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No Need to Break Up the Melo-Porzingis Tandem
Dan FavaleWhy Must Knicks Choose Between Carmelo Anthony and Kristaps Porzingis?
Rocky Widner/Getty Images
Building around Carmelo Anthony and engineering a future around rookie Kristaps Porzingis do not need to be mutually exclusive agendas for the New York Knicks.
So why pretend otherwise?
Anthony's no-trade clause, on top of the $101.6 million he's owed through 2018-19, has kept the notion of an immediate dissolution at bay. But the Knicks were apparently almost open to moving him over the offseason, according to Zach Lowe, then of Grantland, and there still exists a faction of fans and pundits who would seemingly cut bait with Anthony if given the option—all in the name of everything Porzingis.
Which, frankly, doesn't make much sense.
Contrary to initial concerns, the results generated by the Anthony-Porzingis partnership are encouraging.
More than a decade separates the 31-year-old Anthony and 20-year-old Porzingis. Even now, after knowing how rapidly New York's Latvian newbie has progressed, they don't project as the ideal pairing, because their primes will never intersect.
But Porzingis is doing everything he can to bridge the gap between his official entry into superstardom and what's left of Anthony's heyday. He is the lone Knicks starter with a positive net rating, and the NBA has only ever seen two other players, age 20 or younger, average at least 17 points, 10 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per 36 minutes.
Those players? Anthony Davis and Shaquille O'Neal.
Porzingis' fast-paced development hasn't slowed when playing beside Anthony, either. The Knicks, in fact, have taken to using Anthony as a pressure-release valve for their beginner.
Slightly less than 85 percent of Porzingis' minutes have been spent with his veteran running mate, and the Anthony-Porzingis dyad is New York's second-most used two-man combination. It is also the team's most reliably effective pairing.
Exactly 20 different two-man couplings have logged at least 275 minutes of action for the Knicks. The Anthony-Porzingis connection is posting the highest net rating among them. New York is outscoring opponents by 2.7 points per 100 possessions with those two in the game, which is markedly better than its minus-2.1 margin overall and would rank among the 10 best marks in the league.
These two just fit together, as two interchangeable inside-out scorers, and it shows in how each fares without the other:
The above differentials aren't drummed up by this duo playing extensive time with New York's other three starters; that unit is a net-minus.
The on-court relationship shared between Anthony and Porzingis offers no reason for alarm.
This moderate success shared between Anthony and Porzingis isn't a happy accident destined to fade with time. Their dynamic is being deliberately fostered by its supposed-to-be detractor: Anthony himself.
"I know what we have as teammates," he told Yahoo Sports' Marc J. Spears when pressed about the belief that he and Porzingis cannot thrive together. "Nobody can come between us despite what anybody says. Nobody."
Such sentiments might have been written off as posturing or hollow when coming from Anthony in years past, but he, right along with Porzingis, is making a conscious effort to evolve—specifically as a passer.
Anthony is posting the second-highest assist percentage of his career despite recording the third-lowest usage rate of his NBA tenure. His shooting percentages have plummeted, but he is averaging his fewest shot attempts per minute since he was a sophomore and remains one of just three players clearing 20 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists per 36 minutes. His company: Paul George and Blake Griffin.
Offensive reads Anthony wasn't making or refused to make in the past are now nightly staples. Among players to appear in a minimum of 10 games, only James Harden goes to isolation sets more, but Anthony has focused on eschewing clock-consuming one-on-one sets from the elbow for pick-and-rolls above the break:
Almost no one on the Knicks has capitalized on Anthony's shift in focus more than Porzingis, as Bleacher Report's Jared Dubin previously underscored (emphasis mine):
Luckily for the Knicks, they seem to have finally found a player Anthony trusts implicitly: Kristaps Porzingis. Carmelo has passed the ball to Porzingis more often on a per-game basis than any non-point guard teammate he's had in the three years for which the NBA has SportVU data.
He's thrown Porzingis an average of 7.5 passes per game [now 7.7], a full two passes more than the next closest player in the database: 2013-14 J.R. Smith. Those passes have also put Porzingis in position to shoot more often than any other teammate of Anthony's.
Porzingis has attempted at least 45 more shots off Anthony's passes than any other Knicks player. He's burying just 34.4 percent of those looks, and his effective field-goal rate drops considerably when he plays with Anthony, but it's the volume that's important.
Besides, Anthony has assisted on more than 14 percent of Porzingis' made baskets, second only to Jose Calderon's 19-plus percent, and the Knicks obviously have Porzingis stationing himself in the vicinity of where Anthony catches the ball:
Additional value will be added to the Anthony-Porzingis alliance as the latter's shot develops. Most of Porzingis' buckets already come off assists, and his effective field-goal percentage is higher on catch-and-shoot opportunities. And because that lets Anthony stay on the ball, it makes achieving sustainable success not only easier but inevitable.
Anthony is playing a brand of basketball that will allow Porzingis to one day supersede him.
There will come a time when egos matter more than X's and O's—when Porzingis needs to become New York's alpha, seizing status and even more touches from Anthony. And that could be problematic—if not for the fact that Anthony is taking steps to ensure it won't be.
In addition to refining his passing chops and investing time and possessions in Porzingis, Anthony is gradually prepping himself for sidekick duty. Catch-and-shoot touches have become a noticeably bigger part of his offensive repertoire over the last three seasons, and the results, relative to his overall performance, are encouraging:
Effective field-goal percentages are typically higher in spot-up situations, just not to this degree. Anthony is almost 10 points better this season than his overall clip. Kevin Durant's, by comparison, jumps by less than four percentage points; LeBron James is actually faring worse on standalone looks.
Comfort with playing off the rock will allow Anthony to naturally acquiesce to Porzingis' rise and should even help him raise his shooting percentages as he enters the back end of his career.
The Anthony vs. Porzingis debate is overblown.
Since Anthony's play style isn't lowering Porzingis' immediate and long-term ceiling, it only makes sense to break up this two-man band if Anthony's contract is really that bad.
Committing nine figures to an over-30 superstar with a history of knee problems isn't the ideal investment. But the Knicks will get more bang for their buck once the salary cap explodes.
Anthony's 2015-16 earnings eat up 32.7 percent of New York's spending power. In 2016-17, once the cap reaches $89 million, according to DraftExpress' Jonathan Givony, he'll swallow 27.6 percent; and in 2017-18, when the cap hits $108 million, just 24.3 percent.
That declining number makes it far easier for team president Phil Jackson to surround Anthony and Porzingis with better free agents. More importantly, along with Anthony's willingness to reconfigure his game to accommodate Porzingis, it eradicates any urgency New York might have to separate its two best players for the sake of the future.
Rocky Widner/Getty Images
When it comes to Porzingis and Anthony, the Knicks needn't choose.
Should the day ever come when the Knicks are forced to choose between Anthony and Porzingis, the 20-year-old Latvian is the inarguable choice, and New York will then have to cope with a lack of leverage in trade discussions for its aging All-Star.
Only, as of now, that day shouldn't ever come.
Because it shouldn't ever have to.
Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com unless otherwise cited and are accurate leading into games on Jan. 6. Salary information via Basketball Insiders.
Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @danfavale.
1/7/2016 7:17 PM