lolwut? This is a reaction that comes from his body of work where his good games are a handful at best.
Poor guy is allowed to have a bad game. I think the folks that jump on KPJ after a poor performance are the disingenuous ones. The same goes for Jalen, Jabari, and Alperen fanatics. KPJ has improved his efficiency by a fair margin this year, especially for a 4th-year player. If someone asked you before the year If you'd be okay with KPJ averaging 19-6-6 on 44-35-78 splits, you'd be overjoyed. If he makes a 5th-year leap like he did this year, he starts to look pretty scary I'd bet. Don't forget that KPJ has had to play with Jalen Green and Jabari Smith this year. Those two in particular have been incredibly bad for the majority of the year. Massive net negatives to overcome for the other starters. Those two guys are going to be absolute terrors in the near future. Not worried about either of them one bit. Probably not going to happen, but I'd be curious to see one more jump from KPJ next year, alongside a competent JG and Jabari, and a new head coach.
My issue has never been if he has talent or is improving as a player its that he sucks at the thing he is asked to do which is b a pg. We have kpj stan praise him up and down the best player/good pg while leading us to basically a dead last rated offense. A bad game is taking a lot of shots and inefficiently hitting double digits. U can't have this type of performance putting up nix like numbers as the "best" player on the team. It's the ones that still think he has what it takes to b a pg is the ones that r triggering for me. New coach, new pg and we will see if kpj still has a future with us as the sixth man. Folks thinking anybody could play pg nowadays
Curry, Holiday, Caruso, VanFleet, Curry, Curry, Kyrie, Curry, Tony Parker Talk about a list of "real" point guards!
I'm starting to believe that the KPj hype guys are just alt Colin Robinson accounts from WWDITS gaining energy from basketball trolling.
KPJ has the same problem as he did in the beginning of the season and that he refuses to be part of a offense where he merely initiates a chain of passes that lead to a good look. KPJ only passes out when he feels like he has created enough seperation after 20 or so dribbles where he will only pass it off if he is certain that it will directly lead to an assist. Dude doesn't pass it out unless it's that condition. Hence why it looks like we run a Heliocentric offense through KPJ. Because that's essentially how Doncic plays but obviously he's much more talented at it. KPJ just flat out refuses to be part of an offense where he initiates a chain of quick passes that leads to a open looks. With him as pg we simply can't have that type of offense. KPJ needs to dominate a possession to be effective hence why he's a prime 6th man type player. The only players of his mold that aren't 6th men are all time talents at what KPJ does like guys like Harden or Luka.
KPJ has the same problem as he did in the beginning of the season and that he refuses to be part of a offense where he merely initiates a chain of passes that lead to a good look. KPJ only passes out when he feels like he has created enough seperation after 20 or so dribbles where he will only pass it off if he is certain that it will directly lead to an assist. Dude doesn't pass it out unless it's that condition. Hence why it looks like we run a Heliocentric offense through KPJ. Because that's essentially how Doncic plays but obviously he's much more talented at it.
This is just flat out wrong. He passes it to Sengun at the top all the damned time, especially now. This is just bias clouding actual judgement - which is prevalent here. I have never seen a fanbase hate on a team's player so much, last year WOOD, this year KPJ - hate on the org for the shitty teams and record, it isn't the players all under 22's fault. DD
KPJ has been brutal the last few games, just really bad. Bad execution, bad decisions, bad vibes for the worst team in the league - the box score numbers don't really reflect the crappiness (that actually goes for almost every player, but espeically for Honcho) That's why he's getting the hate.
I was hopeful that KPJ would solidify himself as the PG, but this year he hasn't been able to do it. We cannot go into next year with KPJ being the starting PG. It would be malpractice on Stone's part to not upgrade the PG position next year.
KPJ is a decent player, but he still dribbles the ball too much and is still just an ok passer. He still has selfish moments like he did with Jabari a few games ago when he pouted. Last night he was very reluctant to give Sengun the ball and when he tried it was in traffic and the passes were pretty horrible. By the way, Wood has not been all that great with Dallas either. He is going to be a bench player the rest of his career. I’m done with the KPJ experiment at PG. He should be a 2 guard coming off the bench, when your primary scorers are taking a rest and you need somebody to be the go to guy. If he can’t or won’t adjust to that role it is time to cut bait. Give him a shot with a real coach, but any sign of discontent he should be gone.
I’m done with him as a pg. I hope the organization is too. We should know in the off-season based on moves. I have not been a KPJ hater and going into the year I was arguing that he should get his chance. He has shown some improvement, but some of the immature antics have grown old. He also has not progressed enough as a PG to think we should continue on with the experiment. Like I said, give him a shot in an appropriate position with a good coach, but with his baggage there should be a very short leash. I employ a lot of troubled youth and I give them multiple shots at succeeding. At some point, you have to cut bait and hope they get it together in their next job. The Rockets are a business not a charity or a half-way house.
KPJ hasn't excelled in a lead guard role, but at the very least he has tremendous potential as a sixth man. People are judging him very harshly based on the rebuilding environment. Stylistically, I think he's very similar to a someone like Jordan Poole. I've seen arguments on this board calling Poole the far superior player, when in reality he benefits from playing off HOF talent. I don't think either player is selfish, but neither are elite level playmakers. If Poole were here in KPJ's place, or if KPJ were cut and Jalen Green were forced to play lead guard instead, I think the results would be just as ugly whereas KPJ would be fine in a bench role with GS. We've seen what the team looks like without KPJ as he missed a quarter of the season. If anything, we looked even worse.
He's got the skills to be really good. Unfortunately, between the ears not so much. His emotions and need to flash, get the best of him.
KPJ related (but not assessment related). @Clutch recently pointed out (or reminded) on the food thrown incident. The reporting was that he threw food, but it was never specified that it was soup. The soup think was JR Smith at Damon Jones. Thing over time, people (including myself), conflated it. The food that KPJ thrown could have been soup, but was not specifically identified.
We actually got better offensively. Defense on the other hand, took a HUGE hit. This was mainly because we went from KPJ to Nix due to Silas's insistence on playing the blimp over Jaygup or TyTy.
