Where do you think Kevin Porter Jr. will be for the 2023-24 season?

Westbrook shot 47%, that was one of the best seasons of his career. It was derailed by injury and Covid.

The conversation was about the success and fit of the backcourt. How well they played together.

Russ and Harden are an example of ball dominate players playing well together.

Idk why you brought up irrelevant ****.

If your backcourt averages a combined 61ppg as a 4th seed that’s a successful backcourt.

Fact not opinion.

 

I’m skeptical of KPJ at the point but I have seen improvement. I’d like to take a shot at answering this question after the season. He’s still developing; too many unknowns.

 

JG jumper is as good as WB right now

opposing teams actually dare both to shoot

and stop bringing up that once in a year lucky/fluke boston game

 

Id feel comfortable with him being the 6th man getting 25-30 minutes... I just don't see him being the answer at PG...

 

Where will Kevin Porter be in two years?

Well first I suspect in two years Rockets ownership is going to want to see the Rockets competing for the playoffs and there will be a lot of pressure on the front office and coaching staff. So there is going to be pressure to have players that either are veterans that know how to win or limit mistakes OR they are going to want to have a young player like Ivey or Henderson playing the point.... with that in mind, I don't think Porter will be on the Rockets.

Second, the reality is that Porter just hasn't been a good player. For all of his apparent talent, at the end of the day he has been a negative as an NBA player. He is a very inefficient player. The Rockets will feel pressure to replace him with someone that is a better fit with Green and is a more stable player.

Third, I suspect the negotiations on an extension are not going to go well unless the Rockets overpay and I do not believe that Stone will do that.

Last, the Rockets will likely have a top 5 pick this season, and one of the top 5 players available is a future point guard (Jaden Ivey) and if that is the best player on the board, the Rockets will take him.

Honestly no one wants to face the fact that there is a lot of uncertainty for this organization going forward. There isn't a single player on this roster that will be on this team in two years that someone objectively can say will make a really large impact long term. We all like to be able to say that Green or Porter or Sengun will be long term pieces but there is a lot of uncertainty. Green was the second pick and the draft, but there are concerns about his game outside of scoring. Sengun has looked good overall when he has played, but we haven't seen him with heavy minutes yet and there are reasons he is only playing 20 minutes a game depending on matchups.

 

All true but we did find out that they had problems off the court, Russ was mad that Harden got extra days off and came late to film sessions.

They are still friends but you could feel that the trust between them as players diminished.

Both kept potential and real Covid positive results under wraps.

Not so sure how long this would have continued even without Covid 19.

Russ might not be as smart as Chris Paul but both are fiercely competitive when it comes to the game.

 

True. I remember the “culture” problem. Russ didn’t like Hardens superstar treatment.

I just see no reason Porter and Green wont fit together on the court when we’ve seen first hand how ball dominant guards can have success.

Improved shooting is the hurdle and they’ll have to fix that regardless if they play together or not.

 

Exactly - Porter is as efficient in year 3 as Green in the first month of year 1, without Green's jump-out of the gym/first step.

Hopefully KPJ can put together more games like he did over the past week going forward and less like his first 10 or so.

 

LOL late to film sessions

Harden pretty much made up for all of WB's flaws on the court and people crying about being "late to film sessions"

 

It's from an article.

At the end of the day Westbrook was used to being "the star" and having the team rotate around his axis, he came to Houston and the team rotated around Harden's axis and he didn't like that. Harden practiced as hard and often as anyone on the team. He often would pull double practices, sometimes going out at 2-3 am and practicing.

 

The problem with guard heavy rotations (maybe it be an inefficient one) other positions suffer.

You would never have found out that Tate could score when he is given 15 shot attempts, or Garrison could hoist up 10+ shots.

Let us just experiment this season with what we have on our hands before we judge.

 

We don’t run the same heliocentric offense that we ran with D’Antoni tho. Which is another reason why I think the fit will be fine.

We’ll just have to wait and see

 

If you had to ask me today, I would say no, his handle is not good, his vision is.....and his defense is....but his handle is a major weakness and he needs a bigger variety to his offensive game.

However, I think what the Rockets are going to try to do here is have him and Green share the playmaking responsibilities....ala the Celtics with Ainge and Johnson, where no one was a real PG......and Bird was the primary playmaker (Sengun for us)......

So, I see it more as both are SGs......who need to get better at that.....and Sengun playing Point forward.

DD

 

Agreed 100% - I would like to see both of them above 37% on 3pters......and mid to upper 40s overall due to their attacks on the rim........KPJ and Green both need a floater or a midrange stop and pop imho as the FT line area will be wide open every game.

DD

 

Not that I believe any of that claptrap gossip, but ...

Maybe Russ should have practiced his 3ball and defense better before pointing fingers.

 

WTF?

They SUCKED playing together - in the playoffs where it counted teams left Russ wide open, the gimmicky offense they ran during the regular season was always going to fail.

DD

 

If they played well together, they would still be together in Houston. Fact.

 

Obviously that’s false. They both simultaneously played at MVP levels during the season.

Harden left to chase a better chance at a ring.

Harden Kyrie and KD > Harden and Westbrook