Are people really arguing that KPJ wont get at least $15 mill somewhere? That's definitely the floor for any remotely competent guard in the league who isn't on a rookie or vet contract. If Houston doesn't offer him that much someone else will. Even if he repeats "maturity issues" this year, that won't change the number of teams willing to offer him at least that based on current skill alone.
Fake narratives. Wood could throw some of the most errant passes ever but he caught passes, including bounce passes, just fine. Wood was a near elite finisher at rim and if not traded, he would have been a starter again this season.
Debatable. He's a serviceable player and is for sure ain't the bottom of the heap of the current active nba players. We could b bias on how bad we think he sucks due to him being an ex rockets, but his stats doesn't exactly scream an awful player.
He's an empty stats player. Nothing he will ever do will be meaningful. He's got offensive talent but you're essentially deferring to him. On defense you might as well take him off the floor. With KPJ (stopped using the other acronym), I'm willing to look and have him prove me wrong. Of course that's because he's a Rocket. Wood will make Luka want to kill himself by the All-star break
The maturity issues pretty much stopped nearly every team in the league getting him for peanuts. You also didn't need to use the quotation marks when you said that, they exist, they're not made up figments of imagination.
The Athletic NBA staff decided to put together, "NBA players (and a coach) with the most to prove in 2022-23." In most cases, they just picked a player, but in a few they added the coach (Ben Simmons and Steve Nash for the Nets is an example of the latter). I'm going to post an excerpt, which is what they (actually, Kelly Iko) said regarding the Rockets. Houston Rockets: Kevin Porter Jr. When the Rockets traded for Kevin Porter Jr. two seasons ago, it was understood that a lot of work and development was on the horizon — on the court, where Porter was asked to switch positions to point guard, and also off the court, with personal growth and maturity. Porter is extension-eligible this offseason, and both sides want to get a deal done before the new campaign kicks off. But regardless of the outcome, this is a prove-it year for the 22-year-old, either validating why Houston was right to give him long-term money or why the Rockets made a mistake not to. The Rockets are banking on him and Jalen Green working out. Porter needs to solidify that vision, capitalize on his strong play to end last season and continue his growth. — Kelly Iko https://theathletic.com/3497877/2022/08/25/nba-players-most-to-prove/ I thought the selection of KPJ from Kelly was an obvious choice and what he said was pretty solid. Had he added to it in more detail (and he certainly could have), the length would likely have been longer that the format called for. Kelly should have added Coach Silas, however, who I believe still has much to prove (in my opinion). Having said that, I like Kelly's work covering the Rockets. We're a tough audience!
I'm not implying that they are made up - obviously they are real. The point is even with the common refrain of people pointing to KPJ's "maturity issues" as a reason why you shouldn't offer him too much money, there is still no precedence of a player of his output and minutes making less than $15k in the entire association aside from guys on league mandated exception pay scales(rookies, vets)...and KPJ is most certainly not the only 21 yr old player to have maturity issues in the league. This isn't me reading into KPJ's future as a player - this is just cold water in the face of the "maturity issues" crowd that with an escalating cap, guards who play as much as he does and put up the numbers he does make A LOT more than you realize. $15k/year is roughly the 100th highest paid player in a league with 150 starters. Ultimately the negotiation of how much KPJ will make is not how much you would pay him based on his basketball play minus some random number you want to dock him in the future for past transgressions. There may not be 100 guys who are better than KPJ on the floor today and other GMs and teams will set his market value and it only takes literally TWO GMs who think his maturity issues aren't too much of a concern for a 21yr old to bid against each other and drive up the cost on a fairly solid resume of results for a guy of his age. It's the just reality of the situation where 30 teams are fighting over a relatively shallow pool of players who can play at the NBA level and KPJ has already shown that even if he doesn't grow anymore as a player, he is already a 15/6/4 guard with some range, some defensive instincts and is capable of guarding the other team's best player and handling the ball on volume. $15mil/yr is just kind of the starting rate for a player like that today even before factoring in his potential to get better or the risk his maturity brings to realizing that potential. The on court play and questions around whether he was ever going to be good enough for the headache was a little easier to write off in Cleveland because of a small sample size but we are 137 games into his career at this point and I think you'll find more teams are game planning against him these days rather than sleeping on him.
The qualifying offer for him is already done for 2022-23 He's a RFA in 2023-24. Rockets has at least a years time.
No rush to extend, if we do it's because he deserves it. And if we get rid of him it's bc he's not as good of a pg like some of us like to proclaim. Jury is still out. Idk y we keep rehashing this over and over. Bb season needs to come faster.
