Nonsense, Jabari wouldn't even attempt to stop Yao do he could avoid contact and then he'd blame his teammates.
Came into the league at 296. Eventually played at 310. Ballooned up to >> 400 after his playing days. But sure yeah bro. A natural SF if not for the Rockets
Gotta rant.. I used to get so annoyed at this and pull up photo proof that he's 6'10, but then they apparently did barefoot heights and lebron somehow jumped up to 6'9 barefoot? So wouldn't that make him 6'10 in shoes and KD is like 2" taller so maybe he is 7ft? IDK anymore. Michael looked 6'6 to LeBrons 6'8 at the 75 greatest? Unless MJ is now 6'8 in shoes? WTH. Most annoying of all now is when todays fans or players take weights of old players to try and knock them down. Gilbert Arenas does this a lot. He exaggerates todays players sizes and always adds inches and weight to them that can be fact checked, and then says 230lb david robinson is not doing anything or 210lb scottie or rodman aint doing anything etc. It's like bro, none of their rookie weights were ever updated, clearly. LeBron James is exaggerated to 280 and yet somehow Karl Malone is lighter than rookie LeBron? Use your logic. Peak Karl Malone was as thicc if not thic'er in areas than Shaq. Lebron is a twig compared to him. David Robinson was a physical marvel form day 1 but by mid 90s to late 90s, he was a superhero that makes Giannis look like some lean sprinter build wise. Pip by late 90s was basically lebron size but more ripped..just less mass in lower body by comparison. Tim Hardaway was listed 170, but even he was yoked by mid 90s. Tim Big looked like Scoot Henderson does right now and we marvel at Scoots body. In fact Riley had that entire Heat team looking like superheroes' that would bully any team today. I get annoyed at the NBA's incompetence in keeping official records so we wouldn't have this mess. I still don't believe KD is a 7ft'er like people love to throw out. KG was. He was a legit 7ft next to 7'1 in shoes Shaq. Bill Walton was a legit 7'1ish when listed at 6'11 because he didn't want to be known as a "freak" 7fter. Kevin Love nad Blake Griffin are of the era of stuffing your shoes for height measurements adding as much as 2." NBA measurements are all over the place. Jabari's height looks off. He looks smaller to me than advertised. So does Jalen. Yet again someone like Wemby is off by several inches to his true height. Steam through nose. End rant.
The end of growth for a human being is normally at 22 so some guys grow towards the end like Wemby for instance. If he is not a legit 7 fter that is fine, he has enough room and time to grow there. He is 19. He is listed at 6`11 everywhere I looked, if he is not, I would certainly survive that. I get your sentiment, I am not really pedantic with height. Height helps but it does not turn you into a star player if you are a scrub for sure. KD I think is called a fake 7 fter, I think he is around 6 ft 10 with sheer length. He moves like Michael Jackson or Grim Reaper.....
Oh i understand that but he looks 6'9 at best to me, in shoes. He was supposed to be 6'10 barefoot=6'11 on the court in shoes. If he settles in at the 3 like KD has most of his career, then it's not a problem at all, and a positive. At PF, he's just average with no real advantages over other 4's. Ties in to the whole inaccurate measurements thing. If LeBron somehow grew to 6'9 barefoot which makes him 6'10 or more in shoes(maybe more b/c most of his shoes add a lot more than 1'' imo), then Jabari is 6'10.5 in shoes, because Jabari looks about .5" taller than LeBron, but LeBron does not look 6'10, and hard to believe he's even 6'9 in shoes, much less barefoot. I'm not buying it, though. Lebron looks 6'8.5 to 6'9 at best in shoes which means Bari is 6'9-6'9.5 in shoes. Tatum at 6'8 looks exact same height to LeBron. So is this a case of Tatum being rounded up to 6'8 barefoot, and LeBron being maybe a .25 taller gets rounded up all the way to 6'9''? That's a problem to me, but most don't care. I honestly think they did the barefoot height rule one summer, then nixed the idea and others remeasured with shoes. I don't know for fact, i never heard anything about measuring barefoot anymore after that one summer. OR they kept the rule, but instead of delegating it to an official NBA member doing the record keeping, they allowed teams to do the measurements them selves and teams started exaggerating as they would.
If he cannot shoot well, the whole Small forward dilemma has sorted itself out automatically. I don't like his shot and release but many folks have liked it, I guess.
I always try to use Jokic as the benchmark for big and slow centers with elite offensive skills. Yao would be bigger but slower than Jokic. He would not be able to switch to guard the perimeter but would still be a good rim protector. He would not stay exclusively in the low post like he did back then. That would make it easier to beat the fronting.
Well we'll see. Like i've brought up before. Maybe he's got noodle arms from lifting weights all season. Who knows. You don't just go from looking that smooth and effortless of a shooter in college to this poor of a shooter. Then again, maybe even Steph would be shooting a career low if he had to play on this team for Silas.
Yao of his era had to bulk up for post up balance. He had a weak core and upper body and smaller post defenders could easily get him off balance while his giant tree trunk legs would be planted. That would be less important today. You'd keep Yao lean today and you conserve energy by letting him be out on the 3pt line. Even guys like Marc Gasol turned into a respectable 3pt shooter. Brook. Ibaka. Pau. Tons of guys who never shot 3's suddenly were taking and making a lot. The 3 is the easiest skill to adapt to. That's why i think it's a bit overrated when people think the past players couldn't play today because they couldn't shoot the 3. They'd need like 1 summer and tons of reps and be respectable. Even Charles Oakley who was pretty nice from mid range and good form could be spotting up and knocking down 3's, better than Draymond for sure. Bari's shot will come back to him and his body will grow. I just want him to work on the hardest parts. Handles. Shot creation for himself and others. Fundamentals. etc..
I made a comment a while back about how Jabari's lack of strength was the biggest factor with his shot. I think that's where the hitch came from initially. But what I wanted to add is that I'm really happy with his improvement handling the ball. In the summer league, he looked allergic to dribbling, but he's gotten downhill quite a bit more. I think he's going to be okay in the long run.
I think the only compliment I can give Jabari is that his drives to the rim look smoother lately. It doesn't matter because he usually blows the finish, but at least the drive itself doesn't look incredibly awkward and stiff anymore.
Compare first year Yao’s to Yao in his final season. If you can’t see the difference in speed and agility then you might shoot worse than Jabari.
Then you are misremembering things. The man was constantly compared to Bill Russell. Bill. Russell. That was who actual scouts were comparing him to. He was a generational prospect that teams planned on tanking for day 1. Like Wemby is now. The only reason he didn't get exactly the same hype Lebron got was because at the time you couldn't come out of high school anymore so there wasn't any airing of a high school game but going back to high school Oden was already said to be the #1 pick. He was definitely one of the most hyped prospects ever. People definitely use hindsight making it seem like Portland was dumb to draft him. I do remember reading like 10 or so teams had Durant #1, but the majority were definitely going with Oden. He was said then to be able to score at will, anchor a defense completely, and could pass. He looked like the complete center prospect back then.
First year Yao weighed ~300lbs prior to ever setting foot in Houston. That's just a fact. The 10-15 lbs he later added after getting a pro sports weight routine represented a tiny fraction of his bodyweight, and were dwarfed by his post playing career obesity problems I don't doubt that age and injury took their toll, but he was always going to put on weight regardless - WHEN not IF. There's a silly narrative that he was a skinny teen who the Rockets bulked up. He wasn't.
