The unicorns are coming.
That’s NBA slang for athletes so rare, so impossible to find that for a long time they existed only in the land of the imagination.
As the league has tilted towards speed, space and (three-point shooting) skill, the ideal qualities for a big man have become so counterintuitive that they could only logically exist in a scout’s fever dream: Agile enough to both cover smaller, quicker players on the perimeter; long enough to both fend off both guards driving to the rim and big men rolling down the lane for alley-oops and skilled enough to smash mismatches offensively by punishing teams outside when they leave a slow-footed big on them or inside when they try to cover them with a more normal-sized mortal.
Finding an athlete that can cover off all those attributes seemed so unlikely that in the past couple of years the ‘unicorn’ adjective has become almost mainstream.
But whether it’s demand driving supply or necessity as the mother of invention, the league now has enough of them that they could almost have their own category on the all-star ballot, or an award: “The Best Unicorn goes to …”
On Friday night one of the breed’s prototypes arrives at the Air Canada Centre, leading a New York Knicks club that is threatening to become relevant almost precisely due to his contributions.
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When Kristaps Porzingis was drafted fourth overall in 2015 he was so far off the casual fan’s radar that Knicks fans booed him lustily at Madison Square Garden, where the draft was held and a young Knicks fan who took a video of himself crying hysterically at the pick and became Twitter famous, although he eventually bought a Porzingis jersey and got schooled by him at basketball camp.
But Porzingis almost instantly showed that he had the makings of something special. At seven-foot-three he can drain step-back threes, cross you over and create off the dribble or glide to the rim and throw down dunks so casually they come off as afterthoughts. Defensively, he is so rangy – his height is complimented by a seven-foot-six wingspan – that he can and casually swat away shots from all angles. No less a unicorn authority than Kevin Durant [the seven-foot shooting guard is a similarly rare breed] welcomed him to the club during his rookie season:
“When they made the pick, I texted [then Knicks head coach Derek Fisher] immediately and said ‘I like this kid, he can play.’” Durant told reporters in the winter of 2016. “A lot of people were down on him, but he can play. He’s a skilled guy … he can shoot, he can make the right plays, he can defend, he’s a seven-footer that can shoot all the way out to the three-point line,” Durant said. “That’s rare. And block shots – that’s like a unicorn in this league.”
And Porzingis has only gotten better since. Freed from having to play under the shadow of the since departed Carmelo Anthony and released from the shackles of former Knicks president Phil Jackson’s triangle regime, Porzingis has helped the Knicks to a surprising 8-6 start and in the heart of the playoff race in a better-than-advertised Eastern Conference.
In an NBA season that is threatening to turn the standards for what is effective offence upside down, Porzingis is turning in one of the most unique season’s in league history.
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On its own, his box score line of 28.9 points per game (third overall), 2.2 blocks per game (third overall), and 40 per cent from three on five attempts per game seem implausible. And in context they are nearly miraculous.
In fact the young Latvian would be the first player in NBA history to average 28 or more points a game, two or more blocks per game while making at least two threes per game and 40 per cent shooting from deep, according to Basketball-Reference.com
No one else has even come remotely close. Only three players in league history have ever averaged even one made three per game and one block per game (Raef LaFrentz; Serge Ibaka and Joel Embiid); none while scoring more than 21 points a game. Just eclipsing the two block and two made threes barrier alone would be a league first, although Anthony Davis and Durant are on pace to join Porzingis in doing it this season.
Which is perhaps the most amazing thing.
As much as Porzingis is one-of-a-kind from a historical perspective, all of a sudden unicorns are everywhere, with new and bizarre statistical feats being accomplished on a nightly basis.
The list of seven-footers who are posting never-before-seen combinations of blocks, steals and assists while stretching defences and all the rest of it is longer than it has ever been.
Davis, of the New Orleans Pelicans, is shooting 40 per cent from three while averaging 2.1 blocks a game, scoring 25.6 points and snaring 11.4 rebounds. Meanwhile, Embiid, of the Philadelphia 76ers, may be the rarest unicorn of them all.
As an example – on Wednesday night against the Los Angeles Lakers – Embiid played in his 43rd NBA game of his injury-plagued career and the first player to make at least two threes while recording seven or more assists and seven or more blocks. That he scored 46 points on just 20 field goal attempts while grabbing 16 rebounds in a measly 34 minutes made it even more astounding. It was a game unlike any other played by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain or Shaquille O’Neal, and Embiid has yet to play a full season.
Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets and Karl-Anthony Towns of the Minnesota Timberwolves are part of the unicorn club too.
Last year Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Milwaukee Bucks’ seven-foot power-forward-turned-point-guard became the first player ever to finish in the top-20 in total points, rebounds, blocks, steals and assists and just the fifth player to lead his team across those categories as he set career highs in points (22.9), rebounds (8.8), assists (5.4), steals (1.6) and blocks (1.9).
Through the season’s first month all he’s done is set out to obliterate his previous standards, as he staking out his claim as the NBA’s early-season MVP by averaging 30.6 points, 10.0 rebounds, 1.9 steals and 1.9 blocks with 4.6 assists. He’s not a significant threat from three, but he does shoot 57.8 per cent from the floor, a preposterous number for a perimeter player. As a result, he’s on pace to challenge Michael Jordan’s modern-era player efficiency rating record of 31.7 set in 1987-88.
The best part for NBA fans is not only that the revolution is digitized and endlessly consumable, but those at the forefront of it are all 25-and-under.
Which means that at 22 years old and in just his third NBA season, it’s conceivable that Porzingis will be in the league long enough to come across another player who can surpass what he can do at his height.
Just don’t bet on it.
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