Remember all those years ago when Kurt Rambis was head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves and didn’t let Kevin Love, noted 3-point ace, shoot 3-pointers? Remember how great that worked out for everyone involved?
Yeah, well, Rambis, now the interim head coach of the Knicks, is at it again, this time with Kristaps Porzingis. According to Chris Herring of the Wall Street Journal, Rambis not only wants Porzingis to stop shooting so many threes, he wants to move him to small forward, because that just makes all of the sense in the world.
Rambis has said that due to Porzingis’s athleticism and versatility, he could “eventually see him at the 3-spot some,” referring to the small-forward position. That was days after Rambis said he wanted Porzingis to sprint down court after opponents’ misses more frequently in hopes of getting more post-up opportunities. Rambis, who has said Porzingis is “going to be phenomenal,” has also been critical of the rookie’s shot selection, saying “there are shots out there that he takes that I flat-out don’t like.” Porzingis’s 3-point attempts are down since Rambis’s comment.
Lovely. It appears as if Rambis learned nothing during the time between his stint with the Timberwolves and now. Look, Porzingis is an unnaturally gifted athlete, with fluidity rare for someone his size. But he’s still 7-foot-3. Putting him at the three, even with all of his skills, is doomed to failure. It’s in complete disregard to the current state of the NBA, not to mention all of Porzingis’ strengths.
Let the Latvian play at the four and the five, where he’s been stellar all year. Let him shoot threes, because he can, because it is such a valuable weapon to the Knicks’ spacing. Let him be who he is, and don’t shoehorn him into some outdated notion of what a big man is supposed to be.
(Via Wall Street Journal)
