There should be a label on Kristaps Porzingis’ uniform that reads “Handle with Care.” The future of the franchise deserves nothing less.
And so on a Monday night in the first week of 2017 the Knicks wisely held Porzingis out for a second game in three days after he complained of left Achilles soreness. You don’t fool around with that condition.
It was a generation ago when an Achilles injury to Patrick Ewing ruined the Knicks championship dreams, so it’s always smart to err on the side of caution.
Porzingis did report improvement with his left leg and both he and the Knicks are optimistic that the second-year forward will return for Wednesday’s game against the improving Milwaukee Bucks and the sensational Giannis Antetokounmpo. That’s one of 17 January games for the Knicks. They need everyone, particularly Porzingis, at their best.
The mistake, however, would be for the Knicks to overact by reducing Porzingis’ workload. It’s a trending topic in the NBA but certainly not the solution to prolonging a career and keeping every player healthy.
If you’re that concerned you may as well just place your stars in bubble wrap. Or become the Philadelphia 76ers.
On Monday, the Minutes Police were interrogating Jeff Hornacek about the playing time of Carmelo Anthony, Derrick Rose and Porzingis. Considering their age and injury history, Carmelo and Rose fall under a different category. Their minutes should be monitored closely.
But when it comes to Porzingis, the Knicks head coach has a different idea.
“I don’t know if you’ve sat through these timeouts,” he said. “These timeouts are like five minutes long. I don’t think they should be tired. You should be able to play 35 minutes a game with the amount of timeouts and the length of timeouts.”
Porzingis is averaging a team-high 34.8 minutes. He’s also 21 years old. Does reducing his playing time to, say, 30 minutes a night guarantee a long and prosperous NBA career?
The idea is to play your best players the most minutes, not less. It’s a crazy concept indeed.
While everyone points to the San Antonio Spurs and Gregg Popovich as the pioneers in resting players, they conveniently fail to mention that Tim Duncan, as a 21-year-old rookie, played 39.1 minutes a night. By the time Duncan was 25 he was averaging 40.6 minutes per game.
Duncan, who retired last season at the ripe old age of 39, didn’t average fewer than 30 minutes a game until he was 34 years old.
Karl Malone, Hornacek’s Hall of Fame teammate with the Utah Jazz, averaged 37.2 minutes a game…for his career.
And the league was much more physical in the ’90s.
“I want to play as many minutes as I can,” Porzingis said prior to Monday’s game against the Orlando Magic.
The resting debate was renewed last month when LeBron James, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving didn’t get on plane with their teammates to Memphis. It was the second night of a back-to-back and the Cavs took the controversial position to not even send their three best players. Last week, LeBron did travel to Detroit the day after Cleveland defeated Golden State on Christmas, but he still sat out the loss to the Pistons.
What the Cavs did to the paying customers in Memphis is flat out wrong. It sets a bad precedent.
LeBron, however, is a unique case. He turned 32 on Dec. 30 and is approaching 40,000 career minutes. And that doesn’t include the 199 career playoff games, 8,383 postseason minutes and six straight trips to the NBA Finals.
By comparison, Michael Jordan appeared in 179 playoff games. Carmelo has 66 playoff games on his resume.
Considering LeBron will be booked in April, May and June we know why the Cavs are thinking big picture. The Knicks are doing the same with Porzingis. That’s why he sat out Monday with a legitimate injury.
But cutting his minutes?
No chance.
There’s a difference between “Handle with Care” and “Fragile.”
