thank u. 15 or so games in it’s pretty hard to discern anything of significant value. He’s a young rookie on a struggling team with very little structure, discipline and ball movement. I guess I’m one of the few who isn’t panicking. But u said to best. pretty sure he’ll be fine. Folks should at least wait till the allstar break before picking him apart.
So Jabari was the rookie of the week? Good to hear while still being early in the season. Let's see if he can get his name in that ROY convo.
Kevin Garnett through his first 16 games was shooting 36% from the field (mostly 2's) and was averaging 11 and 7 per 36. That was with him coming off the bench against reserve units. KG came out of high school, but was basically the exact same age as Smith. Back then they were willing to let players ease in through their struggles. We knew Smith had work to do offensively, that was never in question. The fact that he's raw, young, and on a team with the offensive structure of an AAU team is a bad recipe. I'm of course not saying he will become Kevin Garnett, just that there is precedent for an extremely ugly start that clearly worked itself out in time. At some point the Rockets will make an effort to field an actual NBA team again and not a daycare/tryout camp, until then it's hard to really judge individual players in such a half assed situation. That goes for most of the team, not just Smith.
This is so true. I do thing the environment is purposeful to acquire top talent. Unfortunately we don’t really know what we have.
Just put young talents together with real good veterans that you don't actually try to hide on the bench, in the stands.
Exactly! I’m still very excited about Smith, and think he’ll be an all-star one day. Just needs to settle into the game, and get a little more structure around him. Rockets are playing YMCA ball.
Garnett was a high schooler who actually played hHS ball and did not have the benefit of playing AAU ball since being a teen. Averaging 11 and 7 through his 1st 16 games at that time was great I am actually surprised the numbers where that high. I am not writing Smith off but his circumstances are much different, yes there is a precedent, but I don't see what Garnett has to do with anything much different time and much different players. The thing is he was not supposed to raw and young his strengths were supposed to be NBA level (Shooting) so since when has his shooting supposed to be raw? I am more than willing to wait to see how the year plays out, but just using random players and random sample size is not helping. So if Smith does not shoot 49% on 10 and 6 what should we think?
Yea I’m not sure why there are so many posts now saying “we knew he’d be raw on offense”. No you didn’t you all literally said he has the highest floor of any prospect. Gtfo with that revisionist BS. Not directed at you but the multitudes of people I had to argue with who do nothing but follow consensus and then have 0 accountability because it clearly wasn’t their own conclusions to begin with.
Its amazing how people are trying to make every excuse in the book, I mean now he is just Raw? He was supposed to be a plug and play type and the guy with the highest floor, but now is Raw?