Chet has been by far the best player to me so far. I wasn’t blown away by Paolo tonight. He hit shots - tough shots. That’s good. He can dribble. But he was unable to get any easy shots for himself. that said… Chet is playing with what is likely to be the best player in the summer league in Giddy. but the reason Chet stands out to me so far is his defensive presence. He has just been so good at guarding the paint and switching sides of the floor not leaving any angles, etc. It could be a function of the teams they’ve played though - SLC league teams seem worse.
6-17, 0-2 from 3, 12 points, 5 rebounds, 0 assists, 5 turnovers, 1 steal and 3 blocks… anyone know whose statline that is? Spoiler Evan Mobley summer league game one against our Rockets. Alpi dropped 15 and 15 that game.
Banchero played point forward a lot, initiating the offense. And credit to him, he took advantage and showed his stuff. OTOH Smith played more of a team game rather than look for his shot. He also seemed pretty hesitant, and looked to be playing at the pace of college ball rather than the NBA. Smith also looked like he was thinking about his moves before making them, whereas Banchero was playing much more instinctively. A few times Smith was caught standing and watching a defensive rebound opportunity rather than going after it. Finally, it looks to me like Smith still has a few more years of growing left. I still like his potential, but definitely a work in progress, physically and skill-wise.
A few key takeaways: It's summer league, so frankly, take everything with a grain of salt. Jabari clearly needs to be placed in better spots, he's been de-prioritized on offense, with minimal pick and roll or pick and pop action. He made a few rookie mistakes on defense but overall you can see the immense versatility in that department. Josh Christopher should not play in the summer league, he's frankly too good, but he also hogs up too many of the shots. Tari Eason is a very very intriguing prospect. He was a bit trigger happy, but there is immense potential. Nix and Washington looked more comfortable trying to score, than trying to create plays for others. Ultimately, this is just one game, and a summer league game at that. People are probably a little spoiled because all the Rockets rookies looked specular last season in their first game at the summer league. Also, people shouldn't try to compare Jabari to Green, especially in the summer league. Summer league favors guys that can create their own shot more than guys that work within an offense. Green is also a scoring savant, Jabari Smith isn't drafted with the idea that he would be near Greens' potential on offense. However, he's much more versatile defensively, and so people need to focus on that more, because ultimately this won't show up on the box score.
Yeah, it's summer league. i couldn't catch the game (was on at 4 am here) and only watched the 10 minutes highlights. Of course i am disappointed with his statline, but it doesn't change my perception of him one bit. why? 1. Jump shooters are most likely to struggle in summer league, since there is always a chance of the shot not falling without rhythm. Just look at Trae Young. And really, 40% is also not horrible. 2. In summer league most players are looking for a job - so they want to get good tape on them. That's why there is more ego-play by the guards. 3. Since he got drafted all he talks about is fitting in, playing team ball, not caring about stats - basically play where the coach wants him to play. Combine that with the second point and that explains, why he only got 10 shots. He did show his ability to drive, which a lot of people were concerned about. I hope, that he will be more involved in the second game.
And next season was shaping up to be so very promising. Time to tune out for yet another year. Sad, really.
It was an OK night for Jabari overall. He had lapses on defense and his offense was way too passive for my taste. His finished form I would hope that Jabari is a guy that will demand the ball and make the defense scramble to cover him because he will be THAT good. Last night he was just another shooter waiting his turn on the 3 point line for most of the night. Hope he can put together a decent post game that will exploit mismatches and add a wrinkle to his game. Good learning experience. Paolo? Meh. Anyone with eyes could see what it was. He's not a Rocket and as a basketball fan in general its obvious to me that he will be just fine in the NBA. Left his imprint all over the court. True #1 talent.
Seemed like they were making it a point NOT to pass him the ball or something. All i saw was Christoper and Nix driving lane for layup attempt every play with Jabari standing around waiting for the ball.
Yeah. I was very discouraged with how Josh played. We already know he can dribble and drive and is a decent 3 pt shooter. You would think he’d be working on his weaknesses not just doing more of the same. I think he is demonstrating that he is what he is, a very good instant offense, high energy bench guy. LOL, all the people that want KPJ to be the six man and to bring this ball hog into the starting line-up.
Jabari's lack of any sort of advanced ball handling was apparent last night. Overall...I give him a pass because Christopher, Nix, and Eason were being absolute ball hogs. But we'll see how tomorrow against OKC goes.
He 100% has to focus all of his energy on that aspect of his game. Both Chet and Paolo handle the ball effortlessly on the dribble. Young ‘bari needs to do nothing but two ball dribble drills everyday 4 hours a day for the next 3 months once summer league is over.
Thing is guys like Miller/Rip Hamilton are insane athletes. Literally they train like endurance athletes, I believe both had sub 4:30 mile times. For Jabari to get to that to be able to run none stop like them idk. It would take years for Jabari to get to that level and it would probably take away from him developing in other areas.
You can’t tell anything from a summer league game. That was the most disorganized bunch of nonsense ever. It will not look like that with actual NBA players, even if they are also very young. And even if the year does turn out to be a disaster, we get another decent shot at the top pick. We win either way.
WE TRIED TO WARN YOU GUYS that Jabari's ball handling skills or lack of is a major issue and its just not going to go away. he is a role player until he can learn how to dribble and that can very well never come.
He was rarely given the opportunity to initiate the offense. I would like for him to start next game and see what he can do. Hoping he can be a solid back up PG for us.
Like I've said, Jabari's upside comes entirely from his defense, if he is all nba defense, Dpoy level then he is a star even if he is just a shooter on the other end. So from that standpoint, his defense last game was pretty underwhelming. Just one game though, not concerned. The offense was 100% the "system" and guard's fault, nothing we didn't know already about him.
