Houston Rockets: 3 ways for Kevin Porter Jr. to reach stardom

The most surprising game of the season was the Houston Rockets 143-136 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks. The Rockets entered the game with the worst record in the league while the Bucks remain a serious threat to not only finish with the best record in the Eastern Conference but also win the NBA championship.

The surprise victory was largely fueled by Kevin Porter Jr’s career night where he dropped 50 points and dished 11 assists on 16 of 26 shooting and 9 of 15 shooting from behind the 3-point line. The soon-to-be 21-year-old has had plenty of ups and downs in his young career but seems to have found a home in Houston.

Porter’s hot night saw him become the fourth-youngest player to score 50 points in a game and the youngest to tack double-digits assists to their 50 point outing. While the Rockets’ season has been an abject failure in the win-loss column, Porter’s emergence as a young franchise centerpiece has been a bright spot.

As great as Porter’s night was he remains a work in progress, as all young players are. His defense is suspect and for him to reach an All-Star level he’ll need to dramatically improve his offensive consistency.

The talent and flashes are there for Kevin Porter Jr to become an offense centerpiece but he’ll need to improve in three key areas to realize his potential. If Porter wants to continue his trajectory as a go-to scorer he’ll need to improve his usage and touch on his floater, his consistency and confidence on step-back threes, and eliminate unnecessary pumps on drives to the basket.

Next: Kevin Porter's upward trajectory

Houston Rockets: Kevin Porter’s rising star

That being said, his 25 game run with the Rockets has seen him grow considerably from the time he spent in Cleveland last season and bodes well for his future. To fully capture Porter’s growth in year two of his career his rookie season has to be taken into context.

In 50 games for the Cavaliers, Porter came off the bench 47 times and averaged 10 points and 2.2 assists in 23.2 minutes per game on 44.2-percent shooting and 33.5-percent shooting from 3-point range. Porter, largely against second units, posted solid efficiency numbers for a rookie but was not tasked with much playmaking responsibility.

He was primarily used as a secondary option in Cleveland’s offense as his 20.5-percent usage rate can attest to. On top of that, 44.4-percent of his 2-point and 75.5-percent of his 3-point field goals were assisted.

Flashforward to 2021, Porter has started 22 of 25 games and averaged 16.6 points and 6.4 assists in 32.5 minutes on 42.4-percent shooting and 30.8-percent from 3-point range. While Porter’s shooting efficiency has dipped it has been slight and with an uptick in his responsibilities and against largely starting units.

Not to mention Porter has been tasked with creating a far larger share of his own offense. Only 18.6-percent of his 2-point field goals and 39.6-percent of his 3-point field goals have been assisted while in Houston.

The growth in his passing cannot be understated either. His assist percentage has grown from 13.9-percent in Cleveland to 31.3-percent with the Rockets and that’s with his turnover percentage only marginally growing from 16.7-percent to 18.4-percent.

His assist percentage is nearly identical to Ben Simmons and he even sports a better turnover percentage. Is he Chris Paul or James Harden as a passer? No, but at 21-years-old he’s showing that he could be a premier playmaker in his prime.

Porter has been thrust into a much more difficult role and has largely held the shooting efficiency he posted last season, which is no small feat. He’ll need to improve his defense substantially and the tightness on his handle to round out his game, but it’s his scoring that offers the most room for improvement and the best bet for him to reach his upside.

Next: Path to stardom #3

Houston Rockets’ Kevin Porter path to stardom #3: The floater

The floater has become one of the most important shots in the modern NBA. As a shot, it allows for perimeter players to get off a high percentage shot without having to dramatically alter their body position to circumvent a rim protector and it can double as a lob for an alley-oop.

Most players develop their floater once in the NBA and the reason for that is quite simple. It’s better to get a lay-up than a floater and any player talented enough to make the league will have such a talent advantage at the amateur level that they wouldn’t have much use for it.

Kevin Porter Jr., per NBA stat tracking, has attempted a grand total of 33 shots that are classified as floaters and converted them at a 42.4-percent rate. The first thing that stands out when you watch his floaters is that they don’t consistently look like a floater.

All too often they look like an augmented jump-shot done out of desperation but that is to be expected for a player of his experience level. However, it’s not all doom and gloom and he has, at times, shown touch and poise on his floater.

If Porter wants to grow as a scorer he’ll need to become more consistent with his floater and he should use the offseason to get more comfortable with it. The future is bright but to become a go-to scorer he’ll need to add the floater to his toolbox.

Next: Path to stardom #2

Houston Rockets’ Kevin Porter path to stardom #2: The step-back jumper

The NBA has become a league that lives and dies by the 3-pointer and the step-back jumper has become the ultimate defense stretching weapon. Nearly every elite perimeter scorer has a dangerous step-back jumper that is efficient from well beyond the arc.

Kevin Porter has no hesitation about taking step-back jumpers but he leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to the consistency he shows on it. In this video, he doesn’t create much separation between him and his defender and as a result, needs to rush the shot.

When Porter has time to get his legs underneath him and go up in rhythm his shot looks a lot prettier. Here he notices that his defender is not locked in, takes a small step back, gathers himself under control, and sinks the shot.

Porter needs to improve two areas of his step-back game and fortunately, they go hand in hand. The first is that he needs to create more separation when he uses the move. It’s harder to hit a shot after stepping back so the extra space created has to be worth it and he consistently does not get enough space out of the move.

Second, he needs to be more fluid and in rhythm with his shot after he creates the space. When he rushes his lower half his shot comes out flat or he misses short. When he takes the time to gather himself his shot comes out pure with a nice arc and portends a bright future as a step-back merchant.

If Porter is able to consistently create more space off of his step-back he’ll have more time to rise up and hit the shot. He needs to work hard in the offseason to get the most out of the move and gain the confidence to not rush his shot once he has the space to shoot.

Next: Path to stardom #1

Houston Rockets’ Kevin Porter path to stardom #1: Eliminating bad habits on drives

Kevin Porter has the ability to get by his defender and into the teeth of the defense, but he is still very raw at turning these situations into positive outcomes. The best offensive players in the league are proficient at getting to and finishing at the rim.

Porter routinely tries to barrel his way to the rim and it is here where he needs to make progress in two very important areas. The first is that he needs to learn to slow down his attack once he gets by his first defender.

Notice how he gets the positioning he wants on a much smaller defender, but instead of slowing down and sealing the defender, he speeds towards the rim and the help side defense only to be blocked at the rim. A more experienced player would have used that initial space to seal the perimeter defender and engage the help side defense before reacting to it, instead of sprinting full steam ahead.

Improvement in this will take time and reps but Porter should have no problem learning how to slow down, especially as he adds bulk to his frame which will only improve his ability to seal off the first line of defense before calmly finishing inside. The second area where he needs to improve is he has a horrible habit of pump-faking after contact on drives to the basket.

Here Porter does a good job to get position on his defender and draw contact only to pump fake at the last second and all but seal his fate of getting blocked. Porter consistently does unnecessary mini-ball-fakes when attacking the rim that do nothing to alter the defense and in reality give the defender an extra half-second to alter his shot.

Once again, as Porter adds some more bulk he likely won’t be so bothered by contact but he needs to learn that by trying to not get blocked he’s actually running into blocked shots. Here is a good example of how he needs to try and finish consistently.

Porter attacks and goes to the rim strong to get himself an and-one. The only thing a pump fake would have done is give Harden another chance to prevent the ball from going in. Once contact has been drawn there’s no need to get cute, just try and get the bucket and collect your free throws.

Houston Rockets: Kevin Porter is on the right track

Kevin Porter Jr. has played all of 75 NBA games with 25 career starts mixed in. After one season worth of games, his career per-36 minute numbers of 16.7 points and 4.9 assists would land him the Rookie of the year award in most seasons.

The talent is there for him to become an All-Star caliber player and possibly more. If he works hard on one or two of these skills in the offseason Rockets fans should expect him to average 20 points a game with better than average efficiency. In other words, he should be a star.