There isnt even a franchise player every draft so to be honest your expectation is wrong. Maybe in NBA2K that makes sense but in the real world it doesnt cuz not every draft will have a generational or franchise player for the picking. If franchise players are available every year then Lebron wouldnt be one of the top 10 players for the last 2 decades. Your other post is right we should be comparing Jabari to other players in his draft range to see who would have been the better pick. Realistically the only other guy in the play are Ivey and Murray. Both have been playing better than Jabari but neither are also playing like franchise players. Both Ivey and Murray are also several years older than Jabari so you know what I'd still take Jabari over them in a redraft. To me a return on the pick does not necessarily have to be a franchise player as long as you got a valuable player back who isnt available except in the draft or overpaying for in free agency. Examples of these would be players like JJJ or Evan Mobley, they can be considered high level role players but are still very valuable players who can only be obtained in the top selections of the draft.
I am so god damn happy that @Clutch gets to let some of those tweets go that he has been sitting on for months and months. I said it before and I will say it again, I am not worried about Jalen, Jabari, and Alperen. They are kindergarteners...
WOW Jabari!!! This is the Jabari who was suppose to be the #1 draft pick!! This is what we wanted to see the whole time!! This kid is going to be very very special! The sleeping giant has finally woke up and turn on the switch! Imagine when he put on more muscle and have more experience! The league is in trouble!!
U only see this version of Smith when head honcho isn't playing. It's not a coincidence that both time he had career night games, it was without the head honcho holding him back
Think this shows how much his struggles were just because the shot wasn't falling. Was sapping his confidence and taking away a big part of his game.
Because his shot has been off for so long, Jabari's basically been forced to learn how to finish stronger and be more effective driving to the rim in order to have any sort of offensive effectiveness at all. And, as we've all already noted, he's made clear improvements in that area, which was one of the biggest knocks against him coming into the NBA. So...if he actually does start hitting his threes consistently, it's not like he's going to lose those other improvements he made. I think that's a good sign
Some players need a system to play within. Good or bad Jabari is one of them. He needs stronger structure to elevate his game. Tari is the opposite he has a roll the ball out style of game 3 vs 3 or 12 vs 4 he plays the same way. BOTH players have strengths and weaknesses along with positive and negative to their games. Bari NEEDING a coach/system is his biggest problem this year. Silas
For real. Not worried about those 3 at all. They all want to win and they all play well off each other (Green-Sengun, Sengun-Jabari) plus Green and Jabari's games barely overlap because Jabari is an off ball type of player. In the low/high post, on the 3pt line, with lightning quick penetration it's also an excellent variety of skills. They all don't mind sharing the ball. It's a great core and people are just impatient about things that obviously take longer to assess and develop. 99% of 19 year olds in NBA history sucked and all 3 of our core guys were drafted super young. I'm glad we decided to go ultra young with our core but you have to expect these obstacles. All 3 of them need to get closer to an NBA body, improve their defense and sharpen their 3pt shot. Standard parts of maturing as an NBA player. All of those things are highly likely to happen given their shortage of experience prior to the NBA and their age. Shifting from a rebuilding to a winning culture is going to make a much bigger difference than people realize, these are young kids who would logically struggle to motivate themselves in a brutal losing environment. Their peers other than San Antonio have not had to endure a rebuild this brutal and so full of children, but at least SAS has the benefit of a championship calibre coach overseeing the rebuild. Give them a playable vet PG who would hold them accountable on both ends and we would have had a much better season (however, we'd be out of the Wemby sweepstakes). We'll get to see it next season anyway. I hope to see more flashes of that the rest of the way.
I'm sure it got very complicated for the coaching staff. You want to start the season with Jabari just taking wide open shots and learning the defense. The expectation is he'll be given a simple role to get in the groove and that he would gradually shoot well on these. Once he shoots well on those shots, you then start building plays and using him more in the offense. However, that point never came. Jabari wasn't making simple open shots, so how can the coaching staff then upgrade him to running plays for him? It's a confidence issue and I hope he's over it now. If his 3pt shot is going to see an increase, then all the things he worked on early in the season (kickouts, attacking closeouts, improving FG% at the rim) will reduce his one dimensionality. In the post game interview you can hear him continue to put a huge emphasis on defense and he means it. I've never seen a kid this young be this serious about learning defense. I think JT is a good mentor on that end seeing as he can guard bigger and smaller players. Remember I told you 100% Jabari is going to make it. Don't worry about a thing, just add 1 year to however long you were going to take to judge him.
Its hard to say with Bari cuz he is only 19. For example he couldnt finish or drive to the rack in college but now he can do that in the NBA, not an elite level but certainly more than he did in college. I honestly think Silas' system helped Jabari a lot, it showed him how much lacking he is in other areas and forced him to do things he never did in college like driving hard and fishing for fouls. I'm def still high on him despite all the "bust" talk here I think he will still ultimately be one of the better prospects in this draft.
Definitely still think it's possible he's better than anyone taken after him. Also think he could still end up at about the same overall level as Banchero if Jabari makes a big leap forward on offense in the next few years, since Banchero will never be an elite defender and Jabari could be.
