Remember that in the offseason last year, after the Rockets made it clear that Porter Jr. was the starting guard for the team, he made a bold statement in an interview, hoping that he could give 10 assists to his teammates this season.
At the beginning, everyone was also full of expectations for him, after all, he had 50 points and 11 assists in last season's game against the Bucks, and he had delivered a career-high 14 assists in a single game. However, this season, Porter Jr. organized a tandem team in the game this performance is quite bad, the beginning of the season 16 games, although sometimes can send some good assists, but the error data and his number of assists are almost the same, but also in the game to show hesitation, sometimes in their own attack or pass to teammates hesitation, sometimes want to pass but teammates can not get his point, so the Rockets' record at the beginning of the game is not good 1 win and 16 losses, so the voice of Little Porter's doubts is also endless.
After a period of absence due to injury, he led the team to play a wave of consecutive wins, during which the number of assists has been significantly improved, but the control of mistakes has not improved, not as good as some dribbling mistakes, some unforced mistakes are jaw-dropping, fans are lamenting that he as an organizational guard can actually have such a low-level mistake, coupled with his own offensive efficiency is quite low, so far this season his shooting rate is only 37.9%, three-point shooting rate is only 34.1%, No one will have any hope for him in terms of this statistic and his performance on the field.
But in the recent games, the performance of Little Porter has been significantly improved, he handed over 16 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists in the first game against the Kings, 23 points, 4 rebounds and 7 assists in the second game against the Kings, and the game against the Jazz was also good, handing over 15 points, 1 rebound and 8 assists, giving 23 assists in 3 consecutive games, and only 9 turnovers, his offensive efficiency is a significant improvement, if you count the previous game against the Spurs, He shot 50.0 percent from the field and 44.4 percent from three-point range. It can be said that Porter Jr. shattered these doubts with his own performance, and even played the way the team management expected.
In fact, careful fans can find that Porter Jr.'s playing style in recent games is significantly different from before, before he was a core organization defender, the ball rights were basically concentrated in his hands, controlling the ball through halfway, organizing the attack, but in recent games, Porter Jr. was obviously reducing the ball holding, sometimes the matter of holding the ball through the half was also handed over to other teammates, on the field more as a transit point, when there is a chance to attack himself, he will choose to shoot himself, When he sees his teammates have a chance, he will decisively play the ball. He not only reduced the time he took to control the ball, but also reduced the number of times he dribbled, which brought the advantage that he could play more resolutely between attack and pass, plus he restrained himself in attack and selected better opportunities, so his efficiency was improved and his teammates were also driven.
Of course, Porter Jr.'s performance also potentially proves a problem, he does not have the same organizational offensive talent as Harden, more like the team's veteran Gordon, so for Porter Jr.'s positioning is a quarterback, coupled with his general ball-handling ability, more suitable for playing the team's sixth-man role.