It's pretty silly if you just think about precedent. What consensus #1 pick has ever been advertised as a project who isn't expected to contribute until years later? Doesn't happen.
Actually Ball and Poole have very different trajectories. Ball shot very well in college. (That's one of the reasons why he was picked so high.) He had atrocious shooting as a rookie. Then he improved every year for 5 consecutive years when he went above 40%. Poole was not an elite shooter in college. He had bad shooting as a rookie. Then he was pretty much what he is by the second season--an average 3pt shooter. The only similarity is that they both sucked as a rookie but improved significantly later. (That is actually not uncommon. So I am disappointed but not alarmed by Jabari's shooting.) Poole was never as good a shooter as Lonzo and Jabari were. I think Jabari's trajectory can look more like Lonzo's. By his 3rd season, Lonzo was already an above average 3pt shooter.
It's not as clear cut. I thought Zion would be even better, okay, he is not the best example. Even if there are no major injuries, trajectories were never that accurate to begin with. I also caution with Lonzo as one or two seasons of hot shooting isn't final, we have to track his career shooting numbers.
Lonzo's NBA career average is 36% for 4.5 seasons. After he was traded to NO, he averages more than 7 3pt attempts per game. That's a pretty good sample size. The career average is dragged down by the first two poor seasons. That last 2.5 seasons has been very good.
I see that but as said I think Lonzo could be classified as 'decent' shooter with potential of being an exceptionable shooter. I had a problem with the 3 point shooting dating back to the Harden teams, you can't just shoot 3s, you have to mix in midrange when the playoffs come. Better start now, Bari has to resort to midrange again. You see it with Green, when he is not feeling the 3s, he goes into running into defender in the paint mode and then as last resort he pulls up for 2s.
Yeah, uhm, I voted no. I wanted zero part of him. I was pounding the table to trade up for Chet or down for Ivey. He was invisible all the time in college, he doesn’t seem to have the fast twitch, his 2 point percentage sucked (likely the best proxy for is this guy going to succeed in the league) and he wasn’t a shot creator or anything like that. felt like his best case was Robert Horry which is a travesty at #3. just hard to explain how much I hate this pick.
"unfortunately" there's 10 of those misses. You know what worries me? When we were sold the Jabari Smith package over the spring and summer, the Auburn stans told us what a hard worker he was, always in the gym etc. I'm scared that if this is true, we already got a maxed out Jabari Smith who was quick and big and strong enough against Vanderbilt and with a college 3 point line but not close in the NBA
At least he was allowed on the court by Silas, unlike our best player (together with Green), Alperen Sengun.
I always wonder where that supposed world class practice time and effort went to, because it surely didn't go into developing proper handles or finishing.
Honest and fair question. How many of the doubters or "Jabari is a bust" group said the same type stuff about Green last year? How did you feel about him at season's end? Honestly.
I always believe in green never considered him a bust but I was never fully on board with Jabari his weakness are to huge and he is only a role player but people think he has the ability to be a star
Difference here is Green showed flashes of being legitimately good despite serious early struggles. He looked like he belonged in the league regardless of his shot falling. Jabari has shown zero flashes. Maybe he turns it around, I hope he does.
With Green, he had the talent, intelligence, work ethic, and tools but needed to get stronger and better at finishing at the rim/playmaking for others. This has and will continue to open up his game tremendously on both offense and defense. Jabari needs to focus and develop always being aggressive and attacking the rim to draw fouls. This will open up his game in so many ways: scoring, rhythm, confidence for himself and his teammate's trust. Once he can start making and creating offense for himself, if we can see a killer instinct develop by hitting clutch shots, he will become extremely valuable in a playoff situation down the road. Put in the work to attack the rim and constantly get to the free throw line, where you can shoot 85-90% per shot, this will help make you an all-star.
Driving to the basket is a basic basketball skill. If shaq can do it so can Jabari. Its just a question of will.
I like the pick more than Chet or Ivey. Chet just tore his ligaments after Lebron blew on him. When he heals up there's no guarantee that doesnt happen again. For all his faults I'd rsther have a heslthy Jabari over Chet. If the Rox jad traded up for Chet it would've been a massive disaster. Ivey is meh honestly. Dude is Jalen Green's age and would have made n even bigger mess of our lineup when we already had Jalen Green and KPJ. He also plays even worse defense than Green.
All summer I kept saying where are his workout videos. Just saw vids of him going out and buying stuff and going to astro games.
