KPJ: Can someone explain to me why he has become Clutchfans favorite whipping boy?

Nonsense. You are literally doing what you accuse others of -- ignoring a good trend to harp on a few bad spots. The fact is that KPJ is a 22 year old averaging nearly 20/6/6. He is not bad a player who had a good game; he is a good, young player with deficiencies who is improving upon them.

 

There's nothing unfair about it. He's had poor efficiency his entire career. I've been posting about it for years, it's been my biggest issue with him since he's been on this team. I said it before last season, that his biggest issue was his poor efficiency and it needs to improve, and he didn't improve it. And then I said it again before this year. What's unfair about that? What exactly am I being "called out" for?

 

How is this a flat out lie. The only 3-4 areas he has shown any sort of improvement in are FT%, FTr (good to see both improving), PER (just barely), and TS% (just barely thanks to games at Miami, Orlando, and Chicago). Everywhere else, he has either been consistently inefficient or have gotten worse. Here is the thing, getting higher numbers at the same percentages is NOT improving. It is simply doing more of the same, which is bad when you are inefficient at it.

• Improving as a person - Big whoop... I am not Santa. As long as they perform up to par, I don't care if they are a devil or a saint.
• Improving as a player - Statistically, this is mostly false.
• Improving as a leader - Easy to do if you have never been a leader in your entire NBA career. Also, if KPJ is our team's leader going forward, we are in deep trouble.
• Improved understanding of how to run a team - Statistically, this is completely false.

 

I'm not talking about you, necessarily, unless his efficiency is the ONLY thing you post about, like others do. Whenever someone defends KPJ by bringing up his other attributes, that poster bombarded with, "Yeah, but he's been inefficient!!!" That's the unfair part -- not that KPJ's efficiency is unfair criticism (which it is), but that many believe it overrides everything and that he does and, to quote others on in this thread, "he is what he is" in this regard, implying that he can't improve. Then those same people peace out the moment he has a good game. It's sad.

 

"we won! KPJ actually had a pretty good game - awesome right?"

 

Hilarious. "He's not improving anywhere EXCEPT in the areas that people bash him the most!" Get over yourself.

Your statement that "getting higher numbers at the same percentage is NOT improving" is absurd. Yes, it is harder to obtain higher numbers at the same percentage when your usage increases. That's what Per36 can be an unhelpful metric if you use it to compare a bench player to a starter. It is, however, helpful to evaluate a player's overall improvement when his minutes increase. Oh, and on that point -- he averaged 17.9 points per36 last season and 20.2 per36 this season. That is a massive improvement on an equalized scale.

Funny how you don't increase include his biggest statistical improvement -- 2pt%. .456 last season and nearly .5 this season. His defensive rating has also improved, as has his steals per36, rebounds per 36. etc. Sorry, but, to quote you, "Statistically, [your post] is completely false."

 

2nd game of the year that he looked the part of a quality lead guard. Play that way regularly and it would shut up all the doubters. No doubt.

INCLUDING myself.

 

“people are fine with him as long as his shots fall”

No kidding. The main knock on him is his low efficiency combined with the high turnover rate. If he can continue to make shots and improve his efficiency, I’ll be fine with him. I have my doubts, but I’ll gladly eat crow if he proves me wrong.

 

Can someone provide statistical data on Green getting good looks from Sengun? Because I feel like the roles are reversed and Green provides good looks for Sengun.

Can you show me how Sengun helped Green have a efficient night yesterday?

 

His TS% prior to last nights game was exactly at his career average. As in up to that point, it hadn’t shown improvement.

@harold bingo and I being probably the two people who have harped on his efficiency the most in this thread I know for an absolute fact that both of us clearly have said over and over that neither one of us expected his efficiency to remain ~53 TS% for his entire career and that some improvement would eventually occur, but our question was to what level would it reach and would that level be high enough for someone whose role was the 2nd highest volume shooter on a contending team.

Being at league average efficiency for a PG(which he isn’t yet)isn’t good enough for that role. If he finishes this season at that level, it will obviously be a big step in the right direction.

 

Oh ok, well this is kinda me, but kinda not. I mean I'm cheering him on and I don't disappear when he has a good game, I recognize it. But I do think that efficiency is the only thing that matters until he gets there. If you want to be an effective offensive player (in my opinion), you can't do that as an inefficient scorer. That doesn't mean its the only thing that matters once he gets there, there are lots of other things that matter of course, but if you AREN'T efficient, then it kind of is the only thing that matters. It's a minimum requirement. There are very few exceptions to this rule, you can probably count them on one hand, but it holds true in general.

The other area where I'd really like to see him improve is his AST/TOV numbers. That could mean increasing assists, or decreasing turnovers, or both. And this one isn't as numbers based and more of a "making the right read" thing, but the numbers do an okay job of quantifying his effectiveness in this area. As others have brought up regarding this, we are a very poor shooting team, so that needs to be taken into consideration here too.

If he improves in those two areas I think he has all star potential, and I've been consistent on all of this. I think it's all fair criticism.

 

The biggest problem with KPJ as a pg for this team is that he wants to be the playmaker and play finisher. He dribbles the ball a lot because yes initially he is trying to create an open look for a teammate but gives up and tries to score and the reason for this is that he rarely decides "you know, this time I don't have to be the one directly responsible for an assist. I can use a single screen and make the quick pass and generate a chain of passing" because he wants that assist recorded. Things like hockey assists aren't recorded really or at the very least people don't pay attention to them. This leads to situation s where KPJ only passes the ball when he's 100% certain it will lead to a direct bucket. He can't do this every time he starts dribbling the ball as a pg. That's the stuff that microwave oven 6th men do or players at the level of Luka or Harden do.

That's the primary issue with KPJ as a POINT GUARD. As a PLAYER he's really talented and can be a key part of the future core.

 

I NEVER SAID HE WAS A BAD PLAYER AND FACTS ARE NOT NONSENSE. KPJ is not a good point guard in general and he's not good at decision making. If he was this great point guard that you guys try to make him out to be we'd be winning and his numbers would be better. Yes he is a overall good player but he isnt being played to his strengths. I know you feel emboldened by this past game and you guys really are acting cocky as if we dont want him to be great. I hope he plays like that every game aside from ball hogging in the fourth. He had 9 assists to 2 turnovers, which by far IS NOT HIS NORM. Im not really sure what youre going on about but that wasnt normal KPJ. If KPJ played like that normally Id be saying "you guys lay off of him" BUT HE DOESNT. Most guys here wouldnt be saying **** about him if he played like that normally. This is the NBA any player is capable of going off for one night. The test will be consistency and decision making. The fact that people are shocked that he actually gave Sengun the ball in his spots speaks volumes about our "point guard". I hope this means he's turned the corner I truly do.

 

Just flat out lying.

DD

 

Let the man have his and evaluate him by trade deadline or after the season.

So far he hasn't tossed a salad or soup so kudos.

 

Exactly this

My feelings towards KPJ is almost directly associated with how quick his decisions are. I was OK with us experimenting with him as a PG because teams who tear fown their whole roster in a rebuild will always have players playing out of position. I was even OK with the lengthy dribble sessions at first because playing PG is really hard to learn. But, after a while it got frustrating watching him dribble too much, which had a major domino effect on the offense.

 

He reminds me of Jordan Clarkson and he should probably be a sixth man not our starting PG. The ball stays in his hands way too long, he makes slow telegraphed passing decisions, he stop start is elite but he turns the ball over too easily and he gambles on defense which has led guards to have career nights against us. He is an elite catch and shoot player, again his stop and start is elite and he has length and hops. He just is a two guard on a team with Jalen Green. Not sure what position he should play but having Sengun taking playmaking out of his hands and being point center and then staggering KPJ and Jalen seems to be a good formula. Some people have good PG instincts and some don’t. I don’t think KPJ has them but he is an incredible talent and it’s fun to see him play well and mature.

 

LOL OK

 

Hilarious. "He's not improving anywhere EXCEPT in the areas that people bash him the most!" Get over yourself.
You mean in the areas most important to both a playmaker and scorer, the areas where he needs to work on most? You mean those areas? That's like knocking on people criticizing how Ben Simmons hasn't improved his shooting. But you do you, boo!

Your statement that "getting higher numbers at the same percentage is NOT improving" is absurd. Yes, it is harder to obtain higher numbers at the same percentage when your usage increases.
Scoring more with the same shooting percentages is not an improvement. It is simply doing the same thing with greater volume. Now, shooting more with decreased percentages, that is called REGRESSION.

Funny how you don't increase include his biggest statistical improvement -- 2pt%. .456 last season and nearly .5 this season.
Funny how you are only comparing it with last year. How about being honest and acknowledging the fact that 0.498 is actually the 2nd LOWEST 2pt% in his 4 year career?

Sorry, but, to quote you, "Statistically, [your post] is completely false."
LOL... OK