KJ is the Rocket's 4th leading scorer despite only getting 17 minutes a game. Plus he is by far the defensive guard on the team (with Beverly out). He definitely has earned more minutes.
I hope he finds his shot with D'Antoni's confidence. Often times they are connected. A whole new world of offense will open up for him If he ever starts drilling threes consistently. You can tell he is still learning on the fly with every single minute he plays, but his natural ability is helping. The Harden/Gordon/Ariza/KJ squad is unreal If Ariza and KJ can both hit threes.
Knew this would be one of our best lineups. If your going to switch everything this is the type of lineup that can do it. If we're going to sneak Harrell in at C for some minutes his is the lineup to do it. KJ should be getting 30 minutes a game, playing with Harden as much as possible. Ariza is our best backup PF at the moment. Ennis should only play when Harden is sitting they need to get away from Ennis playing with Harden in the 2nd quarter even if Ennis plays well, those should be KJ minutes.
One thing I they will need to do this year is have a deeper rotation. This is not a crew that you can roll with 8 players. With the faster pace and more motion means our guys need to stay fresh. And other than Harden our players have weakness (injuries, O only, no J, no D, etc) that teams will adjust to. Rotating the players keeps them fresh and switches up one person's weakness for another person's strength which keeps the opposing team's D in constant flux which is hard to do.
Yes that line up was great and will be great when the match ups are right. Dirk was out so barns was playing a lot of 4, and Anderson just can't gard him. So last night it just made sense to put ariza on him. The answer, long term, is we have to get Anderson going, cause ariza at the 4 will get us killed if he plays there too much against other teams. It's still just 2 games in but I'd like to see MD put in some different plays for Anderson to try to get him open. But credit MD for this win. He out coched RC. Great timeouts, great substitutions (sitting brewer / Anderson; putting in nene for hack a, trusting KJ), and calling sweet inbounds plays.
The KJ McDaniels is inconsistent and can't be trusted narrative is getting old. He's made some athletic plays and played within his limits everytime he's been given minutes. His 3 point shot while still needing improvement looks better than Brewer, Dekker, or Ennis's at the moment. I think people judge him too much from trying to be a main option in garbage time or summer league, that's not his game. He's a role player and may be our most consistent one in terms of knowing what you are going to get out of him.
KJ is doing awesome. Brewers minutes need to go to him and reliable PG. Ennis is junk too. Ryno also shouldn't play too many mins, no D and bad rebounding. 25-30mpg max. Dekker is doing solid. Curious to see Sunday's game given how good Carlisle is at readjusting.
The day is approaching quickly with his shitty play. Mike D won't be able to tolerate his bad play much longer.
That's a good one. Bleacher Report thought he'd be Wilson Chandler, another player I'd love to have on our team... http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2101869-kj-mcdaniels-pro-player-comparison
He won't be ready when we sign him even if he stays in great shape. He still has to play into game shape, he still needs to learn MDA's system, and he still needs to learn how to play with all his new teammates. That's going to take several months at best and that's assuming D'antoni gives him lots of run immediately.
Not a bad comparison but Wallace had better scoring instincts though with a limited range. KJ's offensive and defensive game isn't in par with wallace's but I seem to recall Wallace was a bit of a late bloomer anyway so maybe there is still hope for KJ. I like the Marion references even more - would love for him to develop that sort of defensive versatility.
