Why Celtics should hit the panic button on Kristaps Porzingis

After consecutive seasons of losing in the conference and NBA Finals, the Boston Celtics made a seismic shift in their roster construction in June, trading for Kristaps Porzingis and dumping Marcus Smart.

However, the injury-prone 7-foot-3 center is already bringing injury baggage to his new organization. 

Per Chris Haynes of TNT, "Porzingis will go through four to six weeks of rehab for plantar fasciitis and is expected is be cleared for the start of training camp."

The Celtics' front office apparently isn't too concerned. 

"Though the 7-foot-3 sharpshooter indicated he's not fully ready for competition at this point and determined it was necessary to continue the recovery process, a Celtics source reached later Tuesday downplayed any concern over the issues," The Athletic's Jay King and Josh Robbins reported.

Based on Porzingis' extensive injury history, Boston would be negligent and careless if it didn't have concerns over his availability. 

During his 10-year career, Porzingis has played in 66 or more regular-season games only twice — the first seasons of his career (2015-17) with the New York Knicks. 

Last season with Washington, he played in 65 regular-season games, the first time he's played in over 60 regular-season games since his second season in New York. That season, he averaged a career-high 23.2 points, 8.4 rebounds and 2.7 assists and had a shooting split of 49.8/38.5/85.1.

Porzingis' 10-game playoff résumé is dreadful. In the 2020-21 playoffs with the Dallas Mavericks, he averaged 13.1 points and 5.4 rebounds in 33.3 minutes per game and shot 47.2 percent from the field and 29.6 percent from beyond the arc.

The Celtics and their fans have high expectations for Porzingis, but this Boston era could be a disaster.