Rockets final battle against the Hawks in the case of Green bombed 41 points, Porter Jr.'s performance did not disappoint, he shot 24 of 10, three-point 12 of 6, bombed 26 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists of the data, this is the 7th consecutive game of Porter Jr. bombed 20+, to know that after the rotation of 3 core veterans, Porter Jr. averaged 28.7 points, 7.3 rebounds, 7.4 assists 1.4 steals shooting rate of 48%, three-point shooting rate of 40.3%, and the average number of errors per game was only 3, It can be said that his performance in terms of individual offense and tandem teams has been quite perfect. But even so, Porter Jr. is still a controversial player in the Rockets, and many people believe that he is not the answer to the Rockets' No. 1 position.
The main reason is that Porter Jr. likes to drive assists with offense, but the breakthrough ability is limited, often attacking and stopping the ball, resulting in the stagnation of the attack, coupled with the limitation of vision, can not make full use of the field space to transfer the ball, resulting in the attack only in the strong side, the weak side of the bottom corner smokes, the opponent seals the strong side after the attack is mostly invalid, the scene is extremely ugly. Coupled with his bad personal mentality, in many cases when the attack is not smooth, or after not getting a referee's decision, he is depressed, do not return to defense, resulting in the team's defeat. For these two reasons, coupled with his piercing attributes, he does not know when it will become a bomb in the locker room, and this offseason is also facing the problem of contract extension, so for the team that has been looking to the future, the Rockets have dealt with him as soon as possible.
However, Porter Jr. did not care about the criticism of him, and in an interview after the game against the Hawks, he said: "For me personally, it is a long season, I can say that I have improved, there are many positive things. Speaking about organising tandem teams he continued: "This season for me, it's about trying to find a balance between scoring and organisation, and I'm able to do that, Green pulls away the space on the court, finds his rhythm, sees the game slow down for him, it's a big boost to our confidence, and in the last few games I've been able to feel a bit like myself. "It can be seen that he is still relatively satisfied with his performance this season.
However, judging from the report of rocket reporter Fagan, management is still cautious about Porter Jr.'s future in the team, suggesting that he may not get a contract extension this offseason. Fagan said: "The Rockets may extend Porter's contract early this summer, but they are more likely to make him a restricted free agent after playing the fourth year of his rookie contract. By then, if he can play an extremely good season, then the cost they will have to pay to keep him will be much higher than the current contract extension, but the Rockets are not unacceptable to this. Since they own his bird rights and aren't unable to complete any other deal because of the salary space he's going to occupy, they're happy to see him play that kind of performance. ”
Obviously, the Rockets management can help the team avoid risks by doing this, and when Porter Jr. does not perform as expected, he can lose this burden in time, but as Fagan said, if he plays a good season, he will get a much higher renewal amount next summer, so the final choice is still waiting for the offseason management decision.