I can't believe I'm saying this. . . but I'm actually very intrigued by what this team would have looked like with KPJ either as starter or as 6th man under Udoka. I know he was a head case and had maturity issues throughout his career but damn, we could have used his skill set this year, especially with Jalen stinking it up 80% of the year. Damnit KPJ, why'd you have to be a moron and hit that beautiful woman, he may have been an efficient enough scorer to add enough wins to be competing in the playoffs. He did have a pretty good all around game. No, I've not been drinking, just thinking .
Was not a huge fan of KPJ, but it is not unreasonable to want to see how he would do without Sengun and also under Ime. Nothing wrong w Sengun either, but if there is validity to them not knowing how to create the right spacing yet w Sengun, it is reasonable to wonder what KPJ would have looked like under a faster pace and some more space to operate. Major Variables: 1.) Ime's system and discipline / potential to play him at a different position, Amen is not playing PG, maybe KPJ shouldn't have been either. 2.) Pace 3.) Space 4.) The competitiveness around him, locker room vets that he may have respected. 5.) He was young enough to change as a player Enough variables to assume there was potential for a different player on court, I can't say this would change any other behaviors though.
He was much maligned, criticized, bashed (and I certainly was part of that) (strictly his on court play) Coulda shoulda woulda he might be starting right now. Does he get Silas excuse too or nah? Spoiler https://stathead.com/tiny/GzZLL
Considering how quickly he would have been benched by Udoka, I don't think those two things would have been much of an issue. He had a very silky shot, pretty good handles, good court vision and passing and actually tried on defense. I think Udoka could have amplified his positive skills a lot and diminished his negative. Too bad we'll never know what may have been. I said good riddance when we traded him but looking back, I'm like, he was definitely a better all around player than Jalen.
There's no amount of stats that can make up for having a woman-beating egomaniac in the locker room. This guy has been a problem under 3 different coaches in his life. It's not a coaching issue. After having a toxic culture so long, we finally fixed that. The value has been immense and translated to wins. The absence of it means less wins. How many wins is KPJ going to add off the bench to make up for that? Which one of Amen or Cam would we want to shelve for him? Honestly we were saved from keeping him. Also honestly beating a woman is not a "if only he just didn't do this one thing" thing. This dude should be in jail. He's a criminal that found a legal loophole to not get prosecuted. I'd rather lose more games. Some things are more important than basketball.
Silas didn't do Porter any favors, in fact, they were all setup to fail in his system. Udoka is the tough love they all needed. I think KPJ could have benefitted from that environment and with FVV running the point I have a feeling Porter would have been shooting close to .400 on all those wide open 3's. I really respected his shot.
Agreed, on all accounts. I'm strictly speaking from the perspective of had he not beaten her and just came into the season with a chance to earn his spot like the rest of the team what the season may have looked like. We are walking into a long off-season, plenty of time to mull over what could have beens.
Kevin Porter Jr. struggles in overseas debut with PAOK https://www.eurohoops.net/en/heba/1655247/kevin-porter-jr-debuts-paok-greece/
