How Kristaps Porzingis has taken New York by storm

When it follows a 17-win season, a 4-5 record can actually be encouraging. But nothing about the New York Knicks' surprising start has been quite as exciting as the play of rookie big man Kristaps Porzingis.

Less than five months after children of New York were weeping at the sound of his name, Porzingis is winning over The Garden crowd with soaring putbacks, near-game-winners, and a swagger matched only by his robust rebound rate.

The Latvian youngster's early success shouldn't be all that surprising. After all, he's a top-five pick with pro experience at Europe's highest level, and boasted a scouting report that had Phil Jackson and other executives swooning.

But being a tall European who can shoot comes with its stereotypes. That perception of weakness, or softness, had New York basketball fans boisterously booing the selection of Porzingis in June, with a plethora of armchair GMs foolishly assuming he'd become the latest in a long line of Knick disappointments.

Knicks teammate Derrick Wiliams has heard the stereotypes, but immediately recognized Porzingis didn't fit that mold. "That's what you hear," Williams said about the "soft" perception surrounding European bigs. "But I don't think Kristaps is like that at all. From the first day, we all knew he could play."

Porzingis' sheer size is both intimidating and mesmerizing in person, as the only larger active player is reserve Spurs center Boban Marjanovic.

"You don't really know how tall he is until you stand next to him," Williams said. "When (players) list themselves as 7-1 or 7-2, they're not necessarily that tall. But he's really a legit 7-2."

For what it's worth, Porzingis is actually 7-foot-3 and, as Williams notes, has experience going up against grown men while most American bigs his age were matching up with teenagers.

No one's pushing the 20-year-old around, and his relentless pursuit of rebounds is a sight to behold. Through the season's first two weeks, Porzingis ranks in the top six in offensive rebound rate (14.2 percent) and the top 15 in total rebounding (19.5 percent).

Defensively, the Knicks are nearly 12 points per 100 possessions stingier with Porzingis on the court, according to NBA.com, and while he's committed more fouls than anyone in the league, New York has defended at a top-five rate with the rookie on the floor compared to a bottom-five rate when he's on the bench.

Porzingis hasn't yet found his shot, knocking down only five of his 24 3-point attempts, but the stroke is there, and his offensive repertoire had Raptors coach Dwane Casey reminiscing about Dirk Nowitzki (who Casey coached in Dallas) before Tuesday's Knicks-Raptors meeting in Toronto.

"He's going to be a force to be reckoned with in this league for a long time," Casey said.

Porzingis' own coach has been equally impressed by how quickly the youngster has adapted on the fly. "When he makes mistakes, you can show it to him or talk to him about it and he's able to make pretty quick adjustments," Derek Fisher said. "That's a good sign for a young player. He understands the game enough to quickly adjust and do some things better."

The Knicks don't need Porzingis to be Nowitzki, an obvious first-ballot Hall of Famer. For now, they should be content with his status as a New York star in the making.

For a success-starved fan base, who watched 65 painstaking losses last season and had gotten used to life without homegrown talent, it's all immensely exciting.

"He's going to be a good player," Williams predicted. "We're waiting to see how good he can really be."

So, too, are Knicks fans, and if the last two weeks are any indication, they're going to have a lot of fun finding out.