Why disrupt our current rhythm/rotation? Its more important on who is finishing the game during crunch time vs who starts...
Ain't no way! Rockets are 7-1 after the two opening losses and if it ain't broke, don't fix it. To further clarify, I was Tari's most vocal advocate here during the offseason and I also expressed skepticism about Jabari. But the Rockets have a good thing going now. Ime has already proven he'll let Jabari's buns warm on the bench in the 4th quarter when he isn't bringing it. I'm fine with that for now.
What's cool about this table is not just the Rockets having 3 players on it, but how much younger they are than the other guys.
JSJ is looking better than ever. That said, Tari offers better spacing with his shooting, is the more versatile defender (almost always gets the tougher matchup when on court with JSJ) better passer, better dribbler, better on offensive glass, and is better at not getting suckered into taking bad mid range shots early in the clock. Tari did lose a little bit of his aggressiveness making him a little less effective. JSJ's low man defense has been important with the starters, JSJ is the better zone defender which allows Durant and Sengun to rest more. Granted, probably doesn't matter much as both are good. Whoever plays with Amen and Sengun a lot are going to do well. More concerned with making sure Reed is developed.
Statistically Jabari has very high On/Off but that gets noisy as he plays with the starters. Tari is out performing him in counting stats and percentages, and arguably has been a better overall player for years. We'll see how things play out, as long as we keep winning.
https://www.sports-reference.com/stathead/sharing/0gxZv Other than 3%, which I would consider it very unlikely that Tari continues shooting at this rate, Jabari is posting the better numbers. I will say too, Tari's stocks are noticeably lower than his typical marks and is also just about doubling the turnovers even though he plays less. I think something worth mentioning is how their offensive ratings are also extremely similar, but comes via Tari shooting over 50% from 3 which again...unlikely to continue. When I started this thread, I believed it. Tari should've been starting at 3. If it's Tari or Jabari now, I'm taking Jabari without hesitation.
Don't see chart, but Tari wins pts, offensive rebounds, total rebounds, assists, and steals on a per minute basis: He wins rim%, 3 pt%, TS% and takes much fewer bad mid range shots.Tari's high, but not great Net Rating is likely the result of playing less with better players, trying to play more under control, and one bad game. This is with Tari raising his % at rim while not getting as much help to score inside with a insanely low 31.6% assisted rate on his shots at the rim (was 53% last season). On 3 point percentage regressing, Tari has a career 37% to JSJ's 34%. I expect a good amount of regression to the mean in Tari's shooting, but that's a pretty decent gap in their means.
It’s not “noisy.” It’s because Bari is a better fit with the starters, whereas Eason is a better fit as a sixth man. Same with Okogie - Eason, if you ranked players in the NBA, would rank much higher than Okogie, but Okogie is a better fit with the starters. Not sure why this is even a discussion given how everyone is playing in their roles.
Jabari averages 32 minutes to 24 for Tari. I think Tari’s energy might be affected if that was switched. Jabari is also younger and it was obvious what the Rockets wanted him to work on and he is obviously stronger, more aggressive, and handling the ball better this year. I expect he is trying to develop a Kevin Durant type middie and I think that is going to be very effective for him in the long run. Everybody on the starting unit is playing a different role this year than they have in their careers and the learning curve is obvious and should be expected. Tari is best utilized as energy and shooting off the bench for this team, as is Reed. We also don’t know what the Rockets know about his medicals. There may be a reason they are playing him less minutes.
JSJ may be better in the future. JSJ may even be better now. I favor Tari, but JSJ has gotten a lot better that I don't think either is a big driver in overall team performance as the skill level of the team has gotten so much better. As far as starting goes, Tari has been much better for his career at starting than as a backup. Tari's energy has likely affected his 3 point shooting as a starter (drops to a JSJ level shooter), but having guys that can create easy baskets for him has way outweighed the loss of energy when starting (career TS% of 59.4% as a starter). There just isn't evidence other than narrative that shows Tari loses effectiveness with more minutes played. Maybe it is just a small sample that would reverse as a trend over what has actually happened, but it isn't like getting 16 minutes of game time rest is a small amount (38 mpg vs 30 mpg is a much bigger deal than 32 vs 24). On Tari getting less minutes, the Rockets choose to start JSJ. Considering the Rockets started Jalen Green over Amen for most of the year and the Rockets chose to run Amen as a starting SF instead of benching Green, I don't think the Rockets are 100% on who the best starters are. Tari is not better than Durant, which will limit Tari's minutes if he doesn't start. Granted, with the way they are both playing now, I don't think it is as big a deal on who starts between Tari and JSJ (I think both are starter-worthy, but not the best fits with Sengun and Durant). I think the bigger question will be what happens if Reed turns out to be worthy of starting. Personally, I think Okogie (or DFS) would be the best fit with Reed, Amen, Durant, and Sengun over both JSJ and Tari if that happens.
Defense doesnt necessarily show on stats. JSJ does a lot of stuff positionally you dont see but that is reflected in our team stats. Last year when he got injured even if Amen got in the starting lineup the team defense still dropped 2 rankings from 2nd to 4rth. In fact him being out at the same time as FVV os the reason people thought the team collapsed with FVV out. Other than their rookie year Tari has never been better than Jabari. Thats why JSJ got 125M immediately while Tari needs to go into RFA.
Anyone know what this is about? Also, anyone find it odd that Tate came off of the bench before Tari against the Wiz?
Tari was pissed about something, Jabari tried to dap him up during a timeout and Tari left him hanging cuz he was having a b**** fit. Royal Ivey saw it and called him out, Tari about to lose his **** and then Adams body blocked him and removed him from the situation. Not sure what happened after since I havent seen the full game yet.