When Dirk Met Kristaps, Or A Look Into The Future Of The NBA

In the end they embraced, the pioneer and the player who is his modern progression, sharing a hug at midcourt that only tightened the connective tissue between them. Dirk Nowitzki, at 37, is still strikingly productive for the Mavericks even in the winter of a career spent repurposing a position. Kristaps Porzingis, 20, the next in line among European prodigies, is already blossoming as a rookie for the Knicks. Their relationship to each other had already been magnified.

For days the New York media had frothily juxtaposed Porzingis with Nowitzki, lining him up as his spiritual successor. The two were so seemingly similar, after all: strikingly tall, long-limbed, and dynamic outside shooters from the other side of the Atlantic. The comparison was so easy to make that it hardly mattered how thoroughly it missed the point.

The coalescence of Nowitzki and Porzingis on one court wasn't about bridging generations, but about seeing two plot points on the evolutionary curve of basketball. Nowitzki revolutionized what power forwards could do, and applied sweet-shooting grace to a formerly brutish position. Porzingis represents where the NBA is trending—with shooting a prerequisite at every spot and marksmen growing bigger and centers more skilled. Watching them play, what was most striking was not how similar or different they were, but how much the NBA has changed over Nowitzki's 17 years, and how much Nowitzki did to change it.

"When (Nowitzki) came into the league there was no guy who was the quintessential stretch power forward," Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. "He has redefined that position… There are now a generation of players in the last 10 years coming through and taking his example and you very infrequently see power forward types that don't shoot the ball well. I'm sure Porzingis watched Dirk when he was a much younger kid and followed that example. Dirk's impact on the whole state of the game is undeniable."

Before Dirk, no one that large had been such a weapon and been more than the occasional spot-up shooter. Arvydas Sabonis didn't reach the NBA in his prime. Larry Bird was a small forward. Nowitzki changed the archetype. He was a seven-footer who shot threes with regularity; Derek Fisher, now the Knicks coach but a peer of Nowitzki's generation, said he "destroyed" gameplans. How could a team defend someone so large who could shoot from beyond the three-point line and drive by slower power forwards? It's not a rhetorical question, but it's not one any team ever quite answered where Dirk was concerned.

There were others like him who followed, none as good or as durable. Some completely misplaced—always remember Nikoloz Tskitishvili. It was an inflection point for basketball.

"The game evolved," Nowitzki said. "When I first got in the league there was a lot of one-on-one, a lot of pounding. Some power forwards would dribble the ball five, six times until they were under the basket and pump fake and get fouled or something. When they started building in the zone [defense] that's when the game started changing. A lot of five guys now are able to move a little bit and shoot from like 15-16 feet."

Porzingis has arrived at another moment of change, as lineups have skewed smaller in hopes of maximizing offense. Porzingis, at 7-3, is at his best a center. He has shown some of Nowitzki's skills, and has a larger frame that is not yet fully filled out. Monday night, he took a dribble-handoff and drove to the basket. He has flashed a fade-away jumper. On pick and rolls, he can drive to the rim as the finisher or pop outside for threes. Against the Mavericks, he hit two significant ones. He is averaging one triple per game and is on pace for more than 100 attempts this year, which would make him just the fourth player ever to take that many at his size. All but Sabonis did it in the last three years.

Here is where Nowitzki's influence shines brightest. Stretch centers are the next wave but they won't be plodding or pillars. They will be athletic. They will be like Porzingis or Karl-Anthony Towns or Anthony Davis—super-sized, super-skilled, and fully capable of shooting from anywhere.

"Obviously people are going to compare him to Dirk because that's what everybody likes to do is compare," Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said of Porzingis. "But he's 7-foot-3. Those three inches make a difference."

Nowitzki sees the trend-lines too. He's already impressed with Porzingis. At the same age, he insists he "was scared to death" playing in the NBA. Porzingis is averaging 14.6 points per game and 8.9 rebounds. He's captured New York City.

He is also more defensively dangerous. Though he often looked out of sync on Monday, Porzingis is a viable shot-blocker and rim-protector. In one stretch late in the fourth quarter against the Mavericks, he hit a corner three, then blocked Deron Williams' floater in the midst of a Knicks run. That is a trait Nowitzki never had.

"He's way better than I was at 20," Nowitzki said. "He's tall, he's long, he can shoot, he can put it on the floor. I used to be able to put it on the floor a little bit—those days are long gone."

That's an exaggeration, of course. Nowitzki is much older now but still efficient and productive. He is still averaging 18 points per game and is 18th in the NBA in PER.

Playing against his idol, Porzingis was awed by how wily Nowitzki is. "He's so smart," he said. "When you just watch him play and how he tricks the opposite player."

The associations between the two will likely persist. Once comparisons like this get made, they tend to keep getting made. But Porzingis isn't playing in Nowitzki's shadow, and he could eventually build on what Nowitzki has wrought. The NBA is getting bigger, faster, and ever more stocked with shooters. Nowitzki and Porzingis will be tethered together because the contrasts between them show how the game is progressing. There is less room for the Cro Magnon power forward; the center position is already evolving before our eyes. Every Porzingis highlight moves it one step forward.

"This kid has a chance to forge out his own niche," Carlisle said. "He really has some unusually great abilities."