toooskies wrote:jbk1234 wrote:toooskies wrote:Porter gets the ball moving and that’s going to be very good for Tyson and Watson who are very good cutters.
The Cavs are going to have to make a decision on who gets developmental minutes going forward. We know that CPJ can rack up assists against second or third string opponents. We also know that against better units/teams, particularly teams that have scouted him, he struggles. IMO his limitations are such that he's never going to be a post season option and the organization's goal should be to find out if they have one on the roster, or not. Even yesterday CPJ was -2 in 16 minutes despite recording 10 assists.
Season high assists last year was 12 against Portland and some other team with both his former head coach and one of the top defenses in the league in Detroit. Also had 11 in 22 minutes the Sixers.
You think that teams suddenly started scouting him but I think he just got pushed out of position and ultimately out of the rotation by Harden and Schroder (and Ellis) after the trade deadline. If I'm coaching I would almost never play him at the same time as Harden because he's not who you want as a spot shooter next to an iso-heavy ballhandler. But I definitely know he's going to find Mitchell and Merrill and Allen in the half-court. He's going to feed Thomas plenty, too, if they get reps together.
You know better than to take a single game plus-minus from a preseason game as evidence of anything, but on a night where no one had a positive plus-minus, CPJ wasn't bad.
On 10/27 CPJ played almost 24 minutes against the Pistons and managed 4 points, 3 assist and 1 turnover.
On 1/4 CPJ played 22 minutes against the Pistons and managed 3 points, 1 assist and 1 turnover.
On 2/27 CPJ played 32+ minutes against the Pistons and managed 5 points, 12 assists and 3 turnovers.
On 3/3 CPJ played 22+ minutes against the Pistons and managed 7 points, 3 assists and 1 turnover.
On 11/5 CPJ played 18+ minutes against the Sixers with 0 points, 4 assists and 1 turnover.
On 1/14 CPJ played 18 minutes against the Sixers with 1 point, 3 assist, and 1 turnover.
On 1/16 CPJ played 22 minutes against the Sixers with 2 points, 11 assists and 1 turnover.
On 3/9 CPJ played 15 minutes against the Sixers with 0 points, 3 assists and 2 turnovers.
He has a good court vision, but the biggest variable in his high assist games was how well did Mitchell, Merrill, or in the game against the Sixers, Tyson shoot from 3. He was also unable to repeat those high assist games against the same opponent which suggest that scouting matters. If you sag of CPJ , make him shoot from the outside, and stay home on the shooters, the results are underwhelming. The constant is he can't defend in transition or the half court. If you set a screen, he isn't going to switch or rotate, he's going to put himself in position for a defensive rebound. He had some success with that initially, but eventually teams started to find the open shooter and there was no defensive rebound, or get a body on him, and again, there was no defensive rebound.
CPJ plays hard and has adjusted his game to account for limitations, but his limitations are very real. Mitchell, Harden, and Merrill will all be in the playoff rotation. The Cavs really need that backup PG to be able to defend the position at least as well as Schroder, who in my mind, wasn't unable to defend the position well enough. Being undersized, POA defense, transition defense, and struggling to defend opposing guards/wings from the perimeter has been a consistent problem in the playoffs. CPJ doesn't solve for any of that.
