Yeah I can see that, he can be good... he's still an amazing shooter... but the problem is he plays really lazy. He just wants to stand around and have you hand him the ball, he'll do almost nothing off ball in either side of the court and then blame everyone else when it goes poorly. Younger KD wasn't anywhere near as lazy. Part of that could be the complete lack of competent coaching on the Rockets but part of it is definitely age. It might be hyperbolic to say he's not a good basketball player, but I think it's valid to say he's not a good basketball player in this circumstance. His numbers still look good though.
I think part of the problem is that today's 37-year-old KD needs to play full-time as a power forward. He's lost a step to chase guards or even league-average forwards. And this problem gets progressively worse over the long season. If you're keeping KD (a boat) then you have to make other adjustments and surround him with quicker players. OKC has such a fast lineup around Chet Holmgren playing PF. They also have excellent size and quickness at center. Houston has Amen (quick) and four other slow to barely average players with quickness. And then on offense, our slow players stand around and lack the shooting prowess to create space. It's sort of a mess of Stone's making.
KD is such a valuable player on a true contender with a coach. You have to have the right pieces in place. And, contrary to what many think, we could still get a lot for him.
I agree he could be valuable for a contender. I disagree that we can get a “lot” for him. Expirings and 1 middlin frp is about it in my opinion.
He's a good shooter. He's the second slowest defensive player in the league behind Harden. He cant pass out of a double team which makes his gravity useless and he is terrible for team chemistry.
No you dont have pieces around him you can add him to a team thats already got a superstar and complete pieces. KD is not that guy. This is what the Suns and now the Rockets have gotten wrong. He is an allstar level player he is no longer a superstar that you perhaps could build a contender around. Even when he was he needed someone else to be the leader and another superstar argubly better than him just to win. He is overated.
Even at his best, he was the best #2 option in the NBA, who played good-but-not-great defense. And his best is a decade past him at this point. To his credit, he hasn't declined that much as a scorer, just a little bit, but his defense is another story entirely.
With KD, there's also a "league has passed him by" element. In his prime, he took a relatively high number of three pointers, but in today's league he looks far too reliant on midrange shots compared to other great jump shooters. It caused us to trade two points for three on too many possessions this season.
