I've never understood the Jabari hate. He's expected to be the 4th best player on the team at best, and there's very few teams where he wouldn't be an upgrade in that role.
Actually it's opposite. I don't get the Jabari love. It's as you say, take away the draft position and he is essentially a 4th starter and being paid like one. I don't really get what's to be excited about him because it's like being excited for Trevor Ariza or PJ Tucker. It's players like Amen and Reed with upside that I get much more invested in on a player level.
People need to stop with the Tucker and Ariza comps. Those 2 were amazing defenders. To this day Jabari gets cooked by the Duncan Robinson's of the league.
Jabari is solid. It’s just the salary, archetype that isn’t going to work against OKC, time allocation, and opportunity cost all adds up to him being the guy to move. Could get a comparable player for 10 mil less with our MLE next year. Wing is the position we’ll be drafting with those future picks. Could probably get a comparable shooter that is a better POA defender and more comfortable with the ball like Andrew Wiggins for him in trade.
I've stopped talking about Jabari's defense since there are some people here that tend to get very annoyed when you say anything not glowing about his defense and I don't care enough about Jabari to really argue. However, I think it's not that hard say Jabari's upside is the 4th best player on this team. You don't ever envision him being better than Sengun, KD, or Amen. It's possible Reed can jump ahead of him even this year with steady growth. If Tari's 3pt shot is legit, he is at least on par if not better than Jabari when on the floor. And DFS/FVV could both be better if they were playing. It's just not an archetype I fantasize regardless of age.
Haven’t been able to watch much of rockets this season? How has he been? He may not be what he was hyped up to be. But if he’s playing solid defense and hitting 3s at a high rate. It’s still a win in my opinion
Aldridge was automatic from high volume middies everywhere. In today’s league he would hit 3s at a high clip. he also had an insane wingspan that prevented him from getting blocked in the paint. Jabari still needs to finish better inside
It's sensible responses like this one that get a person many "likes" to each post they make. That's good statistical data. And the rhetoric isn't too ugly other than saying the comp is stupid. Not calling the OP stupid, just the comp.
All of whom are 3-4 years older than Jabari, and I'd argue that Jabari is about as good as Reid (offense+defense combined) and not far behind McDaniels. The thought of trading him for Trey Murphy is an interesting idea that I'd entertain during the offseason (poison pill makes it hard to pull off right now), but it would depend on what else New Orleans wanted us to send out along with Jabari, if they're even willing to trade Murphy at all as opposed to building around him as a core player.
Need Jabari to get his loose teeth embedded into Wemby’s arm to show how much he cares about winning.
