 field-goal percentage and tagged that with three steals and two blocks.

So to answer the question above, yes there is a KP problem but it is not as major as Mavs’ fans may think.

• Published on 07/09/2021 at 12:01 PM
• Last updated at 07/09/2021 at 11:20 AM