New York Knicks young star forward Kristaps Porzingis has the desire to play, but it would be in the franchise's best interest to rest him over the final games of this season.
As the New York Knicks continue to play lackluster basketball in hopes of bolstering their NBA draft lottery position it would be ideal to rest their "unicorn" superstar, Kristaps Porzingis.
Porzingis has missed several games already this season with Achilles issues and most recently a slight thigh contusion during a home matchup with the Indiana Pacers.
The second-year standout is determined to play the remaining games of this season's schedule regardless of what many fans or skeptics may think.
It becomes increasingly dangerous for the Knicks to play their most prized player in meaningless games that they are better off losing.
In an effort to alleviate some of that responsibility head coach Jeff Hornacek announced to the team plans on shortening veteran players' minutes giving young players a chance to showcase their talent this season.
Carmelo Anthony, the team's captain, gave his thoughts to reporters regarding the minutes restrictions.
"I've come to grips with that, I'm at peace with that. I'm not happy about it. I'm not satisfied about it. But I'm at peace with it. My role is not going to change as far as mentoring and helping guys out, When I'm out there, I'll play, when I'm not I'll be helping everybody else. I don't think my role is going to change. I'll still come in here, get my work done and go from there."
Anthony, who has been the topic of trade speculation the entire season, has served as a mentor to Porzingis since his rookie season. They continue to share the same opinion about the resting suggestions and all-around play of the team during this disappointing season.
Porzingis was very honest in his feelings towards the team this year in a recent interview.
"I think it was pretty easy to tell from the inside that we're not that good of a team, We can win games based off of our talent but that's not going to last long and that's exactly what happened. Of course, we all expected big things out of this year, But from the beginning it didn't feel like…I felt like we would make good runs but we weren't there at that level yet where we wanted to be. And you can see it now we're not where we wanted to be."
The Knicks have continued their losing ways regardless of who is in the lineup as they are winless on their current West Coast trip. The most recent matchup with the Utah Jazz saw a variety of combinations on the court for the Knicks as they continue to moderately "rest" veteran players.
Porzingis was once again in foul trouble, leading to extra time on the bench in the team's 108-101 loss.
Listen to @kporzee inside the locker room after #NYKvsUTA. #Knicks pic.twitter.com/PcohkVidJR
— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) March 23, 2017
It's admirable that Porzingis wishes to play, but he needs to think about the long game and plans for next year. An amazing crop of young talent is poised to enter the NBA draft this year as the Knicks continue their "tanking" descent for a high value selection.
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