Mavs big man Kristaps Porzingis is not making any excuses for his inconsistent play through the early stages of this season.
Porzingis is recognized as one of the best big men in today's NBA, but the 7-foot-3 Unicorn is still trying to find his rhythm after missing all of last season with a torn ACL. He knows he has struggled a bit in his first season with the Mavs:
“I'm trying to get there, trying to get there,” Porzingis told ESPN after finishing with 15 points on 4-of-13 shooting in the loss, failing to punish the Clippers for all the attention they paid Doncic. “We're trying to figure out how to get there. It's not consistent for myself. I'm trying to find ways where we can have a more or less consistent way of playing.”
Porzingis' marks from the field aren't all that bad, but he feels like he isn't shooting the ball that well:
“It's very random a lot of times, where my shots come from,” Porzingis said. “And I don't wanna [make excuses]. I haven't been shooting the ball that well. I haven't been playing as well as I want to. But it's something that I've got to figure out, do the best that I can, and also us as a group, we've got to figure out how to make sure everybody's comfortable. It's not only myself. It's everybody a little bit.”
In his 16 appearances with the Mavs this season, Porzingis has racked up averages of 18.3 points on 41.0 percent shooting from the field (37.0 percent from beyond the arc), 9.2 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 2.1 blocks in 31.2 minutes per outing.
Those numbers aren't terrible, but they are down from his marks in previous seasons. In fact, the Latvian-born star has never been below 42 percent from the field. His free-throw percentage is down as well, as he's currently sitting at 69.2 percent from the stripe.
The 2019-20 season is still young, which leaves Porzingis a lot of time to live up to his maximum-level contract as he finds his groove. Let's see if he steps his game up as this campaign rolls on.
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