Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr. has engaged in early contract extension discussions with Houston, according to a conversation between ESPN’s Zach Lowe and Tim MacMahon on Lowe’s podcast The Lowe Post.
“I’ve heard there have been some very, very, very, very, very, very, very preliminary talks about talking at some point in the future, but some openness to a deal there,” Lowe said (h/t to HoopsHype for the transcription).
“I think there are mixed opinions internally,” MacMahon respond. “And, you know, frankly, externally the opinion I get most often is the Rockets should not give him an extension.”
Since being drafted with the No. 30 pick out of USC in 2019, Porter has had a solid statistical NBA career but has faced questions about his off-court behavior. He spent his rookie year with the Cavaliers before being offloaded to the Rockets in January 2021 following a locker room outburst. During the 2021/22 season, Porter averaged 15.6 PPG, 6.2 APG, 4.4 RPG and 1.1 SPG across 61 games (allstarts) for the Rockets.
There’s more out of Houston:
- Elsewhere on the same Lowe Post podcast, Lowe and McMahon said they consider veteran Rockets guard Eric Gordon a “lock” to be dealt away from the team. McMahon suggested that Gordon could fetch a first-round pick in a deal. The 33-year-old was a key contributor to several contending Rockets teams led by James Harden, earning Sixth Man of the Year honors in 2016/17. He averaged 13.4 PPG, 2.7 APG, and 2.0 RPG across 57 games during the 2021/22 season for a rebuilding Rockets team that appears poised to prioritize a youth movement for the foreseeable future.
- Second-year Rockets guard Josh Christopher has been exhibiting leadership and growth during his 2022 Summer League stint, writes Kelly Iko of The Athletic. Head coach Stephen Silas has been hopeful that the 20-year-old, selected with the No. 24 pick out of Arizona State in 2021, would develop defensively, particularly on rotations and as a rim protector. Iko notes that Christopher has thus far displayed improvement in those departments in Summer League. “I’ve been in the gym working, so to be able to come back to Vegas and play ball again, it’s nostalgic almost,” the 6’3″ guard said of his return to Summer League. “It’s good to be on the floor.”
- Second-year Rockets big man Usman Garuba has suffered a Grade 2 left ankle sprain that will sideline him for all of Summer League, per Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. Feigen notes that various injuries and time spent in the league’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols limited Garuba’s on-court role with the Rockets during his rookie season. The 20-year-old was drafted with the No. 23 pick in 2021 following a successful four-year stint with Real Madrid.
Porter is going to run himself out of the league, he’s good enough for the league just not with his mentality.
I don’t see Gordon getting a 1st pick with those numbers unless Utah is getting right back into the mix.
Those numbers are worth a late 1st to a contender. Gordon plays solid D, shot .412 from deep last season and can run the pick and roll.
Awful D, and there’s a cost to him, 2/$41mil, not even expiring. It hasn’t happened at the first-round price and I doubt at the second either. A “lock” to be traded?— maybe next year.
His D isn’t awful and next year is a team option so wrong on both counts.
Agreed, Gordon is a good perimeter defender, and is one of the best 3pt shooters in the league, on a contender his numbers will balloon. contenders looking to push would be dumb to pass up on him. I don’t see Rockets 2.0+Embiid(76ers) getting him but Suns C’s and Heat would be good landing spots. But teams expect to ship bad long term contracts, I’d rather keep him as Vet presence and reject the team option next year.
Okay Sportrac says the 23/24 guarantee depended on Rockets winning the ‘ship. Well that was a miss. And missing that detail was Bas.Ref., listing another guaranteed year.
They did report Gordon having some of the worst defensive numbers you will see. 121 DRtg, minus2.2 DBPM, minus6 on-off. He is the combo guard that is the short scorer.
Anyway a team would have to give up about $15-16mil in salary, which could be good or bad for either team.
Porter is a backup in the nba on a good team
He needs to show more. These contracts this summer definitely have a lot of players feeling themselves. They think they all deserve $100 million contracts by doing the bare minimum and not winning squat.
The question of whether to extend an offer to him is as simple as, how much would it take? If it’s 3/$30 then yes. But the nba is rife with bad boys and anything short of physical abuse or heavy drug possession would be easy to handle.
Early extensions of RSC’s weren’t created by the CBA with guys like KPJ in mind. There’s always a price, but this is a case where the team should suggest they wait. HOU’s FO thinks losing is an accomplishment, so who knows.
lol DXC. But—
Writer Lowe tried to emphasize the mixed opinions in the FO of Porter, not that he was about to get an extension.
Porter believing himself to be a “new style” PG is an issue. That means he likes to bring the ball down the court and look for a score instead of a scheme.
The result is worse stats for others.
Today: link to hoopsrumors.com
Daniel House seemingly got much better in Utah and got paid for it with a 2+1PO, but his improvement was likely due to having Conley as an “old style” PG.
PGs like KPJ seem to be favored by tanking teams. When the team decides it wants to win, they seem to fade in importance. Maybe HOU didn’t want some of their guys to get too much better too soon. KPJ works for that. But his time may be running out.
Silas is clueless … Josh Christopher as a rim protector??
Guy is getting canned this year
Coaches are probably drumming it into Christopher, that his advantage over Porter and rookie Tyty is defense. But a “rim protector? That’s working hard to coach a player through the media. Per 36′, 0.4 blocks.
16-5-4 in 1334 minutes mostly at the 2. 123%= 74-54-30, not hopeless, but he may not see those minutes again without being strong on defense. New rooks to develop coming in!
I like KPJ, I’m just not sure he’s shown enough to get the bags. He looks amazing in streaks, but it’s not consistent enough.
If I’m Houston, I look at Sexton while his stock is so low, make an offer just beyond what Cav would like to match. He’s a top player, either he works well with the team and it goes very well, or he sticks to his score first and not set up the other guys and gets numbers, either way his stock goes up and if it don’t work out they have a top player they can Ship for value.