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

I don’t know about that. We know it seems to have screwed up KPJ. But since KPJ started to play more off ball and Green started to handle more PG duties, we have started to win more games. Don’t think it’s a coincidence.

 

Like I have said a few times, Green has already shown more progress in an actual combo guard role than KPJ has shown. KPJ trying to play facilitator despite being metrically bad at it also marginalizes his greatest strength, catch and shoot.

 

A new fun wrinkle to the KPJ defense. Team is winning some games. KPJ is playing in those games. Therefor no matter what his bad individual numbers are in these games award KPJ credit for team winning games.

 

Fun new wrinkle for KPJ’s critics: The team is winning, the starting lineup is playing well together, the team tends to do better with KPJ on the floor, but KPJ has NOTHING to do with any of those things.

 

A straw man. At times his defense is really good. At times he limits his dumb shots(not often). He continues to hit his catch and shoot attempts at a really high rate(still remains something completely under utilized as it is his best skill)

But the two biggest reasons we have been winning lately is Jabari has gone from playing like one of the worst players in the league to playing exactly how we hoped…. a defensive menace with elite efficiency and that Jalen has done Jalen things and exploded for huge games.

KPJ in the last 10 games where this winning has occurred…

17/4.6/5.6

1.47 AST/TO

FG : 40%
3FG : 29.5%
TS : 51.9%

All well below his season averages. He has been objectively bad in these last 10 games. You cant hide behind “we’re winning so it doesn’t matter”. It matters that he continues to show signs that this role isn’t for him.

 

No one is even talking about kpj passing the ball to sengun. Last game Smith was literally on fire with an efficient 4-5 with 14 points.

A smart pg would feed the rookie instead of icing him out. Kpj took 11 more shots than the rookie and only scored 4 more pts.

Smith is not my favorite player but this has been happening multiple games where kpj ignore the hot player.

But nah kpj fans will b like we won so it doesn't matter. If u care about player development u would see that kpj isn't do much to help his teammates by taking sht shots.
Pass the dam ball to the hot player. Pg 101.

 

Yep, Jabari and Jalen were the biggest reasons the Rockets were losing early in the season. They are the biggest reasons the Rockets have been close to average lately. If those 2 continue playing well, I see KPJ either playing better or this thread is going to get even saltier.

 

I think this thread will be salty as long as the Rockets use KPJ as primary ball handler and primary playmaker.

 

I think everybody has been playing poor offensively, so efficiency numbers across the board is going to be down. Take for instance Jabari, against Milwaukee he shot horribly but he played a good game defensively against Phoenix. His numbers were better. Same for Green, he's been up and down all yr, so just focusing on KPJ is part of the equation.

I think the Rocket have been winning because of their defense and if you're playing effective defense, your numbers are going to fluctuate, until you learn to balance both sides of the court. They're still young, so it's going to take time.

I don't solely rely on numbers, sometimes the Eye Test is a better gauge.

 

Dumb turnovers
Dumb shots
Refusal to Pass to the hot player

Oh but he has the highest +/- so he absolved of all critiques. Dumb logic.

 

Well in this case the eye test is failing you.

Last 10 Jabari has put up 14/7 on 64.2 TS%. That’s elite, elite efficiency.

Last 10 for Jalen he’s been pretty damn efficient in the games we have won and pretty bad in the games we have lost. Kind of a similar story the whole season for him and this team. But he really has had a good chunk of amazing games this year where he has “popped”.

When people say KPJ has been the most consistent player on the team this season, I actually agree. The problem is it’s consistently not very good. His numbers in wins, losses, home, road…all similar. Decent counting stats based mostly by volume of shot attempts and ball dominance, low efficiency and fairly high turnovers. There’s been very few games(not 0) where KPJ has truly “popped” this season. That’s really why, in my case at least, I continue to have less and less hope that the role he is currently in is one he will ever succeed at. If his overall numbers were bad but we could point to 40-50% of the games where he went off with efficiency and clearly was driving us to wins it would be different, for me at least.

 

I think there's a confusion between "PG" and "playmaker" (or offense initiator). Although most PGs are playmakers, there are PGs that don't play that role. Guys like Beverley is an obvious example. Almost all PGs on LeBron's teams are like that. Same with Jokic's team. These non-playmaking PGs are quick and have good handles. They just bring the ball up court and pass it to the real playmaker.

KPJ is our best PG in the sense that he has the best handles and should be the guy who brings the ball up court most of the times. But he doesn't have to be the offense initiator. I think the whole debate surrounding KPJ is the playmaking/offense initiating role, not the name of his position (PG). The role of a player is more meaningful than the name of his position. This is especially true in this era of so-called positionless basketball.

(A related point: Why does a rim runner/lob threat has to come from the "center" position?)

 

Here is a fun fact:

When the Rockets win, the following players put up these averages
KPJ: 18/7/7, shooting 42/29/80 - TS 51.6% and 4 TOs
Green: 27/5/5, shooting 50/37/82 - TS 62.6% and 4 TOs
Smith: 14/8/1, shooting 42/45/90 - TS 61.7% and 1 TO

When the Rockets lose, the following players put up these averages
KPJ: 19/5/5, shooting 40/35/75 - TS 53.2% and 4 TOs
Green: 19/4/3 shooting 38/30/79 - TS 47.7% and 3 TOs
Smith: 11/7/1, shooting 37/33/77 - TS 48.2% and 1 TO

Whether the Rockets win or lose, KPJ puts up practically the same inefficient numbers. When the Rockets win, it is more attributable to Green and Smith playing well, and when the Rockets lose, it's attributable to Green and Smith struggling.

But yes, somehow KPJ is responsible for the Rockets' wins. If anything, these numbers are suggesting empty stats, because they are inefficient across the board with no changes whether the team wins or loses. The Rockets are winning in spite of him, not because of him.

 

KPJ and the rest need each other no one can carry a team.
KPJ is the floor leader and that is a fact.

never saw any of you b****ers when Rafer was bricking!

DD

 

DD once again doubling down

 

Lol at KPJ being a leader of anything but the worst record. Guy sucks

 

You never saw anyone complaining about Rafer? Now you're just lying. I'd certainly prefer Rafer to KPJ though. Rafer won. KPJ is a loser on and off the court

 

Dude I sat directly behind the Rox bench and watched KPJ talking to teamates about where to be, both on the floor and off of the floor, he would get off his seat and talk to KMJ right in front of the coach.....there is ZERO doubt that he is the leader of this Rocket's squad, until someone knocks him off or a coach steps up, KPJ is the Rocket's leader.

DD

 

I have also sat behind the Rockets bench and next to it multiple times this season. Now I understand you went to a road game (I haven't) and while I agree he's vocal he definitely wasn't a leader whatsoever. Seemed more like he was complaining. We have the worst coach in the NBA. I'll agree with that but KPJ is about the furthest thing from a leader you'd find. Unfortunately we just don't have a leader right now. Maybe Green grows into that but we'll have to see

 

He should be telling himself where to be: on offense, don’t dribble into a wall of defenders; on defense, don’t be at mid court arguing with a ref while opponents are already under your basket.

If he doesn’t even know where to be himself, you want me to believe he knows where his teammates should be, and his teammates will listen to him?

Who knows. Maybe he’s telling KJ: stay out of my way. Don’t be expecting no pass from me!