Why can't that be KPJ? And who is going to be the 2nd or 3rd banana over KPJ? Sengun is not a rare commodity he is a big who can't play the 5, guard at a high rate on the perimeter or shoot the 3 at a high rate and is turnover prone, the only thing rare is his passing. Sengun is currently my favorite player, but he is not that rare. It's a possibility that Green is never better than a Lou Wiliams or Jamal Crawford if we are being truthful with ourselves when projecting what players could be.
Can you explain what you mean by trending up? I think one of the biggest criticisms of him is the lack of improvement. Do you just mean the off-season perception? I’m interested to hear more on this.
Sure beats the doom and gloom of trashing your own players and expecting the worst. Im here for Jabari Smith and any other Rocket becoming a league fixture and top tier player.
Lack of improvement? His numbers were up across the board, and they got better as the season went along and spiked in the last 20 games or so. How can anybody say he has not improved? How can you not see it? I'm interested to hear more on this.
What numbers are up across the board? His points and assists were slightly down from last year, his efficiency has been stagnant over all three years in the league. His stretch to end the season was great, I hope that’s legitimate improvement and not just a hot streak.
Lets just remove all the anecdotal noise from the conversation. No headcase moment waiting to happen and no "KPJ is the next star" fan sentiment. It would be easy to just point at the yearly stat line, but that can be too surface level when trying to determine "worth" especially when last year was only a 26 game sample -- KPJ was able to keep that same production among all the chaos on the roster and having to introduce 3 rookies onto the team. The vision with him as a core member for me stems from the deeper dives that have been done regarding his percentiles as a playmaker, his capability as a shooter and off ball threat in both contested "hard" shots and making the "easy" ones at a fair clip too, his size at the position, his innate passing skill, being defended by the best defender on opposing teams and still producing. I would even say his dribble package is elite. Kid is like a 5 tool baseball player there is not much he cant do on the court. You cant just look at one data point - you MUST be able to look at this laterally and use some deductive reasoning. After all the work he's put in this summer is it sensible to think he would regress? I guess its possible. He's been in the gym all summer. He seems settled down and focused. When you start to put all these things together and propose a risk management strategy in the investment it honestly seems like a no brainer to lock him up on the "cheap" unless the team is perfectly fine in allowing the player to move the scale higher by his on court play which seems to be the case. I dont think Stone will hesitate to pay him 20+ next year if he can become more efficient on offense and if he can be more of a force on the defensive side. Now if Scoot plays himself into a max level deal THAT will really test this fanbase.
Jabari isn't "advertised" to be that. He has a whole lot of tape showing that. He also has a history of having a good head on his shoulders, having a great parental figure in his life, great work ethic and a short memory when it comes to failure. The greatest thing Jabari showed this Summer League was that he didn't pout and slack on defense when things didn't go his way on offense. No one worries that Jabari can hit 3's at a good clip. The only real question mark with him is his handle which will require a ton of work to be serviceable. But he has game breaking height/release point and defensive switchability. "Better Ryan Anderson" is an All-Star. Ryno was a great player.
His 2pt% was down a lot, which has been way below league average. His FT% was down a lot, which has been way below league average. His eFT% was down, which has been way below league average. His scoring was down slightly. His TS% remained about the same, which has been way below league average. His assists remained the same. His turnover rate remained the same. The only thing he improved to above league average was 3p%. But it has been wildly inconsistent throughout his career. We don't know if it was an outlying season or not. Simply put, his efficiency has not improved, which has been way below league average. This has been expressed many times in this thread, which you just choose to ignore. If he does not improve on his efficiency this season, he is a below average combo guard.
He will have to prove it on the court. Just like Jalen did. Just like JC did. Just like Scoot did. Im not handing out anything to a guy based on his college career. SHOULD those aspects translate? Yes - they should. Nonchalantly excusing away bad games or scrutiny is the very same kind of "fan" that is supporting KPJ in these talks isnt it? Ryan Anderson was a fine player. If he could play a lick of defense he would probably still be in the league and why I feel Jabari will stick if only for his ability to D up. Like I mentioned I brought up a bad faith argument to pump the brakes a bit. I truly hope that Jabari becomes a cornerstone and moves the needle for this team MUCH MORE than just as a 3&D player. I would hate to just use that as some saving grace if the guy struggles when using such a high pick to select him with the thoughts that he WOULD be a star level player one day. Even then Im fully prepared to give him more than one or two season to prove his mettle and surely wont take dump on him in the same way Jalen was destroyed even if his play merits the harsh criticism. Takes too much energy to live in negativity all the time. A little faith goes a long way.
KPJ's efficiency is directly tied to if his teammates are worthless or not. Look at the sample when Green was consistently playing well on offense and you see KPJ's TS% above 60, look at it when he's having to carry godawful scrubs that are adding nothing and his TS dips as a result.
all of this has been ignored by the same guppies that post the same thing over and over and over. 68 pages in, you would think there's some kind of new information but there isn't. all you see is the same little circle regurgitate silly claims on pretty much every page, while they claim the ones using actual logic are the ones that are misinformed here. Irony at its finest
Agreed. Everyone has a rope though and 2nd and 3rd overall picks have a much longer rope than late 1st rounders or players with a checkered history. It works like that in every league. NFL 1st round picks get multiple years to prove their worth. 3rd-6th rounders do not. They are given fleeting chances to prove their worth and they better do the most of it when they do. As far as this team is concerned, only Jalen Green has shown anything worth committing to. The rest just aren't good enough (KJ), probably not good enough (Jaygup), skilled but troubled (KPj), skilled but undisciplined (Sengun), skilled but lazy (Garuba), rookies (Jabari, Eason, Tyty) or veterans who need another home. The best scenario is somewhere in the middle when it comes to KPJ. If he's on his best behavior and plays within the confines of the system (Green is option 1, KPJ is option 2) then he can be given a modest extension. 3 yrs 40-45. Then if he can keep his head from swiveling and proves it over the course of a few years, he might command 20+ after that contract is over. Essentially what the Rockets did with Christian Wood. He just happened to fail at it.
Ok so you did see some improvement but chose to ignore that. Its funny how we pick and choose what we want to focus on. His number overall have improved since he came to Houston but you ignore that. His 3pt% has improved year to year His efg% has improved year to year. His DRB has improved as well as his TRB See how easy that is to pick and choose?
