Two giants see a basketball for the first time.

Yesterday, Jahlil Okafor and Kristaps Porzingis faced off in a close game where neither of them were on the court for the two overtimes. Krispy Zingers rolled his ankle, while Jah stayed on the bench as Brett Brown rode a hot lineup. But if things went differently a few months ago, they could have been on opposite benches.

As Porzingis-fever sweeps MSG, Marc Berman wrote in the New York Post that things could have gone differently… if Sixers ownership didn’t have their way:

Sources have indicated Philly ownership was gung-ho to take one of the Big 3 — Karl-Anthony Towns, Jahlil Okafor or D’Angelo Russell — because taking another unknown European project may not have sat well with a disenchanted fan base.

As The Post has reported, Knicks president Phil Jackson would have done the same thing as Sixers GM Sam Hinkie — chosen Okafor over Porzingis. According to a source, the Knicks were still concerned about Okafor’s “defense, lack of shot-blocking ability and poor lateral speed,” but still had him higher on the board than Porzingis.

Now, that makes a bunch of assumptions. The first being that Hinkie actually wanted Porzingis, and wanted him badly enough to pass up on what was seen as a relatively sure thing in Okafor. But if he did, and ownership put the kibosh on Krispy Porkchop because they were afraid how fans would react, that’s a problem. (For what it’s worth, we see now that Nerlens Noel consistently plays better at the center position, and Zinger is a 7’3″ sweet-shooting power forward. But hindsight, etc.)

But it’s only been a half season for both of these guys. How do they project in the long-term? FiveThirtyEight tried to figure out that exact thing using their CARMELO projection system (more here). Here’s how Okafor and ‘Staps stack up, with some pretty big caveats:

okafor melo

zinger melo

Now, the caveats: Those numbers are projected off of Okafor’s college stats, adjusted for a pro season. And Krispy’s stats are from his first 25 games, extrapolated over a full NBA season. So small sample size acting like a large one. Both of these players will likely have long and productive careers, with Porzingis safely projecting to be better than an also pretty-good Okafor. But pure ability is not the issue. The issue is really fit. And Derek Bodner sums it up nicely:

A lot has been said about the neutering of Hinkie after the Sixers hired Colangelo, but maybe he was being snipped long before Daddy Colangelo came to town (or FaceTimed into town on his iPad).