It is no secret that the Houston Rockets have struggled this season. The beginning of the season produced some hilarious James Harden clips where he showed zero to no effort on offense and defense. He also appeared to be extremely out of shape, and all of this led to the superstar being traded. They initially received Caris LeVert, but then swapped him for Victor Oladipo. He was then traded just a few months later to Miami in exchange for Kelly Olynyk, Avery Bradley, and a pick swap. So basically, in return for James Harden, they got a plethora of first-round picks from teams who will be nowhere near the lottery and Kelly Olynyk (Avery Bradley hardly plays).
That is a pretty poor return for a top 10 player in the league. But later in the season, the Rockets may have gotten the steal of the year when they acquired Kevin Porter Jr. from the Cavaliers for a heavily protected second-round pick. The circumstances in which the Cavs were willing to give up the 20-year old guard for basically nothing is undoubtedly intriguing. He got in a screaming match with team officials after he came into the locker room after the Cavs acquired Jarrett Allen and Taurean Prince and found out that the team had moved his locker and given Prince his locker. I may even side with Porter in this instance. Porter was a contributor to the team last year and was only out because of injuries, and the team just gave his locker away to someone they acquired in a trade? Messed up, in my opinion.
After the Cavs traded porter Jr, he had a stint in the G-league bubble where he was nothing short of dominant. He averaged 24 points, 7.3 assists, and around 6 rebounds per night in 15 games. He has since stepped into the Rockets starting lineup and taken over ball-handling duties. Everyone wants to make the James Harden comparison considering they are both lefties. Although they both like to isolate, at this point in his career, KPJ is a lot less ball-dominant than Harden, but in the future, I could see him putting up Harden-like numbers if the usage is there.
Since being inserted into the Rockets starting lineup full-time, he is averaging 17, 6, and 4. These numbers are a bit inflated due to his career performance against the Bucks, where he had a staggering 50 point performance. The youngest player ever to score 50+ points and have 10+ assists in a game. That game was a glimpse of what he could bring to the Rockets in the future.
He has supreme confidence in his game, and he and his teammates know it, and you can tell on the court. As soon as he or a teammate gets a defensive rebound, they immediately look to push it to Porter Jr. He excels when he pushes the pace and has room to operate and show off his euro-step in the open court. He is also shooting threes at a clip of 35% this year, which is about league average, but very promising for a player who is just in his second season.
Porter Jr. was a star coming out of high school, where he was one of the most viral sensations at the time. He had what is, in my opinion, the best high school play of all time that landed him on top-10 lists everywhere. He told a pass on defense, went between the legs to behind the back in the backcourt to dust off his first defender, then when going downhill, wrapped the ball behind his back, took one step, and then detonated a thunderous dunk on a poor defender, who had to sit through a full day of pre-calculus, just to be posterized on the internet.
Porter is showing that promise in Houston and seems to be fitting in with his teammates better. There was a situation at a nightclub in Miami, where his teammate, Sterling Brown, accidentally got into the wrong car and was then assaulted by the people whose car he got in. Porter was on the scene and stepped in to break up the fight, and if he wouldn’t have done that, Brown may have been seriously injured based on the reports I saw. He ended up getting fined 50k for the whole ordeal, but that was probably heavily correlated to the fact that he is only 20 years old and at a nightclub. That a guy I would want to call my teammate.
The Rockets botched the Harden trade, not getting either Caris or Jarrett Allen from the Nets, but they may have salvaged their future with the KPJ trade. He is a blast to watch on his court with his explosiveness, step-back threes, and ridiculous hair, and I cannot wait to see what he brings to the Rockets in the future.
