Reddish in particular was pretty bad, and I didn't love him or Little as prospects. But they were top-5 recruits, and they were important roleplayers for top-10 teams, while KPJ was roughly a top-30 recruit (some had him higher, some lower) and an important roleplayer for a fringe top-100 team. Plus, I think there's reason to believe that Reddish and Little's roleplayer skills will translate to the NBA more readily than KPJ's roleplayer skills (because as I said before, there's just not a big market for decent microwave bench scorers).
I don't think KPJ is too similar to JR right now, but I'm trying to imagine what he'd look like if he gave up his chucking ways and tried to mould himself into a useful team player. He's certainly more similar to JR than to any of the other comps that've been thrown around in here.
He played above average man to man defense for USC. Thats something Little or Reddish really didn't do. (Reddish got steals but wasn't really great at shutting opponents down). He was also a roleplayer because of the injury he had. He was playing hurt most of the year and was still more productive then Little or Reddish. Reddish may have scored more minutes but played more minutes and was way less efficient.
What role player skills is Reddish bringing because he played that role at Duke and failed miserably. What role playing skills is Little bringing he was so bad he barely got off the bench at UNC. 18 minutes per game with absolutely no range on his shot. KPJ is just as good of a defender as Reddish or Little. And microwave bench scorers aren't needed anymore? Not a Big market for them? Warriors wish they had a scorer off the bench might have saved them when they lost KD and Klay also why they took Jordan Poole. That Fred Van Vleet guy in Toronto sure didn't help them win the finals or anything.
If KPJ comes in and works on his defense which he has said he wants to be a defender throughout the process. He has more defensive upside then any of our other guards or wings not counting Nwaba who may or may not be back. If he starts working off the ball instead of lazying around and develops his catch in shoot game why should he forgot how to handle/iso as well? He likely had the best handles of any SG/SF in this draft not named RJ Barrett. I get it you don't see the upside and wanna put him in a role that doesn't completely fit his game. If hes the third playmaker on the team I won't complain. Most teams have 2 or 3 guys now that make plays for themselves on the court. Hes not going to be a iso player every time he touches the ball. No one is saying that. But for him to have the ability to take someone 1 on 1 if needed is a good skill to have for a player. You can't teach talent and this kid has talent more all around game then JR Smith ever had.