I saw that. I was very high on Smith until I realized he had no dribble package, I still think he will be a very good NBA player just not a franchise changer and I feel the same way about Holmgren but I think Holmgren has the skills to level up.
With shooting being more important than ever I think he is the perfect player for this team when you consider the assets they still have the potential of bringing in the next few years. Either through the draft or free agency. Smith should fit Green and another guy like him/Banchero (a guy that create his own shot or shots for others) At least that’s they way I look at it. I could very wrong (hell they could all suck or all be excellent) I am just happy it is Smith or would have been Paolo. I think this team could be special and I was scared as hell of Holmgren. I envisioned right when they are ready to really compete he gets a serious injury.
I feel the same about Holmgren and I am warry about how the physicality will affect him. Over/under how many people will be trying to posterize him and succeed? 50?
The point I am making is that he will not be the rim protector everybody thinks he will be, people will just go through him. It will not be like Goebert.
I think most people see him as a perimeter defensive player that will be able to switch back hurriedly and get blocks from the weak side or even following the play, and, I think he will be effective at that. I’m just glad we got Jabari who is who I personally wanted all along. I think Chet will be really good, but I think the hyperbole about him was over the top. None of the top 3 are so called “generational” in my opinion, but Jabari has potential as a perennial candidate for 1st team defense with the ability to space the floor. That is a perfect player for the Rockets.
I don't see him being a great defensive perimeter player, lateral quickness is just not there. Everybody was hyping his rim protection and not much talk about switchability and a lot of examples of guys going by him in college. Ok enough talk about Holmgren.
His last game might very well be the reason he went #3. You want a number 1 pick to perform in big games. Paolo played well in the tournament. When Jabari’s shot isn’t falling he looks bad on offense. Luckily for him they usually are falling, even the difficult ones. But him being dependent on guard play couldn’t be further from the truth. He had this season where many people considered him a #1 pick with atrocious guard play. He didn’t get easy shots. He worked hard for almost every shot - his guards didn’t pass him open safe for some threes. And even here I would be sure that he had one of the lowest assist percentage on all his shots in all of college. Compare that to Paolo - Paolo got many open shots because of his teammates and system. True, he is also way better at creating his shot, but his team helped him a lot more than Jabari’s team helped him…
Paolo did not get many open shots because of his teammates and the system he had to work hard as well. Paolo did not have a lot of plays run for him and did not get a lot of open looks, Smith also benefitted from his guards being so ball-dominant because the defense had to focus so much on them because they shot it a lot. I'm sure Banchero's percentage on shots assisted is about the same.
The guard play at Auburn was, well, terrible. No one can succeed if people are turning the ball over. The Tigers turned the ball over on 28% of their plays when they played LSU. The two-game average against Florida was 24%. The only thing that saved their team percentage was early overmatched wins against Morehead State and Yale. The Tiger guards were key culprits here. KD Johnson was coughing the ball at a high rate for an SEC starter (28 minutes a game, 2.6 TOs in conference games). Allen Flanigan rates were even worse in conference games (TO rate 31.6% of the time!). There's not a lot that an 18-year-old forward can do when you're playing with this sort of guard play. I'm not sure if Jabari Smith is "dependent" on solid guard play, but he didn't have a lot of help at Auburn. I think until we see a few games, we don't have a baseline to measure what kind of handle he actually has. It is certainly an area he can improve.
Yeah, we do have a baseline on what kind of handle he has and that has nothing to do with his guard play. I have been saying his guard play was terrible since the middle of the season but that has nothing to do with his lack of handles, if he could handle it more he could have stopped being so dependent on his guards.
Well, we know at least one poster here who's gonna have a bottle of lotion at the ready for any bad games Jabari Smith may have.
Who is that? Why when you talk about a player's weakness you have to be rooting for him to fail? Can you show me any rocket that you think I have actively rooted for to fail? I mean really WTF, just because I have questions I'm jacking off to failure? Really my guy?
Paolo was assisted on 88.6% of his threes, Jabari on 73%. At the rim it is 42.5% Paolo vs 41.5% Jabari. On other twos Jabari was more assisted (21.6 vs.30.2). I am not bashing Paolo. If I had the choice he would have been our pick. I am simply pointing out, that the guards and the system didn’t help Jabari. He wasn’t a corner three guy that hit open shots. He made most of them with a hand in his face because the defender was already right there when ge got that ball.