Dirk Nowitzki Says It’s ‘Scary’ How Good Kristaps Porzingis Can Be

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It’s fun to compare NBA players, past and present. It often operates as a sort of shorthand for their skill-set and offers us a putative barometer for their future success.

When watching certain players, you can sometimes clearly see who they’re emulating and which past players they’ve modeled their games after. Kobe Bryant is probably the easiest example, but you can also see shades of Allen Iverson in a player like Kyrie Irving or how Kevin Durant is in some ways an evolutionary version of Tracy McGrady.

There’s a problematic tendency to always compare white players to other white players, but in the case of Kristaps Porzingis, it’s difficult not to trace his lineage back to another prominent Eastern European big man with whom he shares many similarities. As one of the original 7-footers with unlimited range, Dirk Nowitzki sees a lot of himself in the Latvian sensation, and he recently offered his thoughts on Zinger’s many talents and just how high his ceiling might be.

Via Marc Berman of The New York Post:

“He plays a lot more defense than I ever have, I’ll tell you that,’’ Nowitzki told The Post in New Orleans on Friday after the Mavericks beat the Pelicans. “He’s amazing because he’s got great timing with the long arms on the shot blocks coming out of nowhere. Offensively, he shoots it so easily from deep. He’s scary. He’s added more off-the-dribble now, more turnarounds in the post. He’s going to be a walking mismatch for a long time.”

Asked if Porzingis’ career accomplishments will top his own, the 7-foot German said.

“He’s way ahead of the curve. My first year I was struggling straight out of Germany and he had that great rookie year. If he stays injury-free, working like that — and I know he will — the sky’s going to be the limit.’’

That’s pretty lofty praise from one of the best foreign-born players in NBA history. Though he didn’t come right out and say that Porzingis could end being better than him one day, the implication is certainly there as are all the tools necessary.

It also might be Nowitzki being a bit too modest. While his rookie year was a struggle, by his third year Dirk was a bonafide star as well. Time will only tell if Porzingis can challenge Nowitzki as the NBA’s all-time best international player, but for now Porzingis will have to focus on leading the Knicks to the playoffs, which is where legends are born, after all.

(New York Post)

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