Those sound like excuses. That's like saying Jalen Greens issues are that he doesn't take basketball seriously or work hard enough on his deficiencies. We've seen what Jalen Green can be capable of; but how consistent does he do it? Jabari sucks homie.
it isn't an excuse. It's called progress. Something JG doesn't show yeah we see JG is capable of chucking and being inefficient consistently. Those are the actual problems I couldn't careless if you think he sucks. He'll have a much better career in this league and get paid plenty to do so. All I have to look at is the never ending bottom barrel numbers of JG and his piss poor on court play to know how sorry he is
Bari is more limited than folks thought when he was drafted. While im a little concerned about his recent downturn since coming back from the ankle, his improvement in his second year has been encouraging. He doesn’t have the ceiling of Paolo, Chet, or Ivey, but he’s a player who’s still growing into his body and is super super young. He’ll take another big step next season. Need to see the shooting continue to improve. I wouldn’t lose sleep including him in a trade for a great player, but I still buy him as a really good player long term. Let’s see how he finishes out the year before labeling him a bust. He had a good first half of the season.
Jabari is limited in his abilities, though he’s a starter at PF, nevertheless he’s a role level player. He’s a legitimate NBA player and can contribute, but he’s most definitely nothing close to a top 3 guy on any relevant team. When the Magic passed on him, I had mixed emotions because I wanted Paolo, but I had high expectations for a sharp shooter in Jabari. I literally envisioned him as an elite level dead eye 3 point shooter, that loved playing defense. I never thought the mere act of shooting was his kryptonite. What does it matter if he shoot 3 pointers in the hnear 40%’s if he is adverse to shooting more than 7 or 8 total shots per game. Extremely disappointed in both Jalen Green and Jabari Smith. Ugh..,
Jabari strikes me as a guy whose offensive impact would skyrocket playing alongside a Harden/Luka/Haliburton level playmaker. FVV is a fine game manager/pick and roll point guard but not the level of playmaker that is causing the defense to collapse regularly and his size limits his ability to find the open spot up guys as often as the elite guys.
I think this is mostly correct. He’s still young so I’m hopeful there’s more upside to him, but at this point a likely outcome for him seems to be a pre-injury Otto Porter Jr. - a plus defender (but not a lockdown one), and a plus 3pt shooter (but not off the dribble) without the ability to really get his own buckets. I do think Jabari is a better off the dribble mid range shooter, though. Hopefully we figure out ways to incorporate that into our offense.
Hopefully, Amen is the big guard that can unlock both Jabari and Alperen, while JG heads to Siberia for some wing shooters... I think Tari Eason is going to help immensely too. I want to see Jabari AND Alperen be more physical on the glass and on contests at the rim. More physicality in general. Post-injury Jabari is not throwing himself into the action enough. More stunting on defense please. Don't just be comfortable defending your man. Team defense. Go help out with your 7-0 ass...
What exactly has Jabari got tangibly better at doing? Still streaky. Still mentally weak. Still weak handles. Still can't create offense for himself.
got his 3 pt shooting back up to what he's been doing his entire career. clearly a better rebounder. increased TS% to above league average. midrange game was hitting at a near 50% before his injuries
Best post on the site….100% agree. Honestly, they both suck, but at least Jalen has had multiple streaks of over 30 points per game the past couple years. Jabrari doesn’t really do anything that makes him stand out, other than being tall which is something I guess.
Does Jabari suck or is he just not what you expected him to be? Is it really so bad if we got a roleplayer in Jabari? An elite roleplayer? For example if he just turns out to be a better version of 2014-2018 Ariza...does that mean he sucks? Are we mad about that? If you wanted him to be an alpha and an all star then I get how you can be disappointed but I don't really get how you can say he sucks.
Only losers with horrible bbq iq get impressed with 30 point games that take 25 shots to get there. Oh and winning 20 games a season to go along with it Gtfoh. Same losers that tried to glorify westbrick and believed ohh he’s an elite winner
Once again you are spot on! Believe it or not, I have never been more excited about a Rocket’s top draft pick in all the years of following this team as much as I was when the Rockets took Jabrari. I couldn’t believe Orlando and OKC were stupid enough to pass on who I thought was clearly the number one pick in the draft. I talked myself into liking Blanchero, but I really wanted Jabrari. I was thinking he had Gia or Durant type upside. It truly pains me to do this post, but I am shocked at how little impact he has on the flow of the game and am disappointed beyond disappointed at his just existing on the court and not being a difference maker. I figured he’d average 16-17 points per game first year and jump it up to 17-19 in year two. Right now, he will be lucky to end this season at 13 points in over 30 minutes per game. That’s not good and we need more production from the guy or he needs to be out of the starting lineup. Even Jalen Green in this awful season he’s having is averaging 18 ppg in playing less minutes than Smith.
Using points per game to justify whether a guy should be starting sure is a choice. Would have you have benched PJ Tucker back in the 17-18 season too? Do you think Shane Battier was bad in his time in Houston?
18 ppg on how many shots. All I see when Jalen shoots is it bouncing off the rim. Jabari is playing within the flow and is hitting his shots. Jalen is garbage. We knew what Jabari was when we got him. He needs someone to get him the ball. He isn't a shot creater. He's also one of the youngest players on this roster. Imagine them running plays for him like they do for Klay Thompson. He will feast. In a game where the 3pt shot is so important, his skill set will a necessity.
So this is just an issue of your expectations, then? You thought he would be in the same tier as Paolo and Chet and he's not. But that doesn't mean he sucks.
Jabari was not an NBA level player last year. He has improved measurably since his Rookie season in just about every area (some more than others). Jalen is regressing and on the wrong trajectory. Just because their productivity happens to be similar at this particular juncture doesn’t mean they should be treated the same. 30 point games do not a career make. Sleight of hand might be Jalen’s greatest skill.
It truly is. Jabari will likely be on the Rockets for the next decade and will factor in some great seasons and huge games. He is still the second youngest player in the team and does in fact impact the game without the ball. Which if you have Sengun and Amen playing in the future do you need another player that needs the ball in their hands???
As a fan this is perfectly normal, many of us were looking forward to Jabari. However as an org and a professional NBA front office, you can not miss on back to back #2 and #3 overall picks, you can trade up/down make other types of moves in Jabari's year, and in Jalen's draft year you take Mobley or Barnes. Seeing OKC and Toronto make the right moves while we made the wrong moves in back to back years of tanking makes me feel there needs to be some accountability and change in the front office. Jabari should be a solid NBA player, but tanking consecutive full seasons and ending up with one non all star role player and one bust, i dont know how these people are keeping their jobs. If the best player that comes out of that Harden deal is Tari Eason, then Stone should not only be fired, but he should never work in a league office again.
