Rockets sign Jabari Smith Jr. to 5-year, $122M extension

Another way of saying, he has no aspirations to better himself and become an all star.

 

Or...he's a 22 year old player that likes the city and team he's on and jumped at a chance at 100+ million in a place he's happy at?

It seems the Rockets strategy with young players is to sign them before they even get a hint at being worth more.

He also comes from a family with multiple NBA players in it so maybe he'd just rather be on a competitive team than bicker over contract stuff then get sent to the Wizards?

 

Yep. He'll be 28? when this contract ends. As a tall shooter, he is the type of guy whose game should age well. If he does break out, there's another massive contract on the back side of this.

Hard to feel bad for a guy who just guaranteed himself north of $100 million. His cousin was Kwame Brown, who never quite got another chance to break out. His father obviously found himself out of the league after a few years. He protected himself against injury, and with a big free agent class, also prevented getting himself into a drawn out contract situation. Seems like he wanted to be in Houston and now he can get focused in.

 

That is a bit too harsh for me. After 3 years in the league, I think Jabari has a good grasp of his limitations and understands the possible upside of waiting a year probably isn’t much more than the current offer. Meanwhile, the possible downside is catastrophic.

 

I always figured that Jabari would be extremely motivated to lock in a long term deal, especially considering that he essentially lost his starting role due to injury, and was not guaranteed consistent minutes this year with KD here. As you mentioned, his dad never earned a second contract in the league, and his older brother might have had the genetic gifts but not the insane work ethic/love for the game required to be a pro. With all of that in his history, makes sense he would not be trying to hold out for the maximum dollar available.

Maybe we'll be saying something different about Jabari Smith III someday.

 

Jabari's Floor?



Rocket River

 

Bobby Marks: "Sources confirm to ESPN that the salary cap in 2026-27 is projected to increase 7%. The maximum allowed is 10%" | Zach Lowe: "Major implications for any teams who were making deals based on assumption of another 10% increase in cap/tax/apron levels."

 

This is shocking!

 

Thanks - I like how you supported with all that data.

Here's a fairly obvious data point - Jalen started 82 games last year & was against the other team's #1 lineup - of course there's going to be a corresponding drop in efficiency in those lineups for any player out there

 

We've been "believing in Jalen's potential" now for 4 years .... there has been improvement, especially on defense. Yep, he worked hard on his game, yep, he seems like a good guy, I've always defended his character ....
Most of us wanted him to succeed, even the "haters" .... for the sake of the team. Even that DDouble DDoofas would have been happy if he played well and helped the team win.

But the offense is the problem and there has been very little change in that aspect.

Then you throw in the playoff meltdown, he was beyond bad in 6 of 7 games when the team needed him most. He straight up disappeared.

He is who he is: a streaky shooter who doesn't contribute much to winning if his shot isn't falling. That's who he's been since his first NBA game and who he was in the playoffs.

This team just doesn't have the luxury of gambling on Jalen's potential at the cost of $33m worth of cap space if they are trying to win a championship. Gambling on potential is for lottery teams.

 

He is only 22 years old. By the time this contract is expiring, he'll just be entering his prime. If he can turn himself into an all star player in the next 3 o4 4 years, he'll still have plenty of time to make a big bag.

 

Its basically Dillon Brooks contract. Its a good deal. I would've waited honestly, but if something jumps up, its easily tradable

 

So the spacing issue was Jalen all along?

 

If you play hard Defense for 80 games, your knees get softer and you lose some of your shooting.

Just watch the Playoffs, how many great shooting nights did the Champions have......

The issue with Jalen was without shooting, he was not offering much else, even with the improved Jalen.

 

It's just interesting to see how big a jump in efficiency Bari had with Jalen off and if true as some have said that all/most played better with JG off i'd like to invite the JG homers to plead their excuses lol.

Also you'd think Ime and the backend staff had these advanced stats on hand but they still chose to ride with JG in the playoffs til death. Hoping for the best? no other options? Things to ponder.

 

Bari in Ime's doghouse this coming season confirmed.

 

Crazy this wasn’t known before the trading season and free agency opened up.

 

I truly Expect a Jump in performance form Bari

Pts: 12.2 --> 15~20
Reb: 7.0 --> 10~12
Asst: 1.1 --> 2
Steals: 0.4 --> 1
Mins: 30 .. . probably about the same

Rocket River

 

How quickly do you expect this to happen?