My bigger question is with Nene. WTF happened to his "calf" that is requiring months of rehab? Is he learning to play with a prosthetic leg?
He's a capable backup. People will be surprised. His shot selection was terrible in his last healthy season, we're going to fix that right up and I get the feeling he'll listen. In 16-17 he looked terrible, taking 230 shots from mid range (hitting 35%) and 139 shots from 3pt land (32.4%) and 137 shots at the rim (54.7%). That distribution (44% of his shots from mid range) is atrocious. He won't be taking mid range anymore so that alone is heavily going to lift his efficiency. Not to mention he will get more FT's per minute since some of those mid range shots will convert to attacking the rim. Further, he took 101 3's at the top of the arc hitting 32.7%. He hit 21.4% of 14 attempts from the right corner and 38% of 21 attempts from the left corner. The Rockets always put shooters in their sweet spots when possible. That will improve his 3pt efficiency, which btw was his overall worst shooting season of his entire career. You don't want him handling the ball or playing defense except against let's say the 15 worst backup PG's in the NBA. But he will be a reliable offensive threat who can average 10-15 minutes a game (heavily weighted to back-to-backs and less competitive games), and that's very useful. There's not a single team in this entire league playing a better 4th guard than Brandon Knight imo. If he's around, he'll help.
i hope he can be a contributor, no more melo MCW nightmares, we need to more bodies, i pray to god that Nene can be healthy enough we don't play rookies any more
I don’t know. He hasn’t played in a game in like a year and a half. It takes a good player more than a few weeks to get his rhythm back, and to get that rhythm back you need to play. Unfortunately we’re not in position in games where we can afford to throw him in there and put up shots and get comfortable. Maybe he starts in the G League?
I Agree with you on that . Why did we sign this scrub? We know he cant shoot 3's the hell we sign him for?
Brandon Knight can be a decent enough backup guard. He shouldn’t be a starter and shouldn’t be a big 6th man scorer, but with controlled shot selection and the right role, he can be useful.
Or we can just take our time and work him in slowly. No rush. Start with blow outs (once they start happening), and then promote him to 10 minutes on back to backs. Similar to what we did with our 3rd string C when we had Black/Harrell. Limited minutes and against limited opponents. I don't think it would be a problem. I really think he's going to be fine. Despite this infection in his knee, he had been working out all summer and was himself convinced he's ready to start for the Suns (that was what they communicated to him). He needs time to get in game shape for sure. G League might not be a bad idea to start.
Yeah. My pessimism can’t see the blowouts in our future so that’s why I didn’t see it happening. I hope you’re right
