KPJ: Can someone explain to me why he has become Clutchfans favorite whipping boy?

But people are b****ing about KPJ - and he is doing what he is asked to do.

Imagine the entire offense is on his shoulders, there aren't any picks etc, it is all ISO for him to beat his man and start the offense, it is a massive burden for 22 year old that has 1 year of playing PG.

KPJ has been amazing, and is getting better, in a difficult situation, yet people b**** and whine about him like he seduced their mother or sister.....the dude is just doing the job he is tasked with......by Silas and the org.

If you don't like it, take it up with them.....he is doing a great job of what he is asked to do.

DD

 

I see a lot of legit criticism of KPJ. Some of you guys really exaggerate of how badly he is being talked about.

 

dude, come on. Be fair. We are looking at a year and a half track record where maturity was in question both on and off the court. There’s no conspiracy or lack of fairness. The guy didn’t act right so folks questioned his attitude.

I see the talent, he’s demonstrated improvement and we are all rooting for him. The bar is not high. It up to him to act like a mature professional for a full season. If he does that you will see everything flip and he’ll be the most beloved rocket. It’s up to him. No one is rooting for him to fail. Or maybe a very small minority. But….

KPJ is no victim. He controls his destiny and the admiration of the vast majority of fans. I love his game and am rooting for him to stay professional.

 

This is just asinine.

You were going on a crusade when Jalen Green was struggling at the beginning of last season, but no one would defend Green's criticism by saying "he is actually doing an amazing job for what he was asked to do, he is doing what the org told him to, he has to play with KPJ and two bigs".

Yet here you are, going around the forum trying to shut down any conversations that isn't singing his praises. You are free to disengage yourself from these topics, I don't see why you feel the need to police the topics that are discussed.

 

Get out of here with that propaganda. There is literally nothing, and I mean NOTHING, stopping KPJ from calling plays, directing players to spots, and captaining the offense. Zip, nada, nothing. We saw Harden do that his first year as point. We saw Harden do it before moving to point, when he was under "Play harder!" McHale. The NBA is chock full of resources he can consult with for better PG play. The history of NBA is chock full of tapes on excellent PG play and fundamentals. Trying to force ISO play and react instead of read and predict, that's a choice.

Lets not even talk about being a good traditional PG. Let's talk about being a decent PG. How many decent PGs in the NBA do you know dribble into traffic, picks up his dribble, and then HOISTS a terrible shot contested by multiple defenders? That happens multiple times a game for over a season now. He still has yet to learn to dribble out and reset a half court offense when that happens. At this point, it's like watching a kid continue attempting to beat in a round peg through a square hole.

 

So if we have a 22 year old player like Allen Iverson as the 3rd or 4th option, behind even younger guys then you are saying we are in trouble? If Clutchfans can identify the obvious increase in KPJ isolations, and the result of it, and then say hes doing everything they ask him to do, then this is just the blatant tank. They just need to make sure Jabari gets the memo on the plan.

 

That's not how you choose what to do as coach. With this logic, the entire Warriors dynasty wouldn't exist because till now Steph Curry is a mediocre floor general. They built the team around the best player and that meant the offense runs through multiple people (Drayond, Iggy, Curry) and in general doesn't get sticky so that it benefits Curry and Klay. You build the team around your best overall players. Standard.

If KPJ is your best PG and he's below average for the league, install some high post offense with Sengun and move the ball around a LOT more. Where KPJ is actually elite and likely going to remain elite is as a catch and shoot player and a 3pt shooter in general. We can sign DJ Augustin to the minimum right now and he is a better floor general than KPJ, but you don't see me harping for us to do that.

 

I agree all but the last sentence. Kpj's Finishing around the rim is miles away from AI. Can't even imagine 6'5'' AI. That would change the game like shaq or curry did.

 

Ngl double d attitude for kpj irks me the most.

Here is his thoughts on a superior player in harden.

U could literally apply all this sht to kpj.
He's doing a worst job at being harden. But nooooo kpj k still young he is learning the ropes.

Preaches patience for the one year pg yet as soon green enter the league man was already giving up on him.

He gets triggered at people's behavior towards kpj, why don't u reflect upon your behavior first before calling out others.

I honestly feel like this redemption arc is why double d is so bias for kpj no other reason to explain this amount of simping.

That or he now misses harden and kpj reminds him of the beard.

 

If built around properly they could reach a finals as Westbrook did and even not right still dominant enough to reach a finals trip as AI did but they did horrible job of building around him via draft n free agency

Marbury messed up his chance with young Wolves big 3 they had

And Francis flamed out in NY after entertaining Rockets for some seasons

Alot of pass happy PG's don't win it all either, that's what hurt the Jazz in those Finals vs Bulls, they needed Stockton to go Zeke or AI mode but he wasn't built like that, swap him for those two and Malone may have a ring

It works both ways

 

There is no indication of this. The indication is that they feel KPJ is Luka and they have built the offense around him and want him to iso more. They have given every indication that he is the leader of this team. If we go by what indication actually means lol I mean they told him he is the leader, you got SIlas crying over him and saying he should get the ball more. They have it installed in his head that he has to have the ball and he demands it too. They sat Sengun for him. They threw Jalen to the side for him. Those are the indications im worried about.

 

We have too many Terry Rozier type guards on this team when we already have a future scoring champ in Jalen Green.

We can only have 1 Terry Rozier type guard and he has to be a 6th man off the bench so he doesn't take shots away from Green and our other lottery pick in Jabari Smith. We all know what's been happening, Smith doesn't get shots because our "point guards" drive and don't kick it out to him and I don't think it's a vision problem because he's wide open and Silas makes our guys watch tapes after every game.

They're either not looking for him because they are looking to score themselves or they just don't care.

If we end up getting lucky enough and drafting Wemby, he's going to need an unselfish guard who will feed him constantly.

That being said, I'm all aboard another year of KPJ at the point but if we end up drafting Scoot, sorry KPJ, move over bud to off the bench and JC the black hole can say goodbye.

 

Except KPJ is not even close to a Westbrook or Iverson. If KPJ can efficiently score 25+ a night playing the way he does I don’t have much to complain about. It’s when he inefficiently scores 20 a night while we have better options available that’s a problem.

 

They are not fast but they are strong, they are not jumping high but have quick hands, they have bad first step but elite stoppage. Athleticism isn't the only things you think. Coordination, stamina, and flexibility are other parameters. Sengun is elite athlete.

 

For me, I give him a pass for everything he's done tactically so far because his skills/talent development plus his ability to motivate them to work hard off the court is critical at this time. I've always said I'm willing to give him a pass until I know that the organization is interested in winning. In my opinion he's been very good at developing in INSANELY young squad, one of the youngest rotations I've ever seen. I never cared much about his in-game coaching, but I would give him a chance to prove it when it matters next season.

Maybe it means we replace him once the players are all developing well. I know it frustrates people that 7 players under 21 years old are not all developing in a linear fashion but I never had that expectation and I've never seen it happen in the NBA, so never worried about that. If he develops 3-4 people who start their careers heliocentric (seems like everyone's favorite word these days), that's fine by me too. It happens at a young age.

This KPJ comment though, I think it's genuinely detrimental to KPJ's career as well as the development of other players. It's the one mistake I can point to whereas all other risks he's taken have been fair ones even if they didn't work out or they weren't done my favorite way.

The thing with KPJ is I know what it's like because I've been that guy. It's great the organization is helping him, but at some point he has to help himself. Other people will - with the best of intentions - have bias. What they're doing is to raise his trade value whether he realizes it or not. Sometimes that's not the best thing for a player. The organization won't always give him the best mental help he needs, because sometimes the best mental advice can include things that are not good for the organization and that goes against the organizations' charter and shareholder responsibilities. It's clear to me for him to be seen as a starter and a winner on a contending team, he should be playing PG safely, shooting a lot of 3's under 7 seconds, cutting out mid range shots, catch and shoot a lot more off ball and maintain defensive consistency. If he insists on making ALLLLL that stuff plan B behind being a star iso player, his timing is all wrong. He needs to work on his iso driving skills in practice and audition them sometimes rather than making it the central part of his game.

Anyhow, this is all way too early. We might just be witnessing everyone making the mistakes that lead to the good decisions. Let's give it a fair chance, like 20 games.

 

had you took a careful look of him youd notice he looks very much like westbrook and, nuances aside, he pretty much plays like him ...so its all deserved in my book...

if it were up to me people like them would be banned from playing basketball and forced to become tennis players or seek career in some other individual sports where they truly belong...
people like him made basketball a rotten sport...

 

Now that I think about it, the Westbrook comparison is actually a pretty good one in terms of dominating the ball/hogging it, not passing to the open man, and in terms of bad shot selection. Westbrook is probably a better passer, KPJ is a much better 3-point shooter (at least when it comes to catch-and-shoot). But yeah, I don't believe in that style, and I don't find watching it fun.

 

KPJ is not your best PG, LOL Alperen Sengun is and hes one of the best in NBA at that...
TAKE THAT FOR DATA

 

lol if only kpj would have attacked the rim like westbrook hed won MVP trophy... and be a much better player

 

Some people act like they are his manager and take it way too personal.

We have survived Harden, arguably the best scorer in history and Top 3 playmaker of his generation.

Same player who had problems winning it all.

We sure would survive KPJ and any other player.