2019 Draft, Pick #30 - Kevin Porter Jr., USC

[I'mWithDan]

Although I'm not skeptical about the 26th pick....

With respect to KPJ - and leaving his game and that awful FT% out of it - I think college is a much better venue for a young guy's maturation than the NBA. Having all that money, the much greater degree of freedom, the groupies, etc., that inevitably come with an NBA gig....Just kind of scary. "He's heading to the NBA because he wasn't good at handling college" doesn't sound like a great plan.

I don't love him as a player but I did get a few interesting tidbits on him this week. I have a few friends in scouting and more than one sourced comments to me a few days after the Cavs took him. 2 teams actually thought his off-court issues were largely overblown, which I was kind of surprised to hear.

They described him as a bit of an introvert, kind of eccentric, he has a personality that isn't that of a traditional college freshman basketball star. He's not a huge partier, he can be quieter at times and both teams used the word "sensitive" in their description......not as a negative but as a positive. It's a really unique profile for someone who grew up in a such a rough area.

Both teams that liked him thought Cleveland was a nice landing spot.....just system fit and personality fit wise. Beilein is not a wallflower but he is a master at managing personalities and understanding what each player needs. Some need tough love and some don't, both thought it was really important Porter gets the firmer, thoughtful encouragement / development Beilein is great at but not the harsher, short leash types some other NBA teams employ throughout their bench.

I still have lower expectations but it was at least encouraging to hear that two other teams thought the player / franchise / coach match was good for him.

 

[avs2000]

Great point. I trust the front office so far. If they continue to draft iso scorers that flame out, I will rethink it.

Iso scorer or not sexton was a solid choice at 8

 

[Cavatt]

I don't love him as a player but I did get a few interesting tidbits on him this week. I have a few friends in scouting and more than one sourced comments to me a few days after the Cavs took him. 2 teams actually thought his off-court issues were largely overblown, which I was kind of surprised to hear.

They described him as a bit of an introvert, kind of eccentric, he has a personality that isn't that of a traditional college freshman basketball star. He's not a huge partier, he can be quieter at times and both teams used the word "sensitive" in their description......not as a negative but as a positive. It's a really unique profile for someone who grew up in a such a rough area.

Both teams that liked him thought Cleveland was a nice landing spot.....just system fit and personality fit wise. Beilein is not a wallflower but he is a master at managing personalities and understanding what each player needs. Some need tough love and some don't, both thought it was really important Porter gets the firmer, thoughtful encouragement / development Beilein is great at but not the harsher, short leash types some other NBA teams employ throughout their bench.

I still have lower expectations but it was at least encouraging to hear that two other teams thought the player / franchise / coach match was good for him.

That's interesting. Jamal Crawford said that Porter Jr had a hard time fitting in on his USC team. He felt like he didn't have a role. Sounds similar to what you are saying about him being sensitive. I doubt Beilein is going to let his role go undefined. If anything, that should be Beilein's major strength. The team badly needs an identity. I get the feeling that Porter Jr is looking for his too.

That was one of the things I felt Blatt was good at and Lue wasn't. The big 3 knew their roles and that was no problem as did TT. The roleplayers seemed to know their roles under Blatt and overperform. "Play your game" works with mature stars, not so much for guys who can do a lot, but don't know exactly the best way to contribute. Seeing George Hill say during the playoffs that he didn't know his role and needed to figure it out was eye-opening to me and explained a lot what I saw the first 6 games last season.

 

[Amherstcavsfan]

His guide hand is so out of place. His shot is a total mess. If he doesn't get that fixed, all hope is basically lost.

That being said, he is just really athletic. He's got real game, can get to the basket almost at will and will not be denied once he gets there. Very Donovan Mitchell/D-Wade in the way he attacks the rim with strength and explosiveness.

Lock him in a gym and fix his shot.

 

[Funkmastabuck]

In 22 minutes per game, Porter Jr. averaged 52% from the foul line, with 1.1 of 2.2 free throws per game.

Even if you expanded his minutes to starters minutes, that's like 1.5/3 per game.

If he's going to become the slasher and scorer he looks capable of becoming, he needs to be closer to a 75% free throw shooter than 50%. A guy with his athleticism and strength should be getting to the line quite a bit. But he needs to knock them down.

 

[sailfish]

His guide hand is so out of place. His shot is a total mess. If he doesn't get that fixed, all hope is basically lost.

That being said, he is just really athletic. He's got real game, can get to the basket almost at will and will not be denied once he gets there. Very Donovan Mitchell/D-Wade in the way he attacks the rim with strength and explosiveness.

Lock him in a gym and fix his shot.

Changing a shooting motion is like teaching a quarterback to throw the ball differently. It’s much easier said than done. It takes ALOT of reps to put it to muscle memory and become effective at it.

 

[NMCav]

His guide hand is so out of place. His shot is a total mess. If he doesn't get that fixed, all hope is basically lost.

That being said, he is just really athletic. He's got real game, can get to the basket almost at will and will not be denied once he gets there. Very Donovan Mitchell/D-Wade in the way he attacks the rim with strength and explosiveness.

Lock him in a gym and fix his shot.

No matter how ugly his shot is if it goes in does it matter how it looks? He should work on his free throws before worrying about his shot. To me as long as the shot goes in I don't care if it looks pretty.

 

[Cavatt]

His guide hand is so out of place. His shot is a total mess. If he doesn't get that fixed, all hope is basically lost.

That being said, he is just really athletic. He's got real game, can get to the basket almost at will and will not be denied once he gets there. Very Donovan Mitchell/D-Wade in the way he attacks the rim with strength and explosiveness.

Lock him in a gym and fix his shot.

See I think this is true. However, so many bad shooters have done so well on our team recently I have to think it will be a strength. It really seems only terrible shooters don't become at least adequate these days.

My opinion is he isn't a bad shooter, he is just sloppy. Shot is easy for him, need to have him take it to the next level

Porter also shot the 3 ball well. He also got a ton of and 1s. It's the in between inefficient DeRozan game he needs to eliminate. Kid isn't afraid of contact. Needs to learn exactly the lesson Collin learned last year. Tall order, but someone will tell him. T

 

[CalBuckeyeRob]

I am no expert on shooting, but it looks like he releases it from way too low. That step back looks great, but does he do that move a lot because he has to create space with the defender to avoid it getting blocked?

 

[CBBI]

No matter how ugly his shot is if it goes in does it matter how it looks? He should work on his free throws before worrying about his shot. To me as long as the shot goes in I don't care if it looks pretty.

The point he's making is that Porter Jr's shot is unlikely to go in at the rate it did in college because of problems with his form.

His .522 FT% is likely a better indicator of his overall shooting ability than his .412 3PT%.

 

[macbdog]

They described him as a bit of an introvert, kind of eccentric, he has a personality that isn't that of a traditional college freshman basketball star. He's not a huge partier, he can be quieter at times and both teams used the word "sensitive" in their description......not as a negative but as a positive.

Anyone know his views on the flat earth idea? The moon landings?

 

[AussieCavFan]

The point he's making is that Porter Jr's shot is unlikely to go in at the rate it did in college because of problems with his form.

His .522 FT% is likely a better indicator of his overall shooting ability than his .412 3PT%.

He shot about 20 more threes than he did free throws though for the season. He shot 46 free throws and made 24, if he had made an extra 4 of them he would have added an entire 10% to his percentage, so it's not a very good indicator in itself.

Does anywhere show high school percentages by any chance?

 

[CBBI]

He shot about 20 more threes than he did free throws though for the season. He shot 46 free throws and made 24, if he had made an extra 4 of them he would have added an entire 10% to his percentage, so it's not a very good indicator in itself.

Does anywhere show high school percentages by any chance?

EYBL stats from 2017 (15 games).

FT%: .683
3PT%: .343

 

[AussieCavFan]

EYBL stats from 2017 (15 games).

FT%: .683
3PT%: .343

Interesting. Again, only small sample size unfortunately. I don't think he is a good free throws shooter by any means but would be surprised to see him shooting 52% at any point in his career from FT.

 

[Amherstcavsfan]

Interesting. Again, only small sample size unfortunately. I don't think he is a good free throws shooter by any means but would be surprised to see him shooting 52% at any point in his career from FT.

I mean, that's a REAL low bar. Even if he shot 72% I would be worried. With a bad shooting motion, terrible FT% and his propensity to shoot difficult shots, I'm not holding my breath.