The Knicks have issued a medical update on injured big man Kristaps Porzingis, announcing today in a press release that Porzingis’ knee is healing well and he’s making good progress in his rehabilitation. However, he won’t be returning to the court anytime soon. According to the club, Porzingis will be re-evaluated in mid-February.
As Ian Begley of ESPN.com tweets, president of basketball operations Steve Mills said today that the Knicks feel good about Porzingis’ progress, but he’s “still a ways away.” The 23-year-old has been participating in 1-on-0 workouts with coaches and was shooting threes and dunking in a workout, Begley adds. Despite the team’s enthusiasm about his rehab process, Mills didn’t guarantee that Porzingis would play before the end of the 2018/19 season, tweets Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic.
The Knicks’ Porzingis update doesn’t come as a shock. The club is off to a 9-24 start and is almost certainly lottery-bound, so there’s absolutely no need to rush the young forward/center back into action following last season’s ACL tear. If he plays this season, it will almost certainly happen sometime after the All-Star break, and he’d likely see very limited minutes.
In the event that Porzingis plays down the stretch, it would be less about winning games and more about getting his feet back under him after a year-long absence — and giving potential free agent targets a reminder of the player they could join in July.
Porzingis will be a restricted free agent during the summer of 2019, and the Knicks are expected to do whatever it takes to lock him up long-term.
The big Softee
Man if he doesn’t play this season his outlook won’t be very good, he needs to get his feet back under him. If they wait until the beginning of next season it will be a wasted season so no need to get a big FA this summer, better wait until 2020. As it will take him 1 year to get back to the player he was, if he will ever be that again (big if)
At the end of the article. . . Luke opines a consensus that: a)The Knicks are motivated to showcase him, in order to appeal to FAs; and b) The Knicks will max him.
I thought both of these were up in the air, but I don’t read NY sources.
As opposed to: a) Such a showcase could encourage other bidders for him, and b) His injury makes him risky and not-max.
But if they’re planning to max him, they have less worry about being nicked by another team, so why not put him on the court this season. There’s also the @cesc reason for doing so.
They have no choice but to max him. He is their only real player, and the Knicks have never landed a free agent. No matter what delusional new Yorkers tell themselves curled up in a ball at night.
I don’t think they’ll necessarily offer him a max right off the bat, but if another team comes in with a max offer sheet, I doubt they’ll just throw up their hands and let him walk.
As for whether he returns before the end of the season: I think, in terms of a “showcase,” playing is better than not playing — if he doesn’t look great, you could write it off as him just being a little rusty after a long absence. If he doesn’t play at all, he’s much more of a question mark going forward.
Those are both just my opinions though, not concrete reports.
Yea, ‘we’ didn’t think the Sixers would offer Embiid max right off the bat…. KP will get that max. They have no choice really. Teams that could offer him a Max Contract: Nets, Hawks, Lakers, Kings, Mavs, Sixers, Bulls, Pacers, Suns, Clippers. I think half of them actually would, esp the Nets, Kings, and Mavs.
Embiid is a much better player and his contract isnt a true max. There are a bunch of injury protections in the deal. I’m not sure it’s s terrible idea to see what he’s offered in the RFA market
Good, he shouldn’t be rushed and missing the year isn’t the end of the world if he comes back healthier and in bigger better shape. Embiid was out for a million years with a bad foot injury on a big man before even playing let’s not forget and he turned out fine.
The Embiid point is a good one, but I am a little more concerned about Zinger as the max contract hangs over this offseason. I know the Sixers filed out Embiid’s after only 94 total games, but they had 63 last year to consider whether they thought he was healthy enough to give the money to. The Knicks may have zero games to work with. If the Knicks pay him and he doesn’t return well, then they can basically scrap another 2-3 year’s of being competitive.
Of course, if they don’t pay him and he becomes a star on another team, that won’t bode well for the near future of the team.
In a perfect world, he gets the recovery time he needs, and makes it back for 10-15 games, playing 15 or so minutes and showing flashes of his pre-injury self. Anything less and I would hate to be Knicks management on this one.