Exactly if he is such a HARD WORKER - like we have heard, he is not working on the right stuff. Dribbling Off ball movement Hesitation moves Euro Step Stop and pop defensive awareness OVERALL FUNDAMENTALS I expected him to be much more advanced fundamentally than he is......he looks like a guy who has been faster than everyone else and has taken advantage of that, but his fundamentals are seriously lacking......needs to improve those to get to that next level. DD
I'm worried about our coaching staff prioritizing, enabling and babying a known malcontent over prized rookies with a history of work ethic and appropriate mentality.
If you mean enabling KPJ to improve dramatically on defense, increase his assists and minimize his turnovers, while shooting a good % from three and making clutch plays down the stretch, then by all means lets keep enabling him. Patience for both of these young men is what is needed and both will be really good players for years to come. Thank God, the people in my life didn't write me off for all the mistakes and horrible decisions I made at that age.
You put Green into the game - we are much worse, and increase our chance of losing at this time. I would prefer he earn his way onto the floor. DD
So you would rather play guys who ceiling is decent role players like Brooks and Nwaba, then give one of the future cornerstones of the team the experience he needs. It doesn't matter if he runs with the firsts or the seconds to me, but he needs to get his minutes. As long as he is busting his ass in practice he needs to get minutes with the big club. His defense is still bad, but the last game he showed significant progress. He can't learn how to not get blocked at the rim by sitting on the pine.
I would play the best player available - if that is Green - great, if someone else gets you a better chance, they play - for me, Green would need to BEAT OUT those other players. Right now, I would start Armoni or Mathews over Green because they are better NBA players, and I would let Green come in with the 2nd unit and let him and Sengun work together. I don't believe in playing someone because they were drafted high, that is what gets GMs and coaches fired, and other players lose confidence because they know they should be playing and are better..... Best man plays - period. DD
Or maybe they should be prioritizing the guys who can actually win games. Green has a ways to go before he is in that category. Why are you so scared to let him actually earn his role/mins?
Not so you can win enough games to get into a play-in and be routed in the first round of the playoffs. This isn’t high school, this is a professional basketball re-build. Prolonging the re-build but not giving rookies the experience they need and screwing your chance at an answer to our decades old PF issue is not smart. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Patience grasshopper.
I don't believe in that at all, I think winning begats winning - we were not a broke terrible team when we traded for Harden making us a top contender. Building through the draft doesn't work anymore, when was the last draft built team a champion? There have been more champions built through trades, and free agent signings than through the draft in the last 20 or so years.... Drafting unknowns or HOPEFULS puts you on a carousel to nowhere - got to build around NBA talent, not players that MIGHT become NBA talent. Flip those maybe's for sure things that fit together. I think culture matters, I think trying to win matters, I think EARNING it matters......all of it builds to a contender. DD
Agree with you in that patience is needed. Part of the process is prioritizing the development of the high upside guys while taking flyers on fringe guys that could pan out. Rockets are seemingly doing it backwards. KPJ should've been cut the minute he stormed out of the locker room. The team needs a winning culture and treating him with mittens isn't that. He's going to act right for a bit and then revert back to his normal way of being. They usually do. I'll be willing to admit to being wrong if he ends up getting it right and becoming an integral piece to playoff runs. I've just seen this story before with other individuals and it usually ends poorly. Sengun and Green should be the priorities.
You don't develop a winning culture by cutting your best young player on a whim. That's how you become a joke of a franchise.
I agree 100% Wait, what? Didn't you just say, take flyers that could pan out? You must be very young, the NBA has plenty of star players that started off roughly as young players and found their way, Charles Barkley, Hakeem, some of the very best had tempers and had to grow up. Will it happen? Dunno, but he is only 21 - and he is playing very good basketball - he is closer to finding his peak than many others. DD
