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

you’re comparing #1 option Paolo playing with the worst shooting and spacing in the league receiving heavy defensive attention to #4 or #5 option Jabari who 2nd half of the season was coming off the bench…I can’t even imagine how badly Jabari would get exposed on the Magic

Who else in Orlando should have the ball if not Paolo or Franz? Why are we discounting the situation that he’s in? Orlando shot 31.8% from deep for the season and averaged 105 ppg in the year 2025.

Put Paolo next to actual spacing or on a team where he’s the 2nd option at best and he can’t be a part of a championship roster?

Paolo has top 15 player in the NBA potential, Jabari has nowhere close

Chet has been available for the postseason, and he’s so much better than Jabari on the court I’ll take him and his health concerns over Jabari and what has so far been guaranteed mediocre production

 

Chet is special on defense…elite shot blocker and rim protector…might be 2nd only to Wemby in that regard

Is there anything Jabari does that’s better than just average or slightly above?

Paolo’s 1st playoff series as a 2nd year player: 27, 9, and 4

 

I thought (still think) Chet would have the highest ceiling but injury concern was scary.

Jabari was the safest pick. His two strengths--shooting and defense--would fit any team, and especially for the Rockets needs. He had the highest floor among the top guys that year.

There was a lot of hype about Paolo on CF at the time because everybody thought we would draft him. He is the exact opposite of Jabari, good fluid playmaking but not good at shooting and defense.

 

Coming out of the draft they were interchangeable. I think even he'd admit no one would take him over those guys currently. He's the heir apparent to Durant here. He's been given another 3 years under his tutelage to figure it out.

 

Being better at being the number 1 or number 2 guy only matters if a player is good enough to be the number 1 or 2 guy on a championship team. Paolo has a lot better odds as being the number 1 or 2 guy on a championship team than JSJ. I like JSJ's off ball game better than I do Paolo's. Paolo's got a big lead as a better player right now.

I do see Paolo as an incredibly risky player that I think the likeliest outcome is that he's a good enough player that he will keep the Magic out of the lottery, not good enough to lead a team to an NBA Finals victory even with a weak East, but will be paid enough as a number 1 option to prevent the Magic from getting a championship caliber number 1 option.

 

Bari has not been given the chance to be that player
neither by Silas or Ime

He has not been given the "green light"

Rocket River

 

Well again, not every "top 15 player" is created equal. Fair enough that Orlando's spacing is bad--I've just never been very high on Banchero. I'll admit I could end up being wrong about him, but I had him pegged as an empty stats type of star early on. I'm just very wary of those types of guys--they can really lead a whole franchise astray for a long time. His impact on winning appears to be so much lower than what his stats would indicate. The Magic were worse with him healthy this past season.

I don't think we're really in disagreement much about Jabari's talent level, if at all. I think he's a roleplayer, maybe a very good one if he gets better. I just really don't like Paolo's game.

Chet I just view as a gamble. He's a lot better than Jabari when healthy, agreed.

 

Banchero gives me

vibes

Rocket River
lol

 

He does have the green light, he just loses his handles after 2 dribbles with nobody even guarding him

 

My problem with guys like Banchero, assuming he doesn't improve his efficiency a lot, is that they impact winning a lot, but not enough to win a championship, but will get paid enough that it prevents the team from adding more talent. Basically, I see Paolo as a walking treadmill of mediocrity (oddly, this may be good enough to win the East) if he doesn't improve.

Very different players, but Paolo, Ingram, and Sabonis all look to be very expensive players, high usage, but have a flaw that has kept them from being truly great. If Paolo doesn't improve his efficiency, he's going to keep Orlando from being an efficient team as he comprises a large percentage of their attempts.

 

Bari is an elite switch defender. One of the best in the league IMO.

 

The most dangerous kind of player is those 2nd or 3rd tier stars who can't or won't play the 2nd or 3rd option role. If they are on your team, you have no choice but give them the key and if they have the key, they aren't good enough to carry the team to championship level.

 

I'm gonna ask you a favor even though you'll probably forget by late October: Since you watch the Magic on a regular basis, can you comment on them in the NBA Dish throughout the season and keep us informed on what's going on with them?

A few months ago prior to the Rockets meeting them for the first time, you mentioned how terrible their offense was (even compared to the Rockets). I had no earthly idea and doubted you. Your comments were spot on and much appreciated.

More of this please, if you don't mind. Like most teams in the East, normally the Magic are dead to me because I don't give a care about the boring Least-ern Conference. However, since they traded for Desmond Bane and all of their injured players should return healthy, I'm actually interested in them.

 

I wouldn’t say I watch them on a regular basis, I just watched them a decent amount until their offense became so unbearable I couldn’t take it anymore

tbh, the only teams aside from the Rockets I’ll probably go out of my way to watch are the Clippers and Pistons

Clippers solely because I still have love for Harden and they have a great broadcast team, and Pistons because I like what they got going on down there/find them enjoyable to watch and I’m a Cade Cunningham truther…a Cade Cunningham stock holder

 

Knowing what we know now... what would you have traded to get to #1? i think Pistons wanted #2 and their pick back.

I wanted Cade or Mobley in that draft.

 

Cade is really good.

 

Ditto on Cade. Nearly everything I saw at OK State from him has translated into the NBA. The guy is a boss! I don't see how anyone cannot love him.

 

That’s Jalen Green music, bud.

 

I don’t remember all the assets we had back then, but definitely #2 and a future pick

 

It would have taken a hell of a lot more than Detroit's pick back. Here's a list of our assets on draft day 2021 ranked by some guy named Dave in collaboration with a "BimaThug" (if that's his real name). That Detroit pick was not worth all that much because it had massive protections on it; it only conveyed this year as #17 overall, four years later. This also shows how much of a coup getting #16 from OKC for Sengun was in 2021; Stone only needed to trade away his two least valuable first rounders to get it done.



Considering that getting #1 for #3 (Fultz/Tatum) took a top-5 only protected pick from the pre-LeBron Lakers, who were coming off of a 26-56 year, and #3 for #5 (Doncic/Young) took a top-5 protected pick from a 24-58 Dallas team, I'd have set the line back then to trade for Cade at the 2022 Houston first rounder with top-5 protection, and unprotected in 2023.

So the question is, do you do Jalen Green + Jabari Smith for Cade, or Jalen Green + Amen Thompson for Cade?

I think you 100% do the first one, and the second one is probably still a yes at this moment in time, but Amen could definitely make that a no quite quickly.

Now, if it's Evan Mobley + Jabari Smith, or Evan Mobley + Amen Thompson, I think the answer is clearly no for both.