Every year, fans of every team across multiple sports will disccuss rookies and other young roles players by saying they just need more PT to contribute significantly. This is almost polar oppoite to what coaches actually do. They want to see contribution before given significant PT. Look at it this way: if a role player uses the excuse "Coach, I just need more PT to show you what I can do, ignore my practice time play and garbage time." Nearly everyone would say stf and show me with the time I'm giving you.
True, and that's how it should be IMO. Not saying this is what's happening in this thread, but it's a very lazy way that fans complain about coaches. "He should play this inexperienced guy more!" then if the guy does play and fails, it's "Poor playcalling by coach!" or "bad minutes distribution by coach!" Not to say that those aren't sometimes issues for coaches, but for the most part these 3 complaints are the primary complaints of the ignorant who come to occupy our ignore lists.
He won't be part of the rotation unless we have a lot of injuries. He should probably be in the the D league. He's a project at this point. I think the Rockets are hoping he develops a game simular to what Brewer does. Brewer is not a good outside shooter, but he is great in the open court, and brings huge effort all the time. KJ doesn't have the size and length of Brewer, so he may not have the success that Brewer has driving to the hoop. But KJ does have the athletic ability to get up and down the floor the same way Brewer does. If he could become a 35% three point shooter, I think he could be a solid rotation player.
Why are some of you already labeling KJ a bust? I don't know what you guys are expecting him to be. He's not going to be shooting like Klay Thompson all of a sudden. KJ is an athletic wing who is capable of being a lockdown defender. He just needs to learn being patience and it also comes with experience. He's a young 2nd year player who's still improving. He's a legit shot blocker at his position and his athleticism and energy alone will help this team a lot. KJ is part of the youth movement in this team. KJ, the rookies and Clint capela are growing together and hopefully they all turn out to be good NBA players which will benefit this team big time. KJ jump shot has improve from last season. Last year, his shot was pretty much non existent. This year you can see a slight improvement. But like every player, they have cold shooting nights. Harden has cold shooting nights all the time. No young NBA player becomes a knock down shooter in a single year. KJ will need time. It takes a few years for young player to be a good 3 pt shooter in this league. It doesn't happen over the summer. So relax guys. KJ has the athleticism and skills to be a really good player. He just needs to learn to slow down his game a bit. That will come with more experience. Once he's able to improve his shooting and hone his skills, he will be similar to jimmy butler before jimmy broke out.
He doesn't really look good so far, at all. He's just so terrible offensively it's hard to justify him getting minutes over Brewer, Thornton or Terry. I can see him as being effective in certain scenarios though.
You have to remember, KJ isn't an offensive type player. The rockets know that when they went after him. He's a raw prospect right now and the rockets are molding him into the player they want him to be. Look at jimmy butler in his 2nd year. He was horrible offensively and many think he will just be a defender. You can't expect KJ to be an offensive force over the summer. His role for this team is to bring energy and the rockets can throw a young energetic athletic wing on a scorer. His jumper really improved from last year. But you can't expect it to be a dramatic upgrade in one year. Young players like KJ needs time. Right now you can tell KJ is playing 100 miles an hour out there. With time and experience, the game will slow down for KJ. He will learn when to go for blocks and when to keep his ground. All young athletic shot blockers always anxious to go for blocks. The rockets are really grooming him. I remember how horrible D-Mo was his 2nd year. During the preseason in D-Mo 2nd year, everyone was labeling him a bust. It's only his 2nd year and he's still learning. Allow him to grow into his potential first guys before freaking out that he's not playing at an all star level.
KJ will likely be a pretty decent player with time. I didn't think he would, but some things have surprised me. 1) he can actually dribble the basketball 1a) he's a good slasher 2) he can move without the ball He needs to work on team defense, but his individual defense is already amazing. Obviously as we all know he has to develop his shot. Kid seems hard working and like he has some already standout qualities. I expect him to improve a lot. Right now he does not have it. Hopefully by the end of this year he shows something more. We shall see.
I know all of this and agree. But this year, he will not be in the rotation unless there are injuries. Just too many guys better than him on this roster.
I have serious doubts that you do not comprehend improvement through maturity, skill development and nurturing environment. Notice the growth in abilities over time and hard work by Lowry, Ariza, Beverly, Capela, D-Mo even Harden and Hakeem. No one would have thought Harden to be an MVP candidate before we traded for him, there were doubts he could even be a superstar. Then there were doubts about his defense. By all accounts, KJ has a great attitude and work ethic to go along with his insane athleticism. I'm going to bet on KJ to be a worthwhile NBA player, at the very least.
He can't shoot, he needs to be shooting jumpers all day long, the D-league and other places are littered with great athletes that aren't able to shoot. DD
Maybe I'm blind, but I'm a fan of KJ. Putting myself in his shoes - during pre-season many of the games he's come on VERY late (which has surprised me). I'm sure he wants to make an impression. He's also playing against less skilled players, but players who are fighting for rotation spots. Lets be honest, the 2nd half of most of the pre-season games has been rubbish. How many times has it just been a 3 point fest end to end. I'd like to see how he goes playing with some of the starters/bench against some starters/bench from opposition teams.
Second year in is still a bit early to make up one's mind about a player, but I'm underwhelmed so far by his progress over the summer with his shooting touch. And maybe its because he's still a young player or hasn't had enough consistent time to develop but his basketball IQ doesn't seem to be all that great. What I see is a player with off the charts athleticism, average to above average defender and so far not much else. Not giving up on the kid at all, but I have to say I'm not seeing what others are so excited about...at least not so far.
He has a place in the team and can contribute. He has elite athleticism to go with decent + defense. At least he is not a Dekker who has no single skill set good enough to contribute to this team
TWill was a NBA player, and he wasn't just all athleticism, he had a similar skill set to KJ. Good passer, ball handler, rebounder and finisher while having potential to be a really good defender. Both athletic freak SG's that are 6'6. Twill's problem was that he couldn't learn to play in a system on either side of the court, couldn't hit jumper and had off court issues. KJ has 2 of those problems. What will be the difference is if KJ can learn the system or develop a jumper, if he can't do either he likely won't end being a decent player.
His defense is actually kind of bad. He's great at help defense, and transition defense. I don't know if he'll ever be a lockdown man on man defender. Does he have the tools? Yes, but right now what I see is a very good help defender, someone who can crash the rebounds well and finish the break. If we can get him at 33% 3pt or higher, we're good.
