Kristaps Porzingis: Future NBA Most Valuable Player?

After establishing himself as one of the NBA’s most dynamic players, Kristaps Porzingis has the attitude and work ethic to become one of the league’s best.

The Unicorn. It’s often a nickname that gets tossed around whenever people talk about Kristaps Porzingis. After all, it’s not every day you see a guy with the kind of fluidity on the court Porzingis has, especially at 7’3″. With the New York Knicks seemingly embracing a rebuild—expected to be around Porzingis—it’s fun to speculate how good this man can be.

A while back, Bill Simmons of The Ringer (formerly of ESPN) wrote an article labeling the NBA’s unicorns or players that do things we’ve never seen before. Porzingis is joined on that list by Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid.

It’s easy to look at the Greek Freak and see MVP potential all over him; after all he is nicknamed the Greek Freak. Embiid was also phenomenal in the brief number of games he appeared in this season and has set the bar pretty high for both himself and his Philadelphia 76ers.

On that note, this year’s NBA season has been one of the most exciting of the past decade, and the MVP race is a reason why. Both Russell Westbrook and James Harden (and, to an extent, Kawhi Leonard and LeBron James) are having stellar, MVP-caliber seasons.

The History of the MVP

With all this talk surrounding the two (fine, four) player MVP race, I decided to crunch some numbers and take a look at the statistics of the MVP winners of the past decade.

For starters here are your winners: LeBron James (4), Stephen Curry (2), Kevin Durant (1), Derrick Rose (1), Kobe Bryant (1), and Dirk Nowitzki (1).

Right off the bat, by position, the MVP has gone to a point guard or small forward 80 percent of the time. That’s a clear sign of the small-ball style NBA we are currently seeing, especially if you consider that, in the 10 years before that big men Shaquille O’Neal, Karl Malone, Kevin Garnett, and Tim Duncan scooped up 60 percent of the awards.

Crunching the Numbers

I decided to take the statistics of the previous NBA MVP Candidates and see what the average MVP season would look like. Turns out that is 26.8 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 6.4 assists per game, and 16.9 Win Shares. The thing is: only four players in NBA history have ever put up seasons like the one above.

Add in shooting lines of .499/.384/.837, and you have Steph Curry as the only NBA player in history to put up an average MVP season (he did win the MVP, too).

It may be unrealistic to expect Porzingis to do something on that level, but based on his per 36 numbers as a No. 2 option, he could hit the minimum numbers each MVP has posted as a No. 1.

If the Knicks can truly build around their Unicorn as a No. 1 option, then it’s realistic to believe Porzingis could put up MVP-caliber numbers.

KP is in a unique situation as a possible do-it-all power forward/center that we’ve never seen before. After all, Porzingis became just the 13th player in NBA history to record at least 100 blocks and 100 3-point field goals made in the same season.

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Fans have seen glimpses of what The Unicorn is capable of, and given that the average age of the MVP over the past decade is 26, Kristaps Porzingis has some time to grow.

Either way, the New York Knicks are in good hands.