Jabari Smith Jr. is the Rockets' franchise player

I’m just repeating what everyone else is saying and you yourself know deep down, yet you’ll still cling on this season like there’s some left. Have some shame.

 

I expected the shooting variance in Reed to affect W's and L's, but at the macro level, he's shooting from three about the same in wins and losses. Sure some games his shooting has been the reason the Rockets lost. He's also had games like against Denver in November, where he was simply amazing from behind the arc, but the Rockets still lost. For Reed, when he does well at getting into the heart of the defense and either scoring inside arc or passing, that has had a big effect on wins and losses.

I think the three-point shooting splits being similar in Ws and Ls is just a weird, small-sample-size stat.

 

I’m sick of the blame your best players for not being the best player in the league trend.

KD and Sengun are more in the 10th-20th best player range. We know that, we should happy with that, they are paid accordingly.

We’re not the Nuggets or Thunder with an MVP candidate, we need to be the 2023-24 Celtics with 2 Allstars and the best 3-8 role player cast in the league. Average isn’t going to cut it.

We had/have the assets and roster construction for that.

 

I'd have the Rockets as a solid 2nd right now 3-8 without FVV.

 

Trae the 30% three point shooter? That’s also a worse defender than Reed? That would go over real well here lol. Would be even more complaints

 

I think that ability to use minimal dribbling to get off his shot from anywhere in the half court was one of the main reasons he was projected so high in the draft. I'm sure many scouts would think that it should be translatable to the pro level. That and the switchability on defense.

 

Most definitely. I still think his shooting and low-man defense have value, even though the ballhandling has limited his volume and efficiency in shooting and switching on defense, not quite being as good as expected.

 

So how many years do you give Jabari before patience runs out? 5? 6? 7? 8?

Jalen was roasted over an open fire last year in his 4th season and it was time to move on. How long does the "young" argument shield Jabari?

 

well Jalen was juidged after the completing the season and the playoffs

 

I think the situations of Jalen and Jabari are not exactly the same and it's not unreasonable to see different reactions to their lack of significant progress in developments. The only similarity to me is that the 4th season should be the limit of patience. I did not totally lose hope on Jalen until his 4th season.

Jalen was billed as a franchise changing kind of player. He was also the first high pick we got in the rebuilding era. Jalen's problem is his roller coaster swings, very high and very low. The high gave us hope about his potential. The low made us doubt that he would ever live up to the potential. His low also exposed his flaws that looked like hard to correct after more than 3 seasons as a pro player. The most damning things about Jalen is his high usage. He took a lot of shots and his overall efficiency was "consistently" below average. He is to me the kind of "franchise player" that would hold back his team simply because he is not elite enough to carry the team but he cannot play a lesser and useful role for the team.

Jabari also carried high expectations since he had been projected to be the #1 pick in the draft. But when we got him, we already had Jalen as the lead guy, not to mention our precious Head Honcho. So his slow development was not as pronounced as Jalen's. He did take a leap from his terrible rookie season. The leap didn't land him to a very high level but it was quite a leap compared to the previous year. By then, it was clear that Sengun was emerging. Then we got rid of the tanking coach and the Head Honcho was gone, we finally had a more conducive team culture for him. But he did not improve a whole lot. Jabari unlike Jalen does not have very high high and very low low. Simply put, he has a higher floor than Jalen. A lot of people have given up hope for him to be a star but still see him as a good role player. He is a better defender, better rebounder, better shooter than Jalen. And unlike Jalen, he doesn't need the ball therefore his cold shooting doesn't cost the team as much as Jalen's cold shooting.

TLDR: Jabari is fine in his place as a role player. Jalen wasn't fine in his place as a lead scorer. That's why even though both guys have glaring flaws, Jabari's flaws are easier to accept than Jalen's because of their roles.

 

A 22 year old 4th option on a team is not consistent. Alert the press!!! Patience is at a premium on Clutchfans. Still a top 10 PF in the league. Improves every year. Get rid of the bum!!!

 

I agree fixating on in-season 3pt efficiency isn’t worth getting bent out of shape over. Certainly if Bari is at 38% by season’s end I will be happy with that. But because we haven’t seen really good progression on the efficiency now into season 4, I’m annoyed. He’s never shot over 36% for a season and he’s basically shooting what he shot in his 2nd season right now. I think we need to see significant growth from Bari this year. While there has been some, I still think it’s slower and less robust than it should be. Hopefully he’ll play better the 2nd half of the season.

I would trade Bari and assets for Trey Murphy.

 

Jalen was moved because KD was availiable. It's not like the Rockets were desperate to trade him. If KD decided to go elsewhere or said he didn't want to come here Jalen would still be here I imagine.

So in a sense the Org did give up on him but also they simply thought that KD would be better for the team. I don't think it's a move like what is happening to Ja where the team is clearly giving up on his future.

Jalen could still make us look like idiots too, even if he's just fringe all-star player for the Suns, many will argue that it would have been better to keep the younger player than a guy who any year now could be over the hill.

 

top 10 pf?!

Please name them off.

 

We said this about Jalen when he was here.
We are saying this about Amen and his jumper and handle
We are saying this about Jabari now

When will yall learn? The issue isn’t the player but that steaming pile of **** Peemay PoopDoka and his yesmen coaching staff.

 

I think Jalen said that he knew the team was trying to trade him in his fourth season. That was before KD was confirmed to be available. If that's really true, then the team might have given up on him as the lead star, not just because KD was available

My gu8ess is that they sensed that Jalen and Sengun wouldn't fit well. They decided Sengun was more promising to be a cornerstone of the team. As mentioned earlier, the team would rather trade Jalen than Jabari in the KD trade. That doesn't necessarily mean that they believed Jabari was the better player, but it most certainly means that Jabari was the better value and better fit.

 

I disagree. Rockets were determined to get rid of Jalen and KD basically fell into their lap. Jalen was also ready for a fresh start because of constant fan criticism and his faceplant in the playoff series. Even he didn't think it was going to happen for him here and a fresh start was welcome.

 

The line between PF and SF and even PF and C is somewhat blurry these days, but I would venture to say the following players who have significant minutes at the 4 are better than Jabari

Giannis
Tatum
Banchero
Scottie Barnes
Siakam
Zion
Draymond
Markannen
Aaron Gordon
Anthony Davis
Jalen Johnson
Chet Holmgren
Evan Mobley

Even Tari Eason has a better per than Jabari

 

Zion come on

 

He’s the 5th best power forward in the Rockets starting lineup.