KPJ's Turnovers

Hey, nice link, thanks.

I think 1 is classic young guy stuff and not terribly concerning in itself. It's one of those, "the game slows down," things–I think–and should improve a lot if he's dedicated. We've seen that often.

2 is why I find it hard to imagine KPJ can ever play PG. What you see as casual and not protecting the ball I see as "He's bad at dribbling." I mean, he's very left-dominant and even his left is loose. I predicted 8+ TO for our starting PG and I might have been underselling it. I'd like to be hopeful, but when can you remember a guy whose handle is loose for a SG improve to avg-for-PG?

Consider, Ariza, one of my all-time favs, is a very smart, hard-working, long-armed, athletic player who never developed a guard's ball-handling skill. You remember how painful it was when he (first) got to Houston and was forced to dribble a ton. He was terrible. And you know if Ariza dribbled and passed like an SG he'd have earned at least an extra $100 M in his career. I think ball-handling is similar to shooting in that you can improve, but it's almost always slow and incremental, and uphill.

I'd love to be wrong. I didn't see Chauncy Billups when he was in college or a rookie. He's the ultimate tweener-to-PG legend. I can't think of another example. Can you?

 

ball handling can be improved dramatically…see Harden, Kawhi, and PG who had no off the dribble game whatsoever when he was drafted and is now dropping off CP3 like an Uber Eats delivery





Decision making and BBIQ? That right there is another story. I can’t really think of many guys that magically developed high BBIQ

 

Do you mean that you can't think of any at all? I'd love to know your examples otherwise, because I definitely don't know of any that grew a brain.

 

He will definitely improve, if only because no one has ever been this bad for a full season. But some of his mistakes are just dumb, even for a 21 year old.

 

One thing that has been talked about, KPJ looks bigger than last year. Correspondingly the dribble is higher, so that’s sometching he needs to adjust to.
Also, he’s clearly pressing, the game hasn’t slowed down for him yet.
He has good vision, but the precision is waaaaay off. It’s up to him really, he needs to be more careful and more precise, that’s a matter of work, effort and concentration.

 

I have a few, but they’re probably a huge reach…Reggie Jackson for instance

his play in LA probably has a lot more to do with him not being asked to run the offense and just be a scorer/shooter off the bench than it does him just becoming a smarter player because if a team made him their PG running offense, he would likely revert back to foolishness

it’s hard to point to a good example

 

We should focus on making our offense a facilitating offense that doesn’t depend on one guy setting things up and being a floor general. Like GSW or the Spurs during the big E era. Or the rockets squad that won during the 90’s.

not every offense needs harden or cp3. our starting lineup basically have 4 out of 5 guys in the floor comfortable handling the rock as secondary ball handlers. We don’t necessarily need a primarily ball handler

 

I think KPJ would be most successful in a Denver-ish offense. We don’t need him to be CP3, when we have Sengun ready to control this offense.

 

basketball-reference.com

Kevin Porter Jr (3 games):
Game 1: 9 turnovers
Game 2: 2 turnovers
Game 3: 8 turnovers

Breakdown: (see Play-by-Play / Turnovers)
13 bad passes
4 lost balls

[19 total turnovers]
____________________
First month of new players getting together at the NBA level often make
mistakes. Should have zigged when they zagged instead. Happens.

next highest
Sengun 10 turnovers ( 6 bad passes, 2 lost balls)
next
5 turnovers: Green/Tate/Eric Gordon (each)

 

His passing style fits more of a Westbrook mold where he’s either looking to fit passes into tight windows, get easy dump offs, or transition passes..

I don’t think either of them fit the mold of a true set the offense of PG. they are seemingly looking for style points on their assists. He needs to grow out of that otherwise just be a scoring guard that can get dimes if the defense breaks down and you can kick to the open man. Nothing wrong with that.

 

These guys are really young so taking anything away right now isnt gonna do much imo. Gonna just have to get more games in.

 

Kawhi is a whole other world. That dude is a prodigy. Even in his rookie year, he was catching nutty Manu bounce passes one with hand on fast breaks, in stride.

PG13 is a really good example, a model for hope. My concern is that KPJ is 6'4" - hasn't he always been a guard? I would have thought he'd get there by now. The best trash-handle to (kinda) PG example I can think of is JJ Redick. He was a two-dribble guy in college–worst star SG dribble I can remember–and by his mid to late 20s he was good enough to fill in as an emergency PG and bring the ball up the floor against pressure.

I sure hope you're right. I want to be hopeful for KPJ.

Huge BBIQ increases you see all the time in bigs. But I think you're right, a lot less common for reckless guards to get under control.

 

Looking more and more like harden everyday

 

I wonder if you can get bball ref to search for progress stuff. Like find a player who increased from 15% assist rate to 25% or something - and TO% etc.

 

I am of the mind that we are hiding KJM, and to a lesser extent Sengun.

Gotta play EG/House/Theis so we can trade them for positive assets.

 

Everything KPJ does is difficult. His scoring is often difficult shots and his passing is difficult. He doesn’t make the game easier for himself currently. We’ll see how progresses during the season

 

He's trying to get 10 assists when he should look to get 6 per game with about 12 hockey assists... Every play doesn't have to end with a player receiving the ball from you and only you...