Pick-and-pops with Kristaps Porzingis are unguardable

We have never seen a player who can do everything that Kristaps Porzingis can do on a basketball court. He’s got the outside shooting touch of Dirk Nowitzki while being three inches taller and infinitely more mobile. He’s got the rim protection prowess of a young Serge Ibaka. He’s a once-in-a-generation star around whom a team can build.

While the New York Knicks have made some puzzling moves in the last year and change since drafting Porzingis, he’s still a key part of their game on both ends of the floor and remains the future of the franchise. Offensively, the Knicks are running a lot of pick-and-pops with him at the top of the key, which allows him to shoot over oncoming defenders or put the ball on the floor if they’re too eager in getting out to him. Pick-and-pops can be Porzingis’ bread and butter for his whole career because he’ll always be able to put pressure on a defense with his outside shooting ability.

Porzingis’ incredible height and high release point allow him to completely ignore defenders who are right in front of him. More than once a game, you’ll see him catch the ball with his defender within touching distance, and as soon as that defender crouches into his stance, Porzingis is rising and firing.

The first pick-and-pop doesn’t work as Brandon Jennings’ pass is a little off target, so Porzingis takes a few dribbles, hands it back to Jennings, and runs the same thing again with him. The second time, the pass is right on the money, Frank Kaminsky settles down into his defensive stance, and Porzingis drains the 3-pointer. Kaminsky has to respect Porzingis’ ability to drive past him, which gives him all the daylight he needs to rise up.

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This pick-and-pop puts an incredible strain on the defense, as they’re always one man short on the defensive end. With Jennings or Derrick Rose coming around one of Porzingis’ screens, the defense is forced to collapse in one way or another to stop the open layup, but this leaves no good options for the rest of the team.

Watch Jeremy Lamb at the top of the screen in the clip below:

Rose works the screen with Porzingis at the top of the key, moving back and forth to ensure that Kaminsky will have to help onto him when he does drive to the rim. As soon as Rose finds his opening and goes left, Lamb is helpless on the back side — either he sells out to Porzingis and leaves Courtney Lee wide open in the corner, or he stays home and Porzingis gets his shot. You can see him step toward Porzingis and then realize that he has to stop the short corner 3. Kemba Walker does a great job trying to get back out to Porzingis, but with a 14-inch height disadvantage, Walker would need Zach LaVine’s jumping ability to really contest the shot.

Porzingis has the catch-and-shoot in his arsenal and if he never developed past being an efficient shooter and rim protector, he’d still be one of the best role players in the league. What separates Porzingis from a guy like Ibaka is his capability to get his own shot off the dribble.

Sasha Vujacic goes away from the Porzingis screen, taking DeMarcus Cousins with him. Darren Collison correctly rotates over to Porzingis to stop the quick pick-and-pop, but when Vujacic keeps his dribble alive underneath the basket, Collison has to get back over to his man, leaving Porzingis wide open on the wing. Cousins runs him off the line, so he takes one dribble toward the basket and knocks down the mid-range jumper. There are a lot of things that Porzingis shouldn’t be able to do at his height and this ranks up there. He’s so smooth off the dribble that if you didn’t know any better, you’d think he was 6-foot-3, not 7-foot-3.

Speaking of things that just shouldn’t be possible:

What the heck? How come the 7-foot-3 guy who can shoot 3-pointers also gets a killer crossover? Isn’t it enough that he can stretch the floor, take one-dribble pull-up jumpers, and protect the rim on the other end? These plays are why Kevin Durant calls Porzingis a unicorn — nobody in NBA history has been able to do things like this at his height.

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The Knicks have a bonafide superstar in the making in Porzingis and as his game develops, he’ll have more arrows in his quiver to throw at opponents and keep them off guard. He’s already a fantastic pick-and-pop threat who bends the defense in ways that we’ve rarely seen from a big man, but the pick-and-pop is becoming more popular with each passing year and young bigs like Porzingis are learning to shoot before they’re learning the traditional back-to-the-basket post moves of their forefathers, leading to a more open game that puts pressure on the defense in a different fashion.

Between Porzingis, Joel Embiid, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Myles Turner, we’re witnessing the rise of a new golden age of big men.