Similar with KPJ (and Green) when Wood did not play. https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/kevin-porter-jr.-stats-without-christian-wood-this-season https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/kevin-porter-jr.-stats-without-christian-wood-in-2021 Small sample size notwithstanding.
He's being rude. It appeared unprovoked, as well. Since there are 40,000+ members here, we all need to cut everyone some slack, in my opinion. Easy enough to say and can be difficult to do in practice. Assuming that others should have the same opinion that "you" do because "you" see that opinion as obvious is a bit egotistical, in my opinion. I don't doubt that I've been rude before, although it's usually more of a poor attempt at humor.
Back on the topic, another reason to slightly wait is to get a 'contract year' out of him this season. See what a motivated KPJ (without incidents) can give the Rockets.
The downside being, if you get that "contract year", you'll be paying A LOT more to keep him. He's not going to have a "contract year" then accept a discount rate. If the Rockets push him to RFA after a "contract year" the starting price will be 20+ mil a year, maybe even 25+. If he has a "contract year" that is similar to how he finished this past season, they could be looking at 30+ mil a year. The Rockets could most likely avoid all of that by handing out a discount rate of 15-18 mil a year right now. There's basically no risk, and a ton of reward on a deal like that.
If Scooter balls out you go from paying him 15Ms per to 20+ and further hoping another team doesnt get froggy and offer him some nutzoid contract ... that is the reason some of us would prefer an earlier extension. Kevin has spent most of his offseason in the gym with pro shot doctors and working on very specific aspects of his game that should translate. It boggles me that some guys are perfectly fine with projecting rookies to reach their ultimate ceiling without ever touching an NBA court, and the same cant be applied for KPJ? Do 22 year olds stop getting better? Oh thats right Scoot is going to burn down the Toyota Center, slap Silas, bang Tilmans wife throw his chicken nuggets at Stone and then start selling crack on the corner of Polk and LaBranch! Sheeeesh! I mean in reality we were OK with the Piru Blood gangbanger in John Wall and the rapist Anthony Lamb. Putting up with Scoots outbursts should be a walk in the park!
Had to laugh at that, "chicken nuggets" Food fights can be an exercise in team bonding and chemistry. Like when two players don't care for one another, let them put on the gloves and duke it out. Only thing with a food fight.....don't let the media get word of it. They will scream bloody murder. People are starving! Maybe just go with cheese wiz or whip cream fight. If you can dodge a wrench you can dodge a chicken nugget.
Been going back and forth on this. But just noticed Marvin Bagley signed a 3 year $37.5m extension. The same Marvin Bagley that has been a disappointment and bust his entire career so far, and only showed a slight uptick in the 18 games he played with Detroit. If that’s what you can get for $12m a year then locking Kpj up for $12-15m seems to be a no brainier, esp if it’s 2+1 year team option. The off the court stuff is being blown way out of proportion. Let’s recap Suspended in usc for undisclosed reasons. We can’t speculate because there’s no info. Suspended in cle, was charged for weapons and weed possession after they were found in a car accident. Those charges were later DROPPED. He was INNOCENT. Yet Cleveland continued to suspend him indefinitely. This was where the frustration stemmed from. The team was holding Porter hostage, and seemed to be trying to drive him out when they switched his locker without notification. Porter handled that extremely poorly and unprofessionally, no excuses there. But the situation as a whole, IMO, Cleveland was in the wrong. There was another supposed incident where he was accused of punching a woman. There’s police cam footage of the aftermath on YouTube. Let’s just say, the woman in question is utter trash, and had zero signs of being punched by a 6’6 grown ass athlete. In the footage she admits she’s coming after his money. No charges were filed. IMO, utter nonsense. Finally, his only so called incident with the Rockets, where he supposedly quit on the team. In reality, he was held out by the TEAM in the second half, and instead of hanging around he went home. There was no quitting, it was not up to him that he wasn’t allowed to play. Now what led to that decision by the team is up for speculation, from what it sounds like there was an altercation between him and Wood, who actually did quit on the team that game. Whatever the reason doesn’t really matter, because the “incident” is that he left, but he only left because the team told him he wasn’t allowed to play the second half. Again, perhaps not professional, did not handle it the right way, but he did not QUIT on the team like people are making it out to be. I think most of these incidents are blown way out of proportion. The people, even this site owner, saying one more incident and he’s out of the league are assuming he was guilty for all of his past incidents, when in reality he was either just in the wrong place at the wrong time, or flat out innocent in them. I will say that it is known that Porter was hanging around a bad crowd in his time in Cleveland, which may contribute to the wrong place at wrong time, time and again. Also you don’t want to see a history of incidents even if they are not as bad as they seem when you dig deeper, when there’s smoke there could be fire. I think all of that has to do with the people Porter chooses to surround himself with, and hopefully in Houston with Lucas and his woman he is starting to set himself up for success instead of failure.
Fwiw I am not all in on Porter for his on court play, there are still major question marks there, but he has also shown improvement. I am higher on Green than Porter, and I have been critical of Green. But I think it’s important to set the record straight on his off court stuff when that seems to be what is scaring people off. And I do think Porter is worth betting on, esp if the price is ~$15m and terms are short.
Not overpay if another team offer something higher end of next year, that'd be his actual market value. In which case Rockets org can decide to match or not. If he actually balls out, he deserves a bigger bag from us or another team. I really need more proof if his agent want over $15m per. A year where he is 1) motivated contract year 2) improve to a point where Stone paying for performance he has demonstrated instead of just 'potential' Outside of catch n' shoot, as a PG, can he run plays for Green and Jabari. Silas supposedly is opening up the playbiok this year, can he excel in this system and we win more than 20 games. 3) first year without any incident. Last year breaking team rule and drove home during halftime. Internally suspended by Rockets Org. Year before that broke NBA covid rules and strip club incident with Sterling.
Rockets are bidding against themselves for KPJ's services. It's like Christian Wood again. Malcontents who play when they feel like it and put up empty stats on bad teams don't demand much attention from other teams. You'll get him for the same type of contract at the end of the year as you will at the beginning. He hasn't shown enough to warrant a contract extension, unlike Tate. In the event that another team comes along and offers him 20 mill (which will not happen but let's pretend), you don't match and you promote TyTy or find another one in free agency. KPJ is like....the 4th or 5th most important player on this team in terms of development. Most of the real analysts are fairly diplomatic when it comes to him but if you read between the lines it's essentially this: if you want a deal done before the season starts, it'll be along the 10-12 million a year range with a lot of clauses in the contract for outbursts, showing up on time, etc (lol). This way if he does ball out you can make that decision down the road around the time it comes for a Jalen Green/Sengun extension.
True, but we should hold each other to a higher standard, else this becomes a CESS POOL of discussion. BTW am running the Trivia at Hye Rum on the last Thursday of every month....it is good fun. DD
Thanks D-rock, I have no doubt this kid is going to take off without Wood and Wall I entered numbers without John Wall in 20/21 https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask?q=kevin+porter+jr.+stats+without+john+wall+and+christian+wood+in+20/21 *19 pts...7.5 Ast...4.2 rebs...(16 games) *very close to my predicted numbers of 20 pts...7-8 Ast...5.5 rebs...34% (Ast%) [ 22/23 ]
Just want to add some spice to the mix.....because some are so caught up on TOV's Kevin Porter jr: (21/22)....3.1 TOV....24.1 (USG%)...30.7 (Ast%)...17.7 (TOV%) Doncic (21/22)..................4.5 TOV....37.4 (USG%)...46.0 (Ast%)...15.0 (TOV%) ***see below Ok so Doncic is better with only 1.4 more turnovers with such a high USG%. But the Mavs were 30th in PACE at 95.4.....Rockets were 2nd in PACE at 100.9 Faster you go, the tendency is to have more TO's. I don't make the rule.... just report it. ____________ Harden first season with us at PG: (12/13): 5.8 Ast...3.8 TOV.....14.9 TOV%..25.7 (Ast%)...29.0 (USG%) (13/14): 6.1 Ast...3.6 TOV.....15.0 TOV%..27.3 (Ast%)...27.8 (USG%) Porter (21/22): 6.2 Ast...3.1 TOV.....17.7 TOV%..30.7 (Ast%)...24.1 (USG%) ***Doncic listed as 97% PG with Mavs (21/22) basketball-reference.com Porter jr listed as 94% PG with Rockets (21/22)......... -same-
If JG or Sengun deserve an extension amirite? Or are we just going to give them close to a max level bag cuz they're nice guys? Labeling one of your own guys a "malcontent" who only plays when he wants when all of his incidents can be counted on one hand is a terrible way to fan in my opinion, but thats your right. Beauty for all the doubters is that you can always whip out the "glad I was wrong" card and POOF all the crazy narratives vanish. Sweet gig, but saying he's the 4th or 5th guy in the developmental pecking order is just your own opinion. I think Stone, Silas and the front office have already shown their interest in retaining him and it will all just boil down to the brass tacks. I'd prefer to sign him now and enjoy future flexibility, but Im also ok throwing him a max level deal if he does what I think he will this year. Crazy right? KPJ wasnt even old enough to attend the Strip Club Team Building event that the Piru Blood gangbanger John Wall thought would be a good way to bond. Scooter showed up after the fact when Browns wig was split open and the other guys left him there bleeding. Proper roster construct is striking BEFORE they become "stars" .. get them at VALUE to maintain a DYNASTY. Im not even sure some of you guys are actually debating in good faith if you havent seen Kevin demonstrate his ability on the court and how his numbers are EQUAL to what the topic darling Jalen Brunson had after his 5th season and yet he's deserving of a big bag and Kevin isnt? (yes I know I know MEANINGFUL GAMES ). Big hangup from what I can see has nothing to do with KPJs basketball acumen and everything to do with a personal moral compass and what each person feels is "correct" in a team, family, work setting. Its ok to have that thought and opinion, but lets not pretend to hide that within a skill debate after so many different layers of data have been put forth to support the extension. One more time for the guys in the back ..... WINNING NBA TEAMS DONT NEED A TRADITIONAL POINT GUARD TO WIN BIG GAMES ANYMORE. Bucket getters, playmakers, 3 point assassins and the ability to switch and defend is what gets it done. Good stuff nonetheless thanks for the chill approach.
The only good reason to give KPJ a big guaranteed long term contract I have heard so far is that his price might go up if he broke out this season. Well, if you are going to give him a big contract now, the price increase would not be that much anyway. Besides, if the guy becomes a superstar in a season (not impossible, granted), then pay him what he's worth. What's wrong with that? He is going to be a RFA. We won't lose him unless we see that he is not worth the money. Why don't we wait a bit longer to make that assessment. Simply put, the benefit of gambling with a large long term contract with KPJ is not big enough for the risk.
