MIAMI _ Kristaps Porzingis believes he should be an All-Star this season.
Porzingis said even if he's not voted a starter for the Eastern Conference All-Star Game next month, he feels the coaches will pick him as a reserve.
"I believe so," Porzingis said following Friday's shootaround. "I think with all the different things that I've seen this season from coaches, the double teams and all that, I do believe the coaches are paying a lot of attention to me. Hopefully in their eyes I deserve to get that spot."
Porzingis is currently fourth among East frontcourt players in the fan voting behind Giannis Antetokounmpo, LeBron James and Joel Embiid. The top three vote-getters are starters. But the fans account for 50 percent of the vote, while NBA players and a media panel account for 25 percent each.
Helping the Knicks make the postseason for the first time in his career is a goal of Porzingis, the team's leading scorer with 23.8 points per game. But making the All-Star team is one of his main individual goals.
"Very important," he said. "It's a dream of mine to be an All-Star. Since I got to the NBA that's something I want to achieve individually, but also realizing that's not how you want to be remembered _ only as a good individual player.
"All of that will come with winning. If we win we're all going to look good and I'm sure I'm going to be an All-Star."
Porzingis has struggled lately and made a surprising admission following the Knicks' loss in Washington Wednesday.
He said he is "so tired," which raised questions about whether he is ready to handle the grind of being the Knicks' franchise player for a full season. After the shootaround, Porzingis said it was because he just finished a back-to-back, and joked that it was a strategy to throw off the Heat, the Knicks' opponent Friday.
"After playing a back-to-back everybody feels tired. If you don't feel that you didn't play hard," Porzingis said. "It doesn't matter. We had a day in between. It was actually a strategy to make the Miami Heat relax a little bit, like, 'Oh he's tired.' That's why I did it. I feel good today. Don't tell them that."
