Just like a curb walker and avid foil blanket user to talk about "rent free". Classic gutter tendencies to try to get something for free. Sam reaching deep in his soiled paper bag for that one. I ignored your overpass squatting, grocery cart driving ass for far too long. I tried to be nice. I got time today "Sham". I told you we should just agree to disagree on this one Bari take, but you weren't having it. I'm going to clown you for fun now.
Well, you have to keep in mind that all indicators have had us rating Paulo first, Jabari after. So, I am sure we scouted and were partially aware of most if not all of these things. I think Houston saw Smith as a giant bundle of raw potential. Who know’s how all of this will turn out? I think it is reasonable to assume he improves a lot. We have sped up the release of Green for example. I still think Smith has “IT”, I just think he may be 24 before he is the 2nd or 3rd best player on our team.
My theory is that he needs to increase his lower body burst. He is not a quick jumper. That also affects his close range effectiveness. With his height, a lot of times he could have just dunked it. But by the time he jumps, defenders are already there to challenge and he has to put up a weak lay up and misses many of those bunnies.
My adjusted stats for Jabari are 16 points and 7 rebounds. And by adjusted I mean, getting his head right and shooting league average 41 percent from the field. For those panicking about his three ball, we had this conversation heading into February last year using Kispert, the college sniper as the example. He was in the high 20s 3pt % at that time. He then got it to 35% by the end of the season. Kispert now shoots 46% from 3. There is no defending his approach when cutting to the basket. I've seen him take off and dunk over defenders. This finessing ish isn't working. Throw it down. Garrison is more aggressive to the basket in comparison.
Agree with first part of your post, but don't believe Sengun and Bari can't function well together. Our starting 5 isn't ideal, but the easier change would be to bring EG off the bench and start either KMJ or Tari. That would give the starting lineup more energy and less firepower. EG with Nix (yuck) or TyTy would be a better bench pairing. Sengun's passing with a cutter like KMJ or Tari and spot up shooters could open up the floor more.
This has been the obvious answer since the start of the season. Our defense sucks and EG is a big part of that. Sengun playing with Bari and Tari would benefit the defense greatly. Also with a good coach Bari, Tari, KJM should be getting back picks and easy buckets with Sengun on the high post. Everybody talks about GSW 3 pters, but equally impressive is how much off-ball screening and cutting they do. Sengun was meant for that.
Agree. If we did more cutting, guys like KMJ, Tari and even Green would tear now some rims. As I've had a minute to think about this, I would love to see a starting lineup that has KMJ and Tari at the 3/4 and brings Bari off the bench for awhile. Next to going to the G-League (which won't happen), allowing Bari to play against bench guys and with a more pass first PG and a decent passing Garuba (who doesn't demand touches), could be the recipe to build his confidence and rhythm.
The guy has played like dog crap on offense He kinda sucks right now He doesn’t have killer instinct or even house cat instinct He has no bag of offensive moves He has no dribbles He has zero back to the basket game He has below avg athleticism He’s way worse than expected (not that I thought he’d be amazing) Regardless he’s going to get significantly better, maybe by the end of the season, may take a couple of years. We’re all disappointed that we don’t see one or two 25-30 pt outings to get excited about his “potential”. It is what it is. #wembyscoottanktrainchoochoomfkers!
I didn’t realize until looking at different players that Evan Mobley is 23 months older than Jabari. I bet Jabari improves quite a lot by that time.
The reality is that as nice as Paolo and Ben look right now, players like Jabari are championship level players. Paolo probably isn't. We watched it for years with Harden and are watching it now with Jokic and Luka. Oafey, heliocentric, offensive oriented players that are defensive turnstiles will get you to 60 wins a couple times and some WCFs but thats their ceiling. Paolo will be overall the better player, but Jabari will be the more impactful player to a championship level team. People reeeeeeally need to take a deep breath and stop worrying about him right now. If his free throw percentage was bad I'd be a little more worried but he's pressing and doesn't look comfortable. But at the end of the day his measurables are his measurables and there isn't anything that can change that. I'd be shocked if Jabari doesn't pan out to at least be a 20-22/8 type of player with DPOY potential at his peak.
I’m good with this move as well. My main desire for Sengun to go to the bench (temporarily) is that I want him getting more touches than he doesn in the starting lineup. The guys post up game is money.
Yep, the offense runs well when Sengun is the hub, and they run plays off him. But if you start KMJ and Tari, you have more cutters for them to work with.
From CBS Sports: NBA Rookie Rankings: Jabari Smith turning a corner after strong week By Jasmyn Wimbish 1. Jabari Smith HOU • PF • #1 PPG17.0 RPG7.5 BPG1.0 In a loss to the Golden State Warriors this week, Smith broke out of a shooting slump in a big way, putting up a career-high 22 points on 8-of-14 from the field to go with seven rebounds. Prior to that game, Smith had been shooting just 31.3 percent from the field on the season, and while one game certainly isn't a trend, it's a positive sign for the No. 3 overall pick. Smith was coming off screens and pulling up for 3s, scoring off the bounce from midrange and scoring at the rim in a variety of ways. It was a complete offensive game for Smith, who showed off his defensive chops as well. Smith's performance against the Warriors was a culmination of his progress over the last handful of games after a slow start to the season. In his last six games, he's averaging 12.5 points, 9.2 rebounds and shooting an improved 38.5 percent from the field and 30.6 percent from deep. Those numbers may not look outstanding, especially his shooting efficiency, but when you compare it to the 10 points, 5.6 rebounds and 30.3/30 shooting splits he was averaging in the first 10 games of the season, you can see that he's starting to turn a corner. After the loss to the Warriors, Smith spoke about his turnaround game. "I feel like I'm in a good headspace," Smith said. "I commend myself for just keeping my head. A lot of people can't go through these shooting slumps and stuff like that and still go out there every night and still try to contribute, still have a good attitude. And just, I'm happy for myself. Yeah, I'm just ready for the next game. Ready to see how the season keeps going."
Wow!........"I commend myself"! Not a lot of people can do what I did. (shoot 38.5 - 30.6 3p). "I'm happy for myself". Wow again! How the mighty have fallen! (or at least the bar!)
I love Bari's attitude. Even when Jalen was going through his struggles, he kept his head. We are lucky we got guys that are pretty mature. Any other dude would have folded playing through Silas's incompetence. Look how well KJ is paying despite all the disrespect he gets from Silas not playing him last year. Sengun too.
I think its actually something Stone looks for in guys. Seems to really value maturity and hard workers, not that all of his moves will reflect that but it does seem like something he looks for.
That is what I envisioned before the Rockets drafted him and why I hoped they would. I thought that with Jalen Green/Sengun, 2023 draft pick and the Nets picks, cap space that the Rockets would be able to have enough talent that needed the ball in their hand. Jabari should be able to do many things down the road without the ball, Chet as well but I was concerned about injury with him.
uhhh I think he was saying he commended him self for keeping his head (not for having a good game or great season so far) because he has been playing sh*tty. So not sure what you mean.
