Jabari Smith Jr. is the Rockets' franchise player

Landale will do all the dirty work.

 

He seems to be very much a “flow” player. I think having Fred Honcho and Amen will help get him some easy buckets to find a rhythm.

The thing I liked to see was he hunted and feasted on mismatches. Jalen, Amen, and Alpi will have a ton of gravity — if he can just take advantage of the mismatches presented, he’ll score a lot.

Also, great to see Cam dial it back just a bit. He should get the Dillon Brooks defensive master class and he will be a handful. The shotmaking is legit.

 

This is a 20 year old.

 

He finally outgrew Summer League role player status.

 

That blow by on Weissman is something that was completely absent from Jabari's game his rookie year.

 

A few. All have something in common maybe?

 

The calling for the ball and post up on when Boeheim was on him, followed by the defensive spin and midrange fadeaway away from the double team was my favorite play. That was straight out of Garnett’s playbook.

 

Anybody saying this needs to be banned.

 

He will have the better career of the two and I won't be surprised if it isn't very close

 

I also still prefer Jabari over Banchero.

 

No. It wouldn't be as much fun without them.

 

would be amazing if he does. this team would be completely different if he really does

 

I said a few times that he was looking like a role player ceiling... might as well be honest. Always glad to be wrong in these cases.

 

yeah, you're off the hook, you're not one of the usual suspects

 

If he could just average about 17/7 on good shooting splits this year, he's destined to be the guy once his body fills out and FVV's game deteriorates before our eyes.

 

I still don't see him as a superstar, though I hope he will prove me wrong. The flashes he showed today with some of those dribble drives do have me second-guessing my view that he tops out as a second option.

In any case, I think he will make multiple all-star games and will be a great shotmaker.

 

As I said at the time, Banchero was a great pick at the time for Orlando because he was the type of player you pick if your franchise is in need of a quick win with a rookie of the year type of rookie. He was that quick fix type of rookie.

But Jabari has so much more in terms of value to contending teams when that player figures out how to be useful. Bosh, Aldridge, Rashard Lewis, etc etc… the league really runs on these type of versatile, and long bigs at that 6’10” to 7 foot range. If Jabari can become an efficient player in some way there’s no way teams aren’t lining up to give him a max deal in 4 years.