The way the Magic and Paulo have been playing, I wonder what they would have taken to move up in the draft for us to get him as was reportedly on the table for us. If it was Tari + #3 , I feel less bad about who we have. Jabari and Tari look promising, not sure if they will be better than Paulo but at least it seems like we didn't make a huge mistake.
Without omniscient knowledge it doesn't really make sense to trade up for no 1 because as far as everyone knew Bari was going 1. Let's say there are two black boxes one has 1% to get 1M usd and 99% chance to get 10 usd and the other box has the opposite. You choose the 2nd box turns out the 1st box has the 1M. Did you make a mistake? Or were you just unlucky? Given what we know at the time I believe Rox made the correct choice it would have been dumb to trade up and get the guy who was mocked 3rd by majority.
Have coaches work on his one-on-one isolation, passing, and pull-up jumper game. What more do you need a player to show they have star potential? The data consistently shows his impact, great game tonight.
He is already better than Brooks IMO. And it's not like Brooks has been awful, but I'm interested to see if he will push Brooks to the bench by next season?
I don't think Brooks will be the one who will lose minutes (unless he fouls out or gets two Ts). But Tari must and will get 30+ minutes per game.
Short term, yeah, but long term I'm not sure Brooks and Eason together gives us enough ball handling and shot creation. Unless Eason continues to develop that.
Another possibility is that Tari pushes Jalen into a 6th man role. FVV- PG Dillon - SG Tari - SF Smith - PF Alpi - C
Dillon has improved over last year mostly because he hasn't been given a larger role in the offense. I'm afraid starting him at SG would have him revert back to last year which was a huge minus offensive player.
I literally said hasn't been "given" a larger role in the offense which obviously attributes his improvement to Ime as well..
The Magic was never going to give that that pick. They never liked Bari, it was all a smokescreen and bamboozled everyone. The only time people give up No. 1 is if they had an eye for someone else later on in the draft (Tatum/Fultz situation)
What I meant was that Ime's leadership, advice, persona, structure and accountability is why Dillon is better. Thus, IF Ime saw fit to move Dillon to the 2, I would have confidence in that move.
Maybe the “if we need to throw in Tari to get a star” narrative will start to go away soon. Also the “Tari can’t be a franchise-type player” narrative.
Ime's leadership has been to keep Dillon focused on defense and to get Dillon to buy into a smaller role on offense. I think that "IF" is a no to Ime as he's done the exact opposite pretty much all season except last game when Green and Sengun sucked. Brooks and Tari have not been a good pairing so far this season outside last night. Brooks and Tari both provide value guarding the best 6-5 to 6-10 non-center, and are best as a teritary or lower option on offense (i.e., getting baskets when defense focuses on primary action). Tari subbing for Green with starters has not been as good as the starting lineup so far. I think the Rockets are close to Holiday and Tari (instead of Tate) coming in at the 6 minute mark for Green and either Brooks or Smith. Personally, I want to see Amen, Holiday, Tari, Smith, and Sengun. Probably not the best Rockets lineup right now, but I think the Amen-Sengun PnR game with Tari/Smith and a 3-D player is going to be a big part of the Rockets future even if that is never the starting lineup. Amen's shooting worries me in the short term.
FVV and Alp have their touches, in this lineup I can see Jabari benefiting. Bari's shot attempts could go up. Rookie year, don't think he was as ready, but now under his current lower volume, he has shown he could handle, Rockets could ramp up his FGA gradually.
Tari has out played Tate. I love Uncle Jeff, but he is not consistent enough to be a dependable rotation guy. So unless they bring in a really good backup big, Tari will have minutes at the backup 4 spot even if Brooks is playing starter minutes.
