The reason I have not commented on his play of late, and I’m mostly serious here, is I’m afraid to jinx it. If this is the KCP we’d gotten from the start, or at least closer to this on a more consistent basis, no one would have complained. But he was SO bad to start the season I questioned if he was on his way out of the league. Good on him for turning it around, we have needed it badly.
the reason we don't start him must be that we're trying to set a defensive tone? but that kcp/green/lebron/AD/kuz lineup is killing in limited minutes. that was one i thought would be tough to play against. kcp actually defends small guards better than big guards or sfs. this is something to watch as the season unfolds. nice that both he and bradley can defend small guys, too--allows us to play super-size lineups with lebron at pg. if we added iggy, we could essentially run those types of lineups all game long.
KCP has been my favorite player to watch lately. He may make a really poor mistake here and there but watching him play hard every possession makes you realize that he could have just bought into the negativity early in the season and succumbed to it or play lights out. He went from shooting 30% to 43% from three while playing constant defense. If KCP can come back from that disastrous start... anyone can!
Really after the first 3 weeks he turned a corner. Since 11-15 he's: .482 on treys .520 overall roughly, 2ASST, 1STL, 1BLK, 1TO, per game on 26.8 mins He's only taken 2.7 treys a game, something to be said for shot selection and setup there though. Although the last game he let quick-fire about 3 of those that were just catch and jump/release, was nice to see, he's feeling it.
think of them as a lump player who earns 24 million? i think of dwight and mcgee as a lump player that earns 6 million, which is great!
Would have been nice if we saw that as the finishing lineup against the Clips but of course we went with Rondo: Vogel wtf The other Vogel wtf is why he tends to play KCP on Leonard. Inn terms of matchups just don't have KCP on Leonard. Green on PG13 causes him problems. I would alternate between Kuzma Green, and Lebron on Leonard with KCP on Williamshe
This dude took so much flak, but he is balling out of the control. He’s minimized the head pounding dumb plays, stopped the chucking. I’m always rooting hard for him, and he’s slowly becoming my favorite player on this team. also his defense has been really really good
He was never fat, of course, but maybe conditioning was an issue. The difference between this KCP and the one from the beginning of the season is night and day. His defense is more solid, his offense is clicking, he looks more confident; you don't suddenly forget and/or learn how to play professional basketball in a couple of months. It has to be something like conditioning. Or maybe just general understanding of the schemes; or the combination of both.
I think he’s just super streaky. If his offense isn’t clicking, he tends to not be as good defensively as he starts to second guess and over think things. I don’t wish it on him, but I expect another big slump sometime this season.
His +/- numbers in Detroit really were quite good for a few years and I thought he was the more promising young SG's at that time: maybe this is him returning to form from whatever tripped him up either mentally or physically
I'm still of the mindset it's too premature to change opinions on him. It's great he's having a nice stretch, but it's kind of hard to ignore YEARS of mediocrity.