Yes, I noticed they have their tap shoes on dancing around: 1) behavior (if Rockets felt incident deserved greater penalty then they should have levied a greater penalty). Fix: Contract Year 2) Dribbles too much ( I expect him being asked to dribble 4-6 times as opposed to 7-10....league is going to that as a whole). Fix: corrects by proxy. 3) cleaner efficiency with passes (ahhh no spacing last year) teams packing the paint which made for little to no windows. Fix: Jabari, Tari....Kenyon, Tate, Sengun should be better 3-P shooters as they worked on it over the summer. 4) better decision making:Goes along with spacing. Greater spacing presents greater windows near the rim. Fix: hit now open targets near the rim and continue passing to 3-pt shooters that were open last season. All-in-all easy fixes.
You made my point for me. Coaching matters. Good players become unlocked under great coaches. And MDA took a mediocre combo guard like Lin and elevated him into an overnight sensation. Turned Nash from a decent starter into a 2× MVP. Imagine what he could do for KPJ and Green. MDA even rejuvenated Uncle Jeff's career, in his twilight. Silas is only capable of doing so much.
I wouldn't either. It's going to be very very interesting to see how much he improves. If he does in fact improve he could be the perfect player to put next to the other 4 starters on this team. A bench of: TyTy Christopher KPJ Tate Garuba Could be really really fun to watch How about this one LaMelo Ball Green Eason Jabari Wenbanyama TyTy Christopher Tate Garuba Sengun *How has Ball been on D? Seems like that team would be the opposite regarding length & wingspan from the last decade plus of Rockets teams
It's ok to acquiesce a point, my friend. You used Lin as an example for a player who could be great with a great coach. I pointed out that Lin, outside of one stretch, was always bad. You then said Lee was also made better by a great coach. I pointed out that he played well with and without a great coach. He played well when he was in his athletic prime, regardless of the coach. Now you're shifting and saying that a great coach can "unlock" a player. Ok, if that's true, then why did Lin suck ass once leaving NYK? Shouldn't he have been unlocked? Saying "coaching matters" isn't a trump card because, as I keep saying, everyone knows that coaching matters. It can help. If I just replied to every post you made here with "efficiency matters" that similarly would not be a trump card to anything. And again, I don't know what ANY of this has to do with KPJ being an inefficient scorer for his entire career. Lastly, even if MDA was some magician, he's not coming back here anyway because of Tildo and Co. You might as well be saying "imagine if we had prime Hakeem again."
This season should confirm if last season was an outlier or not. 3 seasons is fairly small sample size.
Eh it's hard to Gauge silas coaching ability fairly. He was hired to tank and develop the rookies. Everyone of importance looked better than they did before the season started. I do admit that the offense looks vanilla or simple as fk but that's more of a kpj pg ability/development than coaching. Defense could improve dramatically with or without coaching influence with Smith and Eason Like if he was hired to win then the story would b different.
Efficiency (and consistency) matters of course. Didn't think that required acquiescence. KPJ is certainly not perfect and I've pointed out, several times in this very thread, that he has serious questions he needs to address before Rockets re-sign him. But Rockets FO is fully invested in KPJ at PG experiment. This should be obvious to everyone, even the KPJ is garbage and will always be garbage truthers. And the fact is that KPJ has improved at PG. And while a 3 year vet, he has only had a single full season as a NBA PG. And I agree that MDA not likely to return. But Rockets need a better coach than Silas. None of these young players will reach their potential with him imo.
I don't need your attention. You guys have the same circle jerk around KPJ every day and post losers twitter to justify it
I think maturity tends to work itself out naturally for all men. KPJs upbringing is a tough one. I believe many of his issues stem from that and while Im not making excuses for him being a knucklehead at times I do find some sympathy there. His new girl seems to have a profound impact on his life for all the right reasons. As far as the decision making I think having a more balanced team will help him immensely. He wont need to feel anxious about having to be "the guy". Sengun will help out a bunch in the playmaking department. Jalen will do his thing. Jabari hitting open shots will make things easier which in turn should help alleviate your concern #2. Spreading out the assignments, having a real game plan and instituting advanced coaching schemes should all benefit the team and the players. Last year was a bunch of hoopers playing pick up. This year I want to see these guys attack weaknesses with a real system and start learning how to win. Scoot DOES have work to do I think any of his fans would agree. He's not a finished player yet, but there is enough there to have some optimism and hope that he can be special. Doubts are fine - the cavemen running around grunting and groaning about "idiots and dummies" havent even tried to have a sensible discussion so huge respect to you. I hope KPJ can make us all proud of him as a Rocket player.
The talent and ability are obviously there. Players don't just stumble into 50 point games. My issue with KPJ has always been maturity and how he will react when things aren't going his way. Last time that happened, he took his ball and went home. That was a very recent occurrence too. Even little kids know better, never mind 22 year olds.
Let's ask Raf and coaching staff how good Eric Gordon's defense is. Any objective viewer, that has watched enough Eric Gordon, knows he is still a stud defender on a crappy team. You can put him on KD in a playoff game, or Chris Paul, and he can defend both, still. He has proven it over and over again. Playoff EG is a defensive menace. That's a fact. Anyone that has watched EG throughout the years knows this, and the first thing uneducated Twitter users do is shout down EG's stellar defense. Again, can't boil defense down to one number, or even two numbers.
Not the KPJ "excuse hour" and certainly he's not the only young kid to have to deal with serious issues, but I dont know many 22 year old grown ups who had their dad murdered at a young age and are totally fine and "mature". Most of them usually carry some baggage. He's working through it I can only hope with professional therapy and Im rooting for him to succeed. Just one human wanting another human to rise above. You are 100% justified to question his mental approach and maturity, but not all expectations are created equal.
Bro your holding onto yesterday. Playoffs? Cmon back down to reality for a minute. How many 34 year old wings in the NBA are "awesome" defenders? Appreciate the passion.
Don't get me wrong, I AM rooting for his success personally both as a fellow human and as a Rockets player. KPJ overcoming past demons and rising up is fantastic for people in his position looking for role models as well as for team success. My reluctance is giving him a big contract, because I am not convinced it would be a good idea, at least so soon (imo). That said, IF we do extend him, I will support him.
Just wait until we have screeners that actually dive to the rim. We will have teams in a pick your poison scenarios again. Can't wait to have 1) G4, Porter, JC the point of attack in the Spain PnR, 2) Jabari sets the first screen and pops out to the 3-pt line 3) Tari, WCS, Garuba, Bruno sets the second screen and dives to the rim. Things are going to open up and make reads easier. All success this season is going to be pending 3-pt shooters hitting their 3's......as with the best NBA teams. It's honestly amazing the G4, Porter, JC, Sengun did as well as they did stat wise with an always packed paint. Sengun does well this year if 3-pt shooters draw guys out of the paint and Sengun can operate in the post. Even for Sengun to be successful in that Olynyk role of above the break running the hub of the offense... he needs less traffic clogging up the paint. It was tough enough to contain Jalen Green and Porter with a packed paint.... just wait until space is cleared. It's going to be slice-n-dice baby!!!!!