During the 2015 NBA Draft night, the New York Knicks selected an unknown 7'3" Latvian kid named Kristaps Porzingis as their 4th overall pick and the boos surrounded the Barclays center seconds after the announcement.
Fast forward to now, Porzingis is one of the most beloved prospects as he presents skill set that no one else in the NBA presents. The kid can really shoot, rebound and perform highlight plays that will get fans off their feet.
Now that the Knicks fan know they have something special brewing, some teams who missed the chance to pick Porzingis might be regretting not selecting the kid from Latvia. Ask the LA Lakers head coach Byron Scott.
In an interview with ESPN, Scott explained why the Lakers passed on him. The coach said that he was sure Porzingis is definitely not a bust, but their only concern was how long will it take for Porzingis to be able to contribute.
"I liked him because he's athletic, can shoot the ball. From what we saw, he was able to shoot it from 3-point range pretty easily," Lakers coach Byron Scott said. "He's a young kid that in the workouts that we had really didn't show any fear. We just thought it was going to take him some time [to develop]."
With a few games down this season, Porzingis is outplaying their selection, D'Angelo Russell. Kristaps is averaging 12.3 points and 8.3 rebounds per game, while Russell is averaging 10 points, and 2.2 assists per game.
"Obviously, we were probably a little wrong about that because he's playing pretty well right now," Scott said.
The head coach also affirmed the Dirk Nowitzki comparison as accurate. He said, "Man, he's a good player, this kid has a hunger to be really good. The comparisons to Dirk Nowitzki because of his size and the way they can shoot the ball is pretty accurate, especially when Dirk first came on the scene. The kid is going to be really special one day."
To make things sweeter for Porzingis, he also managed to impress future Hall-of-Famer and LA Lakers guard Kobe Bryant.
"From what I've seen so far, he looks pretty damn good," Bryant said. "He's skillful, he can do a lot of things. He seems to be very competitive, too. He has a good competitive spirit about him."
