Kevin Porter Jr will be the Rockets MVP (most versatile player) next season

His primary position is held by someone who at the moment is considered our best player in FVV.

This team also isn't at the same place it was 2 seasons ago when guys like Jalen could play 30+ minutes as a rookie because the team was gutted and they were tanking.

The team right now is stacked with talent, most of it unproven but it's talent that still needs minutes. Sure if in the 18-20 minutes Amen plays his first month shows more contributions to winning than someone like Jalen or KPJ, he might eat up some of their minutes and eventually get starter level minutes by the end of the season.

 

Honestly we have no idea who will get what minutes and it will probably change several times as Ime looks at all the players.

DD

 

He was sulking on the court last year.....

 

There's just too many mouths to feed and only one basketball.

Ime wants to win

Lack of shooting lessens his minutes at
PG and SF since both are positions that are stacked. Defends SG's but SG's on offense
need to be able to shoot.

Pecking order of facilitators will probably be VanVleet, Jalen Green, Sengun, KPj, Jabari, then Amen. Amen is a rookie and will need to learn
NBA defense. Summer league was vanilla defense compared to what he will see.

His defense vs Scoot was uber aggressive .
Playing the same in the NBA game will result in a lot of fouls. Rookies don't get the calls.

Once Amen and Whitmore we're drafted....
I had them getting significant minutes.
But then they paid VanVleet $43M and Dillon
$20M. Both will get there huge minutes at both positions Amen will play.

Once KPj and Tate are traded.....then Amen and Whitmore will get more minutes. It's an Ime wants to win thing. That trump's development. Unfortunately.

 

That is not a big deal - most players do that at times, a good coach yanks em out and says enough.....hell I had a coach that would literally yell at some of our teammates "POUT LATER"......

You are too critical because you don't like him.

DD

 

You are too emotionally invested in him to see the truth, KPJ is a professional not one of your 7th Grade C Team fellow bench jockeys back in the day. There are ongoing reasons why KPJ didnt get a fully guaranteed deal. Most players don't do that. Immature players do it.

 

He's never going to convince you. You have a false perception of him & it won't change. I actually think he's one of the veteran leaders on this team & good locker room presence

 

Yeah, he had some moments when his egotistical attitude got the best of him. Was definitely an improvement though. At least he didn't f***ing leave or throw soup at anybody.

We'll see how he responds to Udoka. Sink or swim time.

 

His skillset is perfectly made to be the 6th man.....

 

This normalization is, by far, the most irritating defense of KPJ.

If his bullsh*t doesnt bother you personally, that’s fine. If you are a huge fan of his talent and are willing to overlook some red flags, also fine.

But let’s not act like his most egregious behavior is ‘normal’. He has acted out on a basketball court with jackassery I’ve never witnessed from any other person, and I’ve seen and attended many, many games. That doesnt mean he will be a bust, but it does mean his behaviors arent something ‘everyone else does too’.

 

I think this is completely false. KPJ is not overpaid. He is one of less than 20 players averaging 19/5/5 and one of less than 50 with a PER over 16 last season.

There are LITERALLY 100 players / 50 guards making more than KPJ this season. He's the third Highest paid player on this team and probably the third best player. Definitely the third best player not on a rookie deal. We paid John Wall more to not play one season than Kevin Porter will make in the next 3 years. Also, only 1 million dollars of his contract is guaranteed right now and only 6 mil is guaranteed until 5 days after the trade deadline. KPJ bet on himself with a very team friendly contract and has every reason to be a model player. Also, he clearly has the athletic talent and skill to be a productive NBA player. He has gotten better every year and can play multiple positions. I think there is little chance a team would cut him after a trade, because you cannot get a player that is better than him for less.

That being said, I think there is little chance Kevin Porter will really be the most versatile player, because he is limited by his height. Yes he may play the most positions on offense, but we have at least 3 guys who can guard 4 positions. I think Amen, Whitmore, Eason, Dillon, and Jabari all are more likely to be the Rockets most versatile player

 

putting up empty stats isn't worth much, look at christian wood. People don't want guys like that, if kpj was a free agent there's no chance in hell he's touching 16 mil a year

 

Correct but sometimes Immature players mature - players like Rasheed Wallace, or Hakeem, or Barkley, or Iverson, or Artest, or Tmac, or Kobe (who quit during a playoff game) or Horry who threw a towel in his coaches face......so so many others that have pouted during games and grown from it.

He was 22 with no accountability, clearly you haven't been a father yet, or you would probably understand.

Kids make mistakes they grow.....it happens all the time.

No one is excusing him for pouting - he should have been immediately benched as a result, but that is on Silas - the point is that kids mature......at different rates, especially ones who's fathers weren't around.

If KPJ continues to whine and pout he will be gone, but I suspect IMe will get the most out of him out of all the coaches he has ever had, and THAT will be fun to watch.

Most young players are desperate to get their fathers or coaches approval - let's see what happens....and yes, I know I am into the psychology of it......and it is not something most here consider.....

DD

 

Key difference with the players you listed here is that they've all proven something in the league or were top picks. KPj doesn't have a single thing to hang his hat on. Not one. He was a late 1st with significant issues who hasn't put together a consistent season yet. Add to a myriad of on the court and off the court instances and well...we all know. These slip ups last year and the year before cost him millions of dollars on his next contract.

His best bet is to defer to Amen on the 2nd unit, play solid defense, and shoot when Amen passes him the ball. He can do the hero-ball iso thing when he absolutely has to. At least this way he can prove the one thing he needs to prove. That he can be a valuable member of a functioning basketball team.

 

Just an anecdote about perception around KPJ.

Doesn’t mean these guys are 100% right. Or that 100% of the teams and their decision makers agree with these 2 guys, but….

On their latest podcast Simmons and Russillo decided to do an expansion draft. 2new teams (Seattle and Vegas), 8 players from each current team can be protected from the expansion draft and only 1 unprotected player from each current team could be drafted.

When Houston was brought up KPJ was not one of the players they protected from our roster and predicted we wouldn’t protect him either if this exercise was real. The one guy from our roster that was drafted for the expansion teams was Landale. Both said they wouldn’t be interested in drafting Porter and handing him the keys. Put him in a small group of guys DLo, Wood and Porter that neither would want for their expansion team.

 

Tmac`s decisions got worse with age.

 

My oldest son is 35, get outta here with your bs assumptions. The jury is still out on Ime since he let his pecker derail his career in his only season as a head coach. Ime has some credibility issues to overcome. So let's not crown him the disciplinarian of all time.

KPJ was a black hole on offense on a bad team and got his numbers at others expense, The maturity jury is still out on KPJ since he never stopped being immature and he has you on a leap of faith at this point that he ever will.

As a member ot team management, Ime needs to prove he can set a better example as acting like a professional on and off the court. Using your father figure analogy, I can't say I'd respect my father if I saw him do his woman the way he did Nia Long.

 

Making KPJ as the main PG for two seasons in a lot of way stunted his development. We should have pulled the plug in the beginning of last year when we realized the year before he doesn't have the vision and IQ to be a PG. If anything it created really bad habits of constantly overdribbling and stalling the offence.

I don't really know what to do with KPJ, he has not shown enough improvements to take him out of the jack of all trades and master of none territory. He needs to focus on becoming a non-pg scorer to stay useful in this league, because no other team (not even the Rockets this year) would let him run an offence as the main ball handler.

 

I think most people would protect these seven:
Green
Sengun
Smith
VanVleet
Eason
Thompson
Whitmore

The 8th would be between Brooks, Landale, Tate, and Porter.

I would protect Landale and hope they would take either Brooks or Porter. But I think the Rockets would most likely protect Brooks and Landale or Tate would be taken.