What amazing progress? He's statistically inferior in literally every stat from last season. Scoring. Assists. Scoring efficiency. AST% and TO%. Every major cumulative advanced stat. Aside from a slight bump in 3-point shooting (still below average), rebounding and steals, he's been a worse basketball player than last season, when he already wasn't very good. Look, I'm willing to give him time since this team isn't very good and he's got some legitimate skills, but the inconsistency from last season remains and he's regressed in so many areas. I think the Rockets need to give him the rest of the season to see how he pans out, giving him time at the point and as a wing to see where he plays best. But I'm just not optimistic. And I think they need to consider investing in other long-term point guard options, especially, after this season.
Maturity at the position and his 2 pt %, which has been good in his short career, are two of the things failing him. And you have to treat him as a 21 year old rookie, common, since he's playing an entirely new position. I would rather have him as a SF that averages 6.5 assists per game than running a team, but it's not like we're pushing for a playoff seed so why not experiment. He easily gets frustrated when he's getting the Rockets treatment from the refs.
So…he had a bad game against a good team in the middle of a rebuild? So what? I’m not writing him off. He has talent. He will have ups and downs, and a lot of the latter. That’s how this league goes. Some games go in the trash can. Let’s give him a season or so to see if he can really grow into a formidable guard. What’s the contrary reason not to? Because he’s struggled at times? That’s not persuasive to me. No need to make a mountain out of a mole hill, he will struggle against good teams. Let’s see how he rebounds off those performances.
the biggest issue to me isn’t that he struggles/doesn’t struggle… though that’s clearly an issue. As many have noted he is worse in almost every category this year. it’s that good or bad, he does NOT look like a PG to me. while they can certainly take the full year to figure that out, I definitely think it impacts EVERY OTHER PLAYER on the team in a negative way.
I don’t think anyone is calling for him to be benched, but let’s please stop acting like it’s just one game. I won’t speak for everyone, but personally I was very excited about him after last year and had high hopes coming into this season. He had 6.3 ast and 3.5 tov, with 16ppg on 53% ts. I was hopeful for incremental improvement, this is his third year, maybe up to 7+ assists, get the turnovers down a bit to maybe 3.0 or a little under, and try to increase his efficiency to league average which is around 57% or so. More points would be nice but not a requirement. Instead we have seen him get worse in every single one of these categories. Less points, much worse efficiency (one of the worst in the nba), a slight down tick to 5.9 assists, and up to 4.0 turnovers. It’s not an overreaction to one bad game just…disappointment to an underwhelming season so far. You’re right that he shouldn’t be written off. We’re rebuilding anyway, let him play out at least the rest of this season. I’m just bummed because I had high hopes for him to improve and he’s moving in the wrong direction.
Nobody is “giving” up on him. Green is a better player and Porter is not making things easier for him.
it is also his first season at being at full time point guard. Also people who are crying about his turnovers have to know that it is his first month that has his turnovers high. In October he averaged 5.3 in his first 6 games, he is at about 3.5 a game since then, which is good for a guy who is learning point. Injuries have stopped his progress as well, getting fluid play going. We have won 5 of the last 7 games he has played in.
oh yeah, they eat their own here. Even Harden got destroyed here and he is an All time great. I'm sure hakeem would have been killed here for a few of his failures in the Playoffs if clutchfans were around then
Yeah agree with a lot, his stat line this year shows more regression than improvement. Hopefully he finishes the rest of the season strong, that’s all I’d like to see. The only thing I’ll note is that he hasn’t really had 3 years…2020 was weird and he obviously didn’t get much run in CLE, so he’s still in a bit of a grace period if you will. Surely if come 2023-24 the improvements are not there then we’ll probably have to cut bait. But such is life for a rebuilding club I suppose.
Look KPj has franchise level talent, but his head is not right, he really needs to work on his emotional balance, that is going to tell whether he becomes a star in the league or the next Terrance Williams another highly talented guy whose lacking emotional balance put him out of the league. Teams should be dealing with these young guys and helping them mature, so much $$$ is invested...the org let Eddie Griffen down years ago, let's hope they have a better plan for KPj. DD
Other than knowing KPJ’s past mental issues what has he demonstrated as a Rocket that shows it’s still an issue? Sometimes he just doesn’t play basketball well.
I knew it was going to be a bad night when he did this foolishness on a 2 on zero fastbreak. Didn’t pass it, got caught in between what to do, travelled and then missed the wide open dunk. Then later he messed up another 2 on 1 with JG. It’s like his head was somewhere else. Hopefully he bounces back tonight. Yesterday was a rough one considering it was only a 5 point game late and EG missed a wide open 3 pointer that would’ve cut the lead to 2.
He shows immaturity when he stops playing or b****es instead of accepting things and moving on...things linger and it seems to effect the rest of the day. I think he has shown GREAT improvement so I am hopeful, but he still has some growing to do emotionally...IMHO. DD
I should say I don’t see any signs of Cleveland KPJ or Terrence Williams coming out. But yeah maturity is still a work in progress.
Agreed, he has shown major progress, and that is encouraging - I think he has amazing talent, just needs to learn to channel his emotions. DD
I’ve been a Porter supporter but he simply isn’t focused enough. To have skill you need to have focus. Much like Wood there is little focus. This separates great players from good and mediocre ones. Porter has the ability and creativity it’s just about honing it and bringing it together. I think this is why the Rockets aren’t better than they are but instead on the cusp of winning. I also think because Porter and Wood plays this way it sets a precedence and infectious to the rest of the team and the result is the uneven play we see each night. For instance playing loose and lackadaisical in the first half only to turn it on in the second half. Or how many times have we seen Porter get to the hoop but missed the layup or dunk. It’s not ability it’s about effort and seems like Porter isn’t putting in this effort to focus limiting turnovers and dead end plays and scoring the ball.
OK, but I just posted above how he's a statistically inferior player to last season in pretty much every way. How is he improving, exactly? You keep stating it like it's a fact, but what evidence is there that KPJ has made improvements at all from last season? I'm open minded if there are specific things you can point to, but from what I'm seeing with my eyes and the numbers are showing me, I have not seen a player who's making strides in his game.
