I don’t think the speed, coordination, reflexes is comparable. I don’t think age and experience fix those inate athletic qualities. Can get stronger, more confident, shooting gets better, learn the game and be in the right spot but no one’s getting any faster. I think Jabari’s baseline ceiling speed and coordination made him a conference finals role player in 2006 but the game has evolved and conference finals role players are all fast and coordinated athletes now. Tari is more like OG than Jabari is.
I would be pissed off and disappointed if we lost to this Knicks team in the playoffs. They would be the most improbable to win a championship.
I think Jabari has a little bit more in those categories than you're giving him credit for personally; I think that's kind of why he was in that #1 overall conversation in the first place. Obviously he is nowhere near Amen's level, but I've always seen a guy who is a good NBA athlete (not a great one though). He can run the floor, he can move laterally, he actually has more verticality than Tari, who is just atrocious in that category for some unknown reason. I personally think Jabari's biggest issue in terms of becoming an elite roleplayer is more mental. He gets in his own head and isn't as steady as he should be. That's something that might be corrected by maturing as a person and a player. I can agree he will probably never be quite as quick and strong as OG... but he does make up for it somewhat by being 6'11" instead of 6'7".
...which is why this gives the Rockets some hope. Everyone around here conceded the next 10 championships to OKC and the Spurs. As the old cliche goes, it's why you play the games. Championships aren't won on paper. I've been saying all along, THIS Rockets team, with Durrant, is good enough* The Rockets have all the parts, they just need to fit it together. I don't think you trade Durrant right now (*if you think player health is not going to be a problem). If they know the team won't be healthy, go with the soft rebuild approach and aggressively trade up in the draft. Take a swing and hope you get an alpha player. But as we have seen, Rockets keep getting unlucky via the draft.
Fair, we can all watch the games and see things differently. Tari looks substantially faster to me, slower than Amen but in that realm. Jabari looks like Jeff Green speed to me.
The point of this thread is solid, the Knicks don't have draft picks on their team, they built through FA, and trades. We should be looking to emulate that. DD
80% of Evan Mobley/Chet Holmgren sounds like a great prototypical 4/5. The jumper is smooth. but Evan Mobley and Chet Holmgren run into the issue of being too slow for the 4, and too small for the 5 at the highest levels, in the toughest matchups, it’s visible. What’s an 80% version going to do. The contract might look better, but that’s still starter money and starter training time for someone who can’t close games for a championship team in this era.
They dropped 2 games to Atlanta then won like 13 games in a row since then. They definitely changed in a way that just listing the individual players won't reflect. The Knicks have a "power of friendship" or something buff going on that this current Rockets team can never emulate.
Yeah he was in the conversation before they actually saw him play in the NBA lol JSJ was overrated then and he is overrated by Clutchfans now.
We should do both, which is how SA and OKC did it. Are Stone and Ime capable to re-build anything, is the real question.
Yep, that is what I am saying, trade for AD, to give you a 2 year win now mode, keep the core guys in Amen, Jabari and Reed, and draft wisely, and sign FA, like Grimes, or White. DD
Brunson is at the peak of his powers. If Durant was in his prime, we would be contenders. People also underestimate how good KAT is. I think the game has finally evolved enough to let him play his game instead of forcing him to be a prototypical center.
