The NBA game is very different than it was even as few as 6 years ago.
People hating on Kris because he's a European are bonkers. This dude isn't Jimmer Freddete. He's an athletic beast who hits 7'3 in shoes. I would've preferred Mudiay, but lots of teams must not have liked his workouts if he fell all the way to 7. Looking at the tape, I can definitely see the Pau Gasol in Kristap's game. And he's only 19! Let him put on some weight over the next 2 years and the dude very well might ball. His defensive game will very likely come around-- all the scouting vids and workouts point out his lateral quickness, which is what stopped guys like Bargnani (and no, Kris isn't Bargs just cuz they're tall Euros) and STAT from being good defenders. My only fear is that Fish isn't good enough to mold Porz.
Love the Grant trade. THJr. wasn't gonna work out here and we needed a tough, defensive guard. With Galloway and Grant we might have some hounds on D in the backcourt.
Lots to still do, though. I like the David West rumors, and i'd love for the Knicks to sign Danny Green. Greg Monroe is almost an opposite Porzingis, all of his strengths and weaknesses are flip-flopped from what Porz is proposed to be like, so that'd be interesting too.
My only problem is that if the Knicks were gonna go for a 19 year old project, resigning Melo looks even worse. I don't have hate for Carmelo like a lot of other dudes but he's getting old and the younger, more athletic dudes are gonna dog him at the 3. The best case scenario would be that Porzingis can play the 5 (in a Draymond Green in platform shoes kinda role) while Melo plays the 4. Almost all the legitimate stats dudes say Melo is much better at the 4.
We'll see. Team is probably gonna be trash this upcoming season, but it's nice having some talented young kids to root for.
edit- Also, I think it's huge that Porz can speak good English. It kinda stops the media from hijacking the narrative around him-- one of the first things he said in his post-draft interview was poking at people laying hard on the "soft Euro" stereotype. Rooting hard for this kid, hope he's Pau Gasol 2.0.