That's been my issue with him from the beginning he has never displayed a dribble drive package even in HS, at this point I think its just mental, and he is scared to dribble. At this point, I think all that is realistic is hoping he can start finishing at a high level on 2 to 3 strong dribbles through defensive pressure. At this point, you don't just create an advanced dribble package if you have never shown it.
He's not scared to dribble. That's the one thing about the SL that stuck out to me is that he actually attempted dribble-drives. He seems to be fully aware of that issue and is working to correct it. Yes he's going to make mistakes and turn the ball over. I'd rather he work at it and get better than avoid it altogether. Advanced dribble drives? Sure. He isn't Paolo. He isn't going to be Paolo. Jabari just has an unblockable shot. That's why he was a consensus Top-3 draft pick and consensus #1 in a lot of places until the Magic pulled the uno-reverse and now people are wondering if he'll even be better than Keegan freaking Murray lol. We have KPJ/Green to break down offenses. Jabari just needs to do what he does best and this team will be just fine.
Keep on throwin the ish without any rebuttal on visual proof of the BS. This trip will be fun Jiggly. See how it all plays out.
One thing I've been thinking about for some time is that if Jabari Smith becomes a neo-Shane Battier, would we be disappointed? Absolute lockdown, multi-position defender, the best intangibles you could hope for, 38% 3PT%, never made mistakes or turnovers, and a crucial starter and contributor to two championship teams. Yet was never an all-star, and was a guy who was held back significantly on offense by not being able to create his own shot at all. I just don't want to see him fall into that niche that Battier did, where he is so much better at defense than everyone else on the roster that he dedicates himself to the areas that make the team better at the cost of developing his own offense. If Jabari Smith's stats this year were 14/5/3/1.5/1 on 43/37 shooting, while playing 40 minutes per game, I'd consider that a heck of a rookie year. If he immediately decided to defer to his future HOF teammate on offense and cut back his production for the rest of his career like Battier did, I'd be pretty worried. Jabari is going to have to be a bit selfish, and is going to have to take lots of 3/16 shooting days with 5 live ball turnovers early on in his career. I'm not going to be worried that he has a bad shooting percentage, I'm going to be worried when he starts passing up looks, and doesn't even try to drive.
Not being able to dribble drive and not being able to create his own offense are two different things. Most dominant offensive big men in the past couldn't do dribble drive but they certainly could create their own offense once they got the ball. They did it by having an unstoppable scoring move (Kareem's skyhook, Hakeem's dream shake, Shaq's bully ball, Duncan's turnaround bank shot, etc.) These guys combined size, speed, and skills to beat the defense without having to dribble a lot. The only thing these players needed was a simple counter move to keep the defender from fully committed to stopping the shot. You don't call these guys "glorified role players." They were all go-to first option scorers despite the fact that they all relied on teammates to pass them the ball. Well, the big man's game is extinct, right? Here comes a guy like Jabari, a big man who is athletic and can shoot from outside. His unstoppable scoring move is a one-dribble side step shot. It's unstoppable because of his high and quick release (and accuracy, of course). It is similar to how the skyhook worked (don't laugh, I'm not comparing the two players, just the principle). It is unstoppable because of Kareem's height and the release point being on the other side of the body.
Trey Murphy was the only player with 50/40/90 splits in last year's draft class .... and is a really good defender at 6'9". New Orleans wasn't the best fit for him .... Of all the guys who get compared to Ariza, I think Murphy is the one who best fits the description.
This is what I'm saying. Battier was worth trading for Rudy Gay in Morey's eyes and Jabari is like a star version of Battier. Battier himself was a top 6 pick yet nobody calls him a bust cuz they know he played winning basketball his entire career. People always got in their head the 2nd pick should be able to be the no 1 option but thats not how reality works, you get judged based on your productivity and accolades both individual and team oriented. As long as Jabari puts up decent splits on great efficiency while locking down the opponent's best players nobody will give a crap about his dribble drives at the end of the day.
The overreaction on this board is real. Y’all went from - “I wonder if he can be our lead scorer” to “he’s Shane Battier on offense” QUICK. Recognize that the reality is he is going to be a very good player regardless of whether he can develop enough ball handling skills to be an isolation scorer. Y’all have been watching Harden and Jalen and KPJ for so long that you forget that there are a lot of perfectly capable scorers who don’t get their points in isolation action. Jabari has shown he is capable of making a read and taking one or two dribbles to get a relatively high quality look. He will need to improve those reads a bit but he already has the ability to snake towards the hoop or take a few steps into a hole in the defense to hit an open shot. I don’t think he will ever have the toolkit of Green, or scoring potential, but I wouldn’t be shocked to see him finish the year at 15/8 and eventually be a consistent 20/10 guy while anchoring a defense. Even more importantly, his floor spacing will make it next to impossible to help on Green with a big which means Green gets more looks at the hoop AND better looks too because less tall guys patrolling there unless a team wants to put a smaller player on Jabari and he’s PARTICULARLY good at shooting over smaller defenders. It will become a Sophie’s Choice for teams trying to defend a fully matured Rockets team.
There you go - that’s what Jabari will be working on the refine- read a defender(hopefully one stuck in a close out) and make a one or two dribble move off that read to take a smooth jumpshot. Reminds me a bit of early Khris Middleton. The other thing this footage reminds me of is what happens if Smith develops DEEP range? There hasn’t ever been a big who had range that deep. How do you guard that if you have to invest a big guarding Jabari 40ft from the hoop while KPJ and Jalen are cooking perimeter guys to get lanes to the paint? It’s an unprecedented situation.
