These two obviously can't get along. One of them has to go. Send Jabari to the G-League where he belongs!!! Free Darius Days!!
Congratulations on being the most woke poster in clutchfans 25 year history. Stop looking for things to be slighted over. There is no reasonable world where anyone draws the conclusion you did.
that must be the new “nobody hates Jalen Green, we’re just criticizing him as we attack his masculinity, IQ, the way he talks, and find glee in his struggles”
Nah it’s more like haters who don’t know wtf they’re talking about and now they’re all quiet. You must be one of them
I don't think the Smith haters were as wild as the green haters since the expectations for Smith weren't as high. I also think there wasn't a Mobley like player for folks to pine over.
What about Jabari with slightly more range, slightly improved handle and 15-20lbs of muscle he's going to put on in the next few years? Those are almost guaranteed improvements he's going to make. His handling of the ball has already improved since the beginning of the season. I told you in November, he's 100% a star. Just give everything 1 more year than you were expecting. Consider next season to be his rookie year and he'll meet all your expectations. He's 19 mf'ers. You want to know how bad 19 year olds are? In several decades no 19 year old has ever had 3 double doubles in a row. That's how bad 19 year olds suck, they can be massive athletic people and not be able to do that. Jabari is the first to do it. Sengun can be a great floor raiser and Jabari/Green are like the ceiling smashers. Green and Jabari can light you up in an instant while Sengun surgically takes you apart. Future is looking really great guys. With Sengun, Green and Jabari, we have a REALLY solid core with excellent young role players developing around them. Green can go off for 30-40 any time. Sengun can put up 20 points and 7-8 assists on a good night already. Jabari COULD average 20/10/2 and anchor the defense when he's bigger. None of their games overlap, all complimentary as long as Sengun keeps developing that 3pt shot. Otherwise just with incremental improvement, this core is on a great path. We're also going to add a top 5 pick to the core. The future is looking really amazing for us now that Jabari has shown some better peaks. Christopher, Garuba, Tyty, KJ, Eason and Tate are 6 potentially excellent role players that will - at minimum - have good trade value.
6'10 pure shooter with a high release point. Who is realistically challenging that with any sort of consistency? You can probably count that on one hand. Throw in the ability to defend with mobility and you have yourself some potential stardom. This is what a lot of us envisioning when we wanted the Rockets to pick up Bari no matter what.
If he keeps this up, I might have to change my vote in the poll to "yes". He is looking a bit better than Thon Maker now
I am wondering (and hoping) if Smith can keep the pace up and finish the season strong, similarily to Green last season. Right now he is averaging 15-7 on 52%, 42%, 82% percentage shooting (63% TS) in March. Now I don't expect him to keep those percentages up that high, but if he can end March and April with 38% from 3 and close to 60% in TS I'd be happy. I am really wondering, why he struggled this much with his shooting. Was it mental, was it conditioning, was he changing his shooting form, was it defense? I am wondering: if March was the way he was playing all season long - would all people here be happy with the pick? He is still "only" scoring 15 a night - he is still not really a creator and doesn't really get assists and he still is not a great at dribbling. And while he is active on defense, he isn't really very effective. Personally I would be thrilled if he had been playing like that all season. I believe his defense will improve as he gets experience and bulks up. He won't need to be a great creator, but he can get his own shot up and for his game his dribbling is decent.
Jabari is a good defender already. He is closer to the best than he is to the worst in the NBA. I think people take these advanced defensive stats and are not aware how raw they are in the stats world. Those lists serially underrate good defenders on bad defensive teams. It also overrates bad defenders on good defensive teams. It's so easy to pick out. No matter how good a defender you are, your numbers are not going to separate much from the team and that's not a logical assessment of what makes a good defender. These lists tell you who is currently defending successfully rather than who is the best defender, two very different questions. For his age, he is elite defensively. Compare him to any 19 year old who wasn't drafted into a great defensive team. He was always projected to be elite and does a professional job (errors or not) when given a defensive assignment. Constantly talking about it first when asked questions. Blocks shots, gets steals, deflects shots, communicates, takes it personally. I don't think it's reasonable to say he's not a good defender. From 19 to 22 he's going to make huge strides on defense and if the starting point is already in the range of average, then the most likely path is he becomes excellent to elite there. Clear for everyone that he's a hard worker off the court too. Would you bet on him not making a first team all defense before 25 years old? I wouldn't. He held Tatum to 22 points on 22 shots. That's an incredible defensive job, Tatum usually scores 30 points on 21.5 shots.
He’s only playing well because he’s 19 and his opponents are tired. His young legs are not. Wait till he turns 20, another year older / slower.
This place has some of the most brain dead takes I've ever seen, so I honestly can't tell if this is sarcastic or not. It could be making fun of people who chose not to listen to EVERYONE telling them that teenagers almost always struggle to adjust to the NBA for a while, or if this is just a cope from someone who hasn't had a chance to hate on the kid for a week now. I need to stay away from here either way. If you were joking, I do apologize. If you are serious... well nevermind.
