Kristaps Porzingis had a woeful shooting start to EuroBasket.
There's really no two ways around it - shooting 0/13 from range across the first three games in international play isn't exactly what a player envisions before tipoff.
Despite his dreadful daybreak, Porzingis was able to flip the script throughout the remainder of his tenure with the Latvian squad this summer, but it wasn't his shooting that popped - while 10/23 is certainly an elite metric, it was a far cry from the method in which he truly dominated the game.
KP's 'break glass in case of emergency' option: playing inside-out
Kristaps Porzingis is a force to be reckoned with down low.
Fans tend to forget KP's interior dominance in recent years - and some players occasionally have the same folly of forgetfulness as well. This was certainly the case during a 4-game stretch where he shot a near-perfect 17/18 from inside the arc in EuroBasket. He dazzled in a variety of ways, using finesse that appears unnatural for a person of his size, while also using his strength and height to bully smaller defenders.
Across all six games, Porzingis shot 66.7% on non-3-point shot attempts - a metric that was able to salvage an otherwise sub-par 26.3% 3-point shot metric during the same six-game stretch. This ability to work the defense from the inside-out is a coveted skill in the league - a skill that former MVPs have often been able to fall back on in times of shot inconsistency.
Other elite centers that have the ability to space the defense, such as Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid, and Karl-Anthony Towns, sometimes fall flat from deep. Like Porzingis, they're able to recognize when the shot just isn't falling, and return to their dominant interior game.
For elite scoring big men, the outside shot simply needs to be good enough to be a threat defenses respect. It's often nothing more than a red herring for those who know where the most efficient looks are. Nikola Jokic's shot-fakes on top-of-the-key three pointers in recent years have been an absolute joy to watch (unless you're a Lakers fan), and Porzingis isn't too far behind the Serbian savant.
Hawks fans should be excited by the prospect of having not only a big man with creme de la creme floor-spacing capability, but also old-school, smashmouth post-scoring skills to get a tough basket when you need one.