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

Just like how McHale kept quiet after he left the team about much, much smaller stuff?

 

Given how much the organization kept on "showing their love" to the point where I wonder if hes truly misunderstood and that all his antics were overblown, that was clearly never in the cards. Honestly the public praise felt awkward before this incident and now it really feels awkward. Like surely people knew behind the scenes he's at least a pretty crappy human being, right? Why hitch your wagon to a guy like that when he's not even a star player? If he played like Harden I'd get it. But he's a low end starter high end backup level with huge baggage.

 

Your bull headed defense of KPJ despite Nook giving you behind the scenes examples that he hadn't changed and KPJ giving you on the court examples of not having done so leaves you and Bobby in need of changing your attitudes. You both need to wake up and realize you need not to double down when the deck was stacked heavily against you being right or else you will continue to look foolish, KPJ screwing up was just a matter of time to even the most pedestrian Rockets fan.

 

Tbh until the facts are released I'm going to reserve judgement. In a era where players are waving guns on camera, this isn't a career ending situation

 

I am as straight up anti-gun as they come. I hate them. I wish they didn't exist. I am for very strong regulations. And I say all of that only to say this; I still don't think waiving a gun around on camera is anywhere near as bad as assaulting a woman.

P.S. Don't @ me on the gun debate. I'm not here to turn this into the D&D and I think it's a pointless debate anyway. I'm quite okay with people having different opinions.

 

Sunken cost and delusion probably. I get it though, when Harden was traded Stone was desperate to find talent. He desperately wanted KPJ to be some turn his life around success story. It's just too bad KPJ was neither that talented nor was he all there mentally despite our efforts.

We have enough projects now, time to cut our losses, and it's not like we are losing much either, KPJ wasn't that good

 

I hope so.

 

Although the cost was low, bringing in players like KPJ for a rebuild was a mistake. He had a leadership position here which had to be awful for the culture, especially next to Wood. This isn't even the first time KPJ has been accused of beating a woman. I wasn't aware of the first incident as a fan, but the Rockets probably were. Contrast this with the Spurs who cuts ties with Primo after his rookie year. They were talent starved too, but had zero tolerance in comparison.

 

No one talks about that anymore - and his wife let out that he asked Harden to play D - the world moves on......everyone loves John Lucas, and he ****ed this franchise up by getting tossed out of the league for Cocaine when we had a championship roster.

People move on, the world moves on......and things reset.

DD

 

Totally agree that KPJ being a leader was very bad for the rebuild and at times wonder how much it effected Green as they became similarly one dimensional players with KPJ actually looking better.

 

You failed to mention that half of the league was into the snow stuff. Different times.

This is more like black sheep among any white ones.

 

It makes sense if you know how Tilman operates his businesses. He likes people he can take advantage of. Flawed but talented people with a history that he can control. Kind of like Kevin Spacey in House of Cards.

 

Not trying to be argumentative, but I don’t love Lucas. I’m old enough to remember all that stuff from the 70’s and 80’s. I’m also no longer a fan of Calvin. Those guys did some bad stuff and I still remember.

However, I do understand that I’m in the minority on this. I am happy that Lucas does seem to have straightened out his life.

 

Seems very clear that both TyTy and Garuba are seen as non-prospects around the league at this point, considering both of them were waived even before training camp, and then were completely unclaimed on waivers, despite the fact that any team claiming would have been able to take on the structure of their full rookie deals, complete with Y3/Y4 team options.

I think you could argue Christopher gets one more shot with no KPJ here, but I think if you've decided you're not picking up his 4th year option (and if you don't pick it up, his trade value goes to zero), it's probably better to try and move him early in the off-season, while cap room and roster spots are still abundant, rather than after final roster cuts. To call him a medium-end prospect is pretty generous; I'd argue he was a second-round talent who was slightly over-drafted, played better than expected in his rookie year, but has not done much to justify a second contract above the veteran minimum at this point.

Assume you're kidding about the DPE, but less than zero chance that the NBA is going to take an action where they determine KPJ has a disabiling condition related to mental health: it would undermine their bargaining position for future CBAs regarding situations like Ben Simmons to recognize MH as a major disabling condition without concessions from the players union. Secondly, their insurer would almost certainly balk at paying out 80% of KPJ's salary for a disabled player. Finally, they absolutely would not want their evaluation of KPJ to be used as a mitigating factor in his future civil and criminal cases stemming from this incident.

 

At the end of the day, a GM's first priority is to not get fired, to not lose the owner money, and to make the the team competitive in the long-term, in that order. Acquiring KPJ for nothing was the the one uniformly net positive move that Rafael Stone made during his first year with the team. I personally think that Stone decided that when he was going to ask for a contract extension, having KPJ as a major contributor / team leader was going to be the centerpiece of the discussion. Seems pretty clear that he categorically mis-evaluated the talent and market value of literally every major piece they could have had in the Harden deal (Jarrett Allen, Taurean Prince, Victor Oladipo, Caris LeVert), Jalen Green over Evan Mobley is not decided yet but is the kind of move that sets a franchise back a decade, and seemingly got his pocket picked by Orlando with Banchero over Jabari. His marquee free agent acquisition of Christian Wood failed because he's Christian Wood. I love Tari Eason, but he's not saving your job alone.

It is beyond me why he didn't tie his future to Sengun instead of KPJ though; honestly trading into the draft for a 4th first rounder was a more ballsy and impressive move than taking a flyer on a guy whom the rest of the league had given up on. Not saying that Sengun is a guarantee to reach his potential, but the Rockets sat $44M of salary to try and feature KPJ as the PG, then in consecutive seasons put a minimum salary in front of Sengun, then try and move heaven and earth in a S&T this offseason to put $25M of commitments in front of him this offseason.

 

How is Banceheo pick pocketed? Why would you want him if you think there is a chance that Jalen Green being chosen over Mobley could set this franchise back a decade?

If you believe that logically that means you believe not getting Banchero is beneficial because he literally had a worse rookie season than Green and it's even worse if you adjust to relative values of the season as Bancjero's rookie year had a 2% increase in average ts% compared to Green's rookie year.

 

There is way more I could say about Lucas, but that is just being petty now, he sorted himself out.

DD

 

?!?!?!?!

 

One was past, one is present.

Unless KPJ helps other athletes out, he has still not done the good stuff Lucas has.

I do not see how those 2 are comparable.

 

lol. Just stop man. Finally I have a reason to put u on ignore. I’ve wanted to for some time. You’re very credible.