Never considered them elite other than Nowitzki. They were elite for their position. This is nuanced, elite can't describe everything that's beyond positives.
Smith has started to show improvement on rebounding in particular. It’s harder to get his footing offensively while playing with ball dominant guards. After the allstar game we should see improvement across the board as he gets comfortable with the pro game.
I guess because he is tall, he is assumed to be a "big man." But for now, Jabari is more suitable to defend the perimeter than the interior. He has the technique and footwork to guard smaller players and has no strength to bang with the bigs.
Significant is probably too strong a word for green vs cade, but Banchero vs. Jabari there is a significant difference. With Green / Cade, its tough since we see such volatility in young guys, if you look at it a couple weeks ago Green started the season pretty bad, hes had some decent games, its too early on both picks to tell, but at some point you have to land an all-star level player, we don't have that yet. We didn't get a Luka, Ant, Ja, LaMelo type player in the last 2 seasons, so it needs to happen or they need to rethink the process. Banchero will likely be an all-star before Green , and Jabari we would be lucky if he is an NBA starter.
Anthony Edwards MIN 13 36:28 8.2 17.7 46.1 2.5 7.2 35.1 2.9 4.4 66.7 0.5 5.0 5.5 3.9 3.0 1.2 0.2 3.0 21.8 Jalen Green HOU 13 34:14 7.7 18.1 42.6 3.0 8.0 37.5 3.4 4.3 78.6 0.6 3.4 4.0 2.8 2.7 0.8 0.3 1.6 21.8 Green averaging Same points as Ant in 2nd year as Ant in 3rd year with shooting 2% better from 3P and 10% better from FTs while averaging 1.5 less rebounds and 1 less assists. I think we definately got a Ant Comparable.
on the pels broadcast last nite their crew was gushing all game and even after the game about green's game. whether he makes the all-star team before or after banchero it's hard to say. but green is clearly a special talent. i would take him over cade and ant, maybe lamelo. not over luka or ja. compared to banchero, still too early to say
I would take Banchero over Green in a split second. Right now Banchero looks amazing. The knock on him was that he didn't try hard enough all the time in college. Watching him in college and the pros not only is that opinion true about him at college, it is apparently of no concern! It wasn't his mental game, it was just a year of waiting to get drafted and getting to the NBA... Of course, it might be that Banchero falls into a hole as the season goes on? But he has exceeded expectations so far, which is Great for a 1 pick
it usually takes a few weeks for teams to build a proper scouting report on new players in order to attack their weaknesses. we've already seen teams throw what they can at green over the past year, but banchero still has yet to undergo that next phase. so still too early to say imo. but in any case i'm happy with green... his physical gifts, work ethic, and he plays the right way. on to the next draft now!
Lol, he's the nominal 4, Zion was their 4 with Valenciaunas as the 5 - how is this a joke or out of position. None of the Rockets/league stands much of a chance against Zion on offense. No shame in that. If anything Smith's length is the only plausible deterrent from the 3 available big men. I mean, Garuba had no chance I also think that literally nobody thinks that Jabari Smith is a full time SF. He got drafted 3rd overall because he projected as a switchable 4/5 in this era (also this is what he did in college,) It's 2022 not 1992. If he can't guard inside or be near the rim then they should just cut him now and go with Eason. I mean you can see him playing next to other quasi big men in spots, but overall if you play him next to 2 other true big men, particularly non shooting ones then that's a problem... for you
It's honestly too early to tell, lots of no.1 picks significantly outperform their peers early in their career, but their peers slowly take over after 4-5 years. Blake Griffin was 3x all-star and 1x all-NBA before Harden and Curry even got their 1st all-star appearance.
one of those guys shot the 3 as much as Jabari and none of them were drafted on the ability to shoot the 3. They also had much diversified offensive games than Smith so shooting the 3 was an add-on feature, not the basis of their entire offensive games. Now do you want to back and look at their 2 pt fg percentages since everyone needs to chill the fck out?
Rockets always have a choice, just because a guy is the consensus 3rd pick by internet gm's does not mean they have to pick them. Just look at Orlando, Banchero was the consensus 3rd pick before they took him 1st.
Don't see much difference in Banchero's effort in college and the Pros, he just has more spacing and is in a far different system. Banchero was always engaged and gave effort, in college I would say Smith was the guy who could float or check out but that was because he had terrible guards.
paolo was not the consensus 3rd pick. in fact many people were adamant that he was better than Jabari. I never even understood how anyone would pick Jabari over Paolo.
I’ll admit he is a bit stiff. It’s a big reason why a likely less skilled rookie in Tari is much more effective than him on D. In the off-season there are plenty of great routines you can do to loosen up and be more pliable. Still think he’s going to be a solid pro though and still would take him 3. At 1…. Man… it would be great to have a player ready to go now like Paolo. Just for some moral support in the dog days of a rebuild. Jabari is just the type of player who needs off-seasons almost more than he needs playing time.
You can tell the Rockets did zero draft prep on Jabari and were all in on Paolo because they clearly have no intention or idea on how to use him.
