All You Need To Know About K.J. McDaniels And Pablo Prigioni

KJ McDaniels could become our Kawhi Leonard...

 

That's wonderful but these are 3rd, maybe 2nd, stringers. And they are not spectacular 3 point shooters. They might have been great value pickups but the Rocket's starting center right now is still Joey Dorsey. JOEY DORSEY. Am i the only one unhappy about this?

 

I gotta be honest, knowing what I know now about Mcdaniels I have no idea why he isn't a lotto pick. At only 22 he is a freak athlete who already has one NBA level skill: on ball defense and if you ask people who actually watch Philly games this year they will say McD plays like their best player from time to time.

The only he needs is hard work, if he works on his shot I think we're looking at the next NBA star in the league, his on ball D is already really good so if he just improves his offense he's gonna be there in a couple of years.

With all that said I doubt he gets much play this season besides yet another body to throw at superstars when 3Za/Brewer get tired, so many guys in the rotation are still better than him.

Pablo oth reminds me of Scola, he is old at 37 but since he will only play limited minutes I think he will be ok. I expect him and Bev to hold the fort at PG, I think everyone's gonna be surprised on how good a fit this dude is gonna be.

 

I've always wanted a chance to say "It's McDaniels not McDonalds" in relation to the Rockets

 

Why are you concerned now? The playoffs will start 2 mos from now, that's enough time for DH to be back. More importantly Dorsey is starting just for the sake of it, when the game is on the line we roll out a frontcourt of Smith and DMo.

 

According to ESPN stats

Prigioni career 3Pt% = .414

If he was shooting that currently this season it would
tie him at 14th in the NBA with Kyrie Irving
(And that's a CAREER average, NOT just a single season flash in the pan)

I'm sure he couldn't get any good looks at the basket with the Knicks

Hopefully he can regain that magic here in HOU.
Of course, we thought the same with Ariza, Terry, etc....

 

How about our Butler?

 

I am concerned now because the Rockets could easily drop to 6th or 7th in the next two months. Smith and DMo don't or can't play against the bigger centers in the league. They are busy leaving their footprints by the three point line. Deandre Jordan and Tyson Chandler, even Robin Lopez, could easily kill them in the paint.

 

Though Rockets coach Kevin McHale had plenty to say when praising the talents of the players picked up at Thursday’s trade deadline, it also said something about the deals that he said he was unsure of quite how he’d like to fit in Pablo Prigioni and KJ McDaniels.

With McDaniels in particular, a large part of the plan seemed to be developing him. With Prigioni, a 37-year-old point guard, the Rockets will need to find out how his style of playing in the backcourt might fit with their other 37-year-old point guard, Jason Terry.

“We’ll find out,” McHale said of how Prigioni and McDaniels. “I’m more familiar with Prigioni just from his body of work for a long time. We have to get them acclimated, let them see what we’re doing, see where it goes. KJ is a young guy, great athlete. from watching him I think there is a good potential for him to be a hell of a defender, hell of a rebounder at his size. We have stuff to work on.”

Prigioni’s style is somewhat different from Terry’s, with Prigioni more of a traditional point guard who generally a catch-and-shoot threat while Terry shoots either when off the ball or off the dribble. That could make Priogioni helpful in some situations, though McHale said it was too soon to know.

“They bring different things,” McHale said. “That will work itself out. I don’t have any grand schemes right now. I’ve seen him play a lot of different games. He’s a basketball player. I assume whatever you ask him to do, he’ll be pretty good at it. He’s a good passer. He can make shots. He has had the ball in his hands a lot and makes good decisions.”

McHale described McDaniels, 22, more as a talent to develop.

“As with most young guys, he’s not a finished product,” McHale said. “We’ll see what he does and we’ll see what we need to work on. We’ll develop a program for him. We’ll see if we can make him the best basketball player he can possibly be. He’s a hell of an athlete. He runs well. He jumps well. He defends. Now it’s a matter of fitting him in with all the other stuff.”

Prigioni and McDaniels were scheduled to go through their physicals in Houston on Friday with neither expected to join the team until Saturday against the Raptors. McDaniels in particular might have a hard time finding playing time.

“Everybody was excited about his athleticism and his potential, but as our league has shown for a ton of years, there’s a lot of guys that on their gravestone it said ‘had potential.’ You want to have reached potential,” McHale said. “He’s got a hell of a lot of potential. You’ve got to reach it. You’ve got to improve. He had a chance to play some in Philly. Now, it’s a little different. We’re fighting our tails off for playoff positioning. It’s not going to be ‘Oh well, if we lose tonight, it’s more ping pong balls. We’ll see how that fits in.

“We got a young guy and an old guy. when you split the difference, their average age is 30.”

http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterocke...n-newest-rockets-they-bring-different-things/

 

Everybody was excited about his athleticism and his potential, but as our league has shown for a ton of years, there’s a lot of guys that on their gravestone it said ‘had potential.’

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LOL,

Mike Hair is trolling the CF posters.

 

Everybody was excited about his athleticism and his potential, but as our league has shown for a ton of years, there’s a lot of guys that on their gravestone it said ‘had potential.’ You want to have reached potential,” McHale said. “He’s got a hell of a lot of potential. You’ve got to reach it. You’ve got to improve. He had a chance to play some in Philly. Now, it’s a little different. We’re fighting our tails off for playoff positioning. It’s not going to be ‘Oh well, if we lose tonight, it’s more ping pong balls. We’ll see how that fits in.

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Cold Blooded.

 

Forget about his shooting. Prigioni is very reluctant to shoot.

 

First thing KJ needs to do. Get a headband.

 

Prigioni only gets called for about 1 foul per game. His steals is about 1 per game. If he's getting those numbers at 18 min a game now, then we needed a guy like Prigioni. Beverley is averaging about 1 a game this season, and was almost 1.5 last season. maybe the extra PT is too much for him to keep his intensity up. Having Prigioni play for the other 18 minutes of a game, or more would help Pat up his Intensity Per Minute (stat that I just created for this post).

Here's my take for the guard/wing rotation: Keep James or Prigioni on the floor at all times.

Prigioni should play with the "head-band-of-bruthas"

Bev only plays next to Harden or next to Prigioni, which means Prigioni is getting minutes from Terry as a 2 guard.

Prigioni's 3PT % > Bev 3PT% so I wanna see Prigioni close games over Bev unless foul trouble is an issue.

Maybe Prigioni technique is what Bev needs to learn because Bev gets almost 3 fouls per game and Prigioni only gets about 1, yet their steals are the same. I think this was a hugely undervalued addition to the team. Prigioni plays like an older/wiser Bev would play the way I see it.

Maybe that paves the way for Bev to up his def IQ and play less berserker and more methodical shutdown.

Long live the wolverine!

 

Kevin McHale had a great quote saying there must be millions of players that on their grave stones will say "had potential".

 

Absolutely dead on. McDaniels was brought here to defend western PGs.

 

Sounds like McD will get some spot minutes with an emphasis on hi defense...worse case scenario he sits at the end of the bench, his value declines and Morey signs him to a team-friendly deal in the summer and they build him back up. McHale already said that he might be more in an "apprentice" role so I don't expect to see much of him unless he really shines in limited minutes.

 

does he play the 1 though? is his lateral quickness enough to contain the west's best PG's?

 

McHale can be brutally honest. Lol

 

He does not play the 1, but he may be able to defend opposing 1s. We'll see. He's going to have to learn how to shoot.