Some Dallas Mavericks fans have either forgotten or were never fully aware of how good Kristaps Porzingis was before his recent ACL injury forced him to sit out all of last season. That 2017-2018 season, there was a stretch where Porzingis was a legitimate MVP candidate.
He came out of the gates absolutely scorching. Excluding a game in which Porzingis only played two minutes, the Latvian big averaged 27 PPG, 7 RPG, and 2.3 BLK in his first 22 games. This was for a New York Knicks team that no longer featured Carmelo Anthony.