Even more confusing when it seemed to be put out there that we had decided we wanted Banchero. Couldn't the Magic have said they wanted Banchero, and then put the squeeze on us to see what we might offer? Or did they see Banchero as a bona-fide star they would pick no matter what, and didn't want any chance of bad publicity down the track if he flopped (MAN - we could've trade for X,Y,Z)
Speaking of Banchero, he's been bad this year. Arguably awful from an efficiency standpoint. His raw numbers look okay (23/8.5/2), but his efficiency is worse than ever. He had a .51 TS% before tonight and they are getting smoked by Detroit.
The fact that OP chose "Brickari" over "Jabricky" already tells me that I don't have to take their opinion seriously.
Stone publicly slobbering over Banchero and telling the world he’s 6 foot 11 barefoot might have helped them change their mind lol. Absolutely idiotic from Stone to do before draft regardless of weather it had an impact on Orlando decision or not.
I don’t know, he made really good plays tonight and also had some great passes off the dribble. Seems to be getting better and more comfortable.
Regardless of players involved, you never reveal your cards before the play. Just asinine lol. But it’s all good I think he learned.
Efficiency has always been his problem. As the leading scorer of the team, it's not a good thing. Coming out of the draft, his weaknesses were shooting and defense. Those were accurate scouting and he has not improved on those since his rookie year. The only thing he improved on was drawing more fouls.
Saw the highlights, he was able to hit wide open 3 pointers. He has the weakest and smallest defender there's no reason for him not to cook. Kd, Amen and Sengun have the best defenders on them.
The only guy who the Rox missed out on Jabari is JDub who nobody expected would be that good, even OKC themselves as they drafted Ousmane Dieng before JDub. Jabari might not be a star but he is more than just a starter because of his measurables and skillset. 6'10 stretch PF/C who is good defensively there arent a lot of those and they are very coveted in the league. Like Al Horford still getting 12M contracts at 39 yrs old. Thats why Stone locked him to a 5 yr deal with no wrinkles like TO or unguaranteed yrs etc Jabari is the only guy to get that treatment apart from Sengun. Reed oth the ceiling is very low you have a 6'1 guard with trex arms who has bad ball handling skills, bad defense and plays soft AF. Rox may have just drafted Aaron Holiday with the top 3 pick. Even if Reed gets better, he will still be a massive disappointment as there are so many better players taken after him like Castle, Buzelis, Holland, TSJ etc
Don't forget Jabari has had great individual games before and then turned back into a pumpkin. For better or for worse, let's continue collecting more evidence before calling what the long term trend is.
What does “turning into a pumpkin” even mean? Are people wanting Bari to be our leading scorer? Even if he’s not scoring a ton, he’s spacing the floor and is an incredibly versatile defender. The reason Bari is so valuable is exactly because he doesn’t need to score to be impactful.
The issue with Jabari and how people look at him is that he was drafted 3rd and Chet and Paolo went ahead of him. No fault of his own, but those three were pretty interchangeable in that draft, Bari was NEVER dropping past 3 though despite some people claiming we should have drafted Jalen Williams...who was never going top 3 no matter the team. It feels like too many people talk about Paolo when its irrelevant, we couldn't have drafted him, what sense does it make wishing we had? I could see if we had picked Jabari first and Chet and Paolo went after him, then yeah, but the reality is he 'dropped' to three and any other team in the league was probably taking him third.
He was a no brainer and in a redraft he would only slip to 4 even accounting for JDub. With his new 25M contract I would take him no 2 and wont look back. Super max for Chet and Banchero? Hell no.
Turning back into a pumpkin means being the guy who is guarded by the opponents weakest defender (like, say, Duncan Robinson) and being Mr. Invisible on offense. You know nobody has ever said anything about Jabari being the leading scorer. Nice straw man you built there. Also, Jabari's defense has been well-discussed. Amen, Tari and Okogie are the only "impactful" defenders the Rockets have and even they were awful against the Raptors. The Rockets defense has been struck by a disease.
Yeah - if you don’t think Bari is an impactful defender, then there’s really not much else to say except…you’re wrong.
I don't blame you man. I don't know if I'd take Bari over either right now (but I think Bari still has great potential) but I think both of those guys are pretty overrated in that people talk of them like future superstars in the league. I just don't see it. Chet benefits A LOT with who he plays for and with and I'm not even sure Paolo is the best guy on his team I think it's a real discussion between him and Franz.
Love him or hate him we're stuck with Jabari for now. And for what it's worth, I don't see a lot of reason for the hate. He hasn't been a spectacular NBA player by any means, but there are no signs that he isn't trying hard on the court or working hard off the court, and there are plenty of signs that he has real NBA talent, even if that's not as the star player you'd wish for at #3. So for me, right now, it's kind of pointless to go in on these "I hate this guy" type of threads. He's a Rocket, he's doing his best, he seems to be a decent human being. I'm just going to root for him to play well. If and when trading him becomes a real option I might change my tune, if he's underperforming his contract at that point, which I don't think will be the case.
