After two tumultuous stints in New York and Dallas, Kristaps Porzingis is getting ready to face a new challenge in Washington D.C. Following a trade from the Dallas Mavericks, the Latvian big man has a new team, where he’ll try to show all his quality and help this struggling team make it to the playoffs.
His partnership with Luka Doncic didn’t work, but he’s ready to move on and start this new chapter in his career. The player recently talked about what we can expect from him in the Wizards, stating that he’s yet to show his best version.
Kristaps is still young and believes he can turn things around. If he’s able to recover his best form, the Wizards will be dangerous in the Eastern Conference.
“I don’t think we have seen [the best version of me] yet,” Porzingis said. “I’m 26 years old, and it’s been a roller coaster. There’s an injury, you’re out of rhythm so you have to get your rhythm back and conditioning. I think this is the perfect situation for me to finish out this season strong, get in a good rhythm, hopefully make some noise as a team. I’ve put in a lot of hours to be great and I feel like this is the right place for me to get to that next level.”
He also talked about his new partnership with Bradley Beal, claiming that they will do a lot of damage once they’re together on the court.
“[Beal’s] incredible. He’s one of those guys that takes a lot of attention away from everybody else in a good way,” Porzingis told NBCSW’s Chris Miller. “I also look forward to doing that, coming in here, taking the attention away so other guys can free up and shoot, and create for my teammates. Playing with Brad, I think it’s going to be extremely fun. He’s dynamic, he knows the game, he has a lot of experience in the playoffs and I think the sooner we were able to get on [the floor], even if it’s practice floor together and start talking and start getting a feel for each other, the better off we’ll be.”
He never clicked with the Mavericks and ultimately was dealt to Washington ahead of the trade deadline. Now it’s time to see if he can lead the Wizards to the postseason after another failed stint in Dallas. Porzingis is ready to make a statement and the league should be on notice after he made this claim.
