What did people say were KPJ’s most needed improvements going into the season? I’ll answer: Defense - check, shooting - check, assists to turnovers - rough start but vastly improved since “the incident”. There is absolutely no reason to not give the man another year to work on his passing and court vision. Nix is just the next new shiny thing out of the g-league like Brooks. If Nix becomes a solid backup PG we should consider ourselves lucky. That said if jabari and Chet are gone you absolutely go Ivey and that may have to change the narrative and KPJ would become the odd man out and have to adjust to sf or a bench role.
KPJ’s 3 point shooting has been the biggest bright spot for him this year. This data would seem to indicate that KPJ is a better shooter the less he dribbles. He’s been elite at catch and shoot this year. Sooo maybe play to his strengths by letting him get plays ran for him rather than running the plays?
He's your 3rd wheel and he's expendable. JG and Sengun are the same. Right now, Rockets don't really have a foundational 1st wheel alpha player like LBJ, MJ, Kobe or Hakeem. I hope for a Jabari Smith to join the Rockets.
He is a ROLE player being asked to do way too much. He is a sixth starter on ANY team in the league a Ginobili / E Gordon type. This role lets him stay out the others while still getting his. He can play 1, 2, or 3 and maybe even some small ball 4 if needed. He should focus on keeping the score board moving while the starters get their rest. Then working the starters back into the game with his passing. Staggering his time to be ball dominant. I believe if he where to actually accept this role the sky is his floor because of the positive reinforcement he would receive from the league. His stat line would be only part of his effectiveness. He is not a traditional anything BUT…. Wonderfully different if USED right.
Those guys are 19 and 20. One or both of them will be cornersron players. MJ and Hakeem weren't even in the league at that age. I hope that one of Green and Sengun will be the alpha.
NBADraft.net actually posted an almost pin point assessment of KPJ 3 years ago for his scouting report that is practically the same assessment you can use with KPJ today. The assessment of his lack of discipline, focus, structure and not being team focused seems to ring particularly true even today.
Those numbers match the eye test. What I’d be more interested in is the team’s offensive efficiency based on the amount of time he has the ball.
That is all very informative data. This is the thing when it comes to KPJ the PG: there are all types of point guards, and few of them are CP3, Magic Johnson or John Stockton. MJ and Kobe won titles with the likes of Derek Fisher, Ron Harper, BJ Armstrong and Jon Paxon running the 1 beside them. We do not need KPJ to be a ball dominant facilitator. He needs to be able to play good defense and to hit the open J when playing off of Green. That's really it. Anything else is just icing on the cake. Now, I think that he CAN do more and when he is out there without Green maybe he does focus more on self creation. Regardless, these are the things we all agree that he is at least somewhat good at.
Except MJ and Kobe did it with the triangle which does not really require PGs. The triangle just somebody who can get the ball to the post, to MJ or Kobe to work. Still, with the current game, (triangle was obsolete already), you will need at least one playmaker. It's either a point forward or a point guard, both non existent in the current Rockets lineup. There are lots of guys in the team who will benefit from a playmaker. Heck, even 2nd stringers like Matthews and Tate will be better off with a playmaker. I hope Rockets prioritize it during the draft. For reference, just look at GSW when Green was injured and when he's back. The game just got easier for Curry and co.
What I think @sydmill was saying (and correct me if I'm wrong here, @sydmill ) is that Porter can still start and fill that traditional "PG" spot in the starting lineup but we shouldn't expect him to be a ball dominant point guard that needs to set up the offense for the team. Like @vator 's post pointed out, the less Porter holds onto the ball the more efficient he plays. I don't think by "limiting" him to a role where he plays defense and takes open shots is necessarily a bad thing--it's actually playing to his strengths. If we do end up acquiring a "traditional" table setter at point guard or even shift the offense to where Sengun becomes our Sabonis/Jokic-lite there's still room for Porter to shine. If anything, we can look back at the last 10 championship winners and see that a traditional, ball-dominant, do-all point guard really wasn't a requisite.
Use him as a bait trade piece to move up the draft with our BKN pick. He will self-destruct if you move him to the bench.
Exactly. Green, once he gets where we want him to be, is going to be a very high usage player. The offense can operate through Sengun for stretches of time and, with a little luck, out lottery pick is going to get significant touches on offense too. So KPJ really just needs to play off of those guys more than set the table for them. The rest of the squad will owe their open looks to Green/lottery pick's gravity and to Sengun's dimes. KPJ will basically be responsible for hassling the other teams 1 (who he should enjoy a physical advantage over most nights) and hitting the open looks he gets from his teammates.
I don't think the issue is what he's called. The issue is more what his role is and what he believes his role should be. While a traditional pg isn't really a thing anymore, most teams still have a guy or two who set up the offense more than anyone else on the team. I call them primary initiators. Doesn't necessarily have to be the "pg". Jokic is basically the primary initiator for Denver... It appears the team and kpj believe he's that kind of player....although it appears lately he's been ceding more possessions to Jalen. Basically, doesn't really matter what they call kpj other than for matchup purposes. He just needs to not be the person who is primarily responsible for getting the offense going.
As of 3/17/22, poll is 40/60 split that he's a building block. Yes 53 vote(s) 37.9% No 87 vote(s) 62.1%
KPJ did a good job scoring the ball today, but frankly the fact that he had 8 assists this game is pretty much an example of why he's playing completely out of position at PG. None of those assists were due to him generating gravity or creating an open shot, it was just a consequence of playing point and getting the ball going back to him every possession. I finished watching the game and was surprised he had 8 assists because I don't recall him making a pass off of a PnR or through drawing attention from drives.
