Kristaps Porzingis Is the Key to the Wizards’ Playoff Hunt

The Latvian 7-footer is enjoying arguably the best—and healthiest—season of his career. Washington needs all it can get from him to make a postseason push.

With the Wizards on the fringes of the Eastern Conference playoff hunt in the final weeks of the regular season, the club will gladly take all the contributions it can get the rest of the way, especially as it navigates one of the NBA’s most challenging schedules over that span.

That’s where Kristaps Porziņģis, the quietly improved star, comes in. At least that’s Washington’s hope, given his track record of injuries, and the team’s standing.

The Latvian hasn’t often played late into the season. He’s been involved in just two playoff series—one in 2021, and one in the ’20 bubble, in which he missed half the games. Putting postseason aside, Porziņģis has played in just 15 April regular-season games in his entire career—something explained by both the pandemic abruptly shutting things down three years ago, but also by his injuries, which have hampered his ability to make it through full seasons.

But Porziņģis, enjoying arguably the healthiest season of his eight-year career after shedding a bit of weight over the summer, is looking to make these last few weeks count. And to this point, he’s already done his part to keep the Wizards in postseason contention. Aside from the good health, he’s averaging a career-best 22.9 points per night on career-high efficiency (55.6% effective field-goal rate), all while providing some of the best rim protection in the NBA, holding opponents more than 11 percentage points beneath their averages when shooting near the basket. Porziņģis has also shown more strength and ability to play through contact, generating a whopping 46 three-point play opportunities for himself this season. For context, his personal best before this year was just 29 such plays, per Basketball Reference.

The timing of all this couldn’t be better for the 27-year-old. While he’s due to earn $36 million next year—in the final season of his five-year, $158 million contract—he can exercise the opt-out in his deal at the conclusion of this campaign. The combination of his shooting ability (he’s at 37% from three this season on 5.5 attempts per night) and his shot deterrence at the rim would likely appeal to several teams, even with the injury questions that gave clubs pause earlier in his career.

That Dallas was ready to move on from him in the middle of last season—as superstar Luka Dončić prepares to enter his prime—was telling. Between the injuries and the occasional disappearing acts in big moments, the Mavs simply weren’t sold on him being the right costar for that situation, and opted for more roster flexibility from Porziņģis’s maximum-salary slot.

The disappearances still crop up at times, as Porziņģis has never really been one to demand the ball. Even last week, in a two-point loss to Atlanta where he finished with a career-high 43 points, Porziņģis barely saw the ball as that contest wound to a close. Bradley Beal, among the NBA’s best clutch performers, controlled the rock and took most of the shot attempts throughout the majority of clutch time in that game—even though Porziņģis finished the game hitting each of his last six tries.

The 7'3" center still goes hot and cold at times, too. After being one of the league’s best players in February—logging 57/50/92 shooting splits for the month while averaging a season-high 26.7 points—he struggled badly against shorter defensive stalwart P.J. Tucker on Sunday in perhaps his least impactful game of the season. (He’s long had a reputation as someone who struggles—and often gets shots blocked—against far smaller defenders.) He then followed that 4-for-15 performance with a 5-for-15 showing Tuesday against the lowly Pistons.

Perhaps the most dependable aspect of Porziņģis’s game—more than perimeter shooting, or even his rim protection at times—is his ability to find good looks in the post. Despite post play being a challenge for him early in his career, when he was thinner, Porziņģis has become one of the NBA’s most efficient post-up players as a Wizard. After shooting 49% on post-up situations in his time with Washington last season, he’s up to 58% on 143 attempts this season. On the year, Porziņģis is scoring .23 points per shot more than expected on those looks, per Synergy Sports, the NBA’s third-best rate, trailing only DeMar DeRozan and Christian Wood. Two-time reigning MVP Nikola Jokić and Dončić rank fourth and fifth in the league, respectively, in that regard among players with 100 post-ups this season.

It may all turn out to be quite fitting: the 10th-place Wizards with their backs against the wall, trusting their star-level big man to help get them into the play-in—and playoffs—with his dominant, back-to-the-basket play.