I mean, yeah, you can’t blame it all on coaching, but it’s hard to know what you have at this point when the entire organization seems to be falling apart.
I mean you don't have to write anyone off per se but I will be on snooze mode as far as caring goes for a while.
It’s absurd the catastrophic language used to describe Jabari’s young career when he’s a shooting tweak away from exceeding expectations. He’s doing every single thing better than expected except shooting 3’s (yes I’m aware that’s half of what he was drafted for). People are playing on technicalities because they feel the need to vent, but they wouldn’t bet a dollar on Jabari shooting under 36% from 3pt range next season. Any brave ones interested in a tip jar bet, please let me know.
You can play the same hypothetical game the other way, so that’s kind of irrelevant. People don’t hate on Sengun because he actually plays well from time to time, Jabari does not. The advanced stats favor Sengun. He’s clearly better offensively. Jabari has been nothing but disappointing from Day 1 in the Summer League. It’s really not hard to understand the sentiment.
You really think his defense, rebounding, playmaking, finishing ability, dribbling, rim protection, and athleticism are better than advertised based on this season?
Yes he really thinks this. Rule of thumb - take whatever you see on the court, stat sheet, etc. Double the positive aspects, halve the negative aspects You have achieved his Magic Eye view of the universe. Bring your shades - the future is bright!
The thing is, if a guy doesn't turn pro at the earliest age allowed, it usually means he's perceived to be not as talented. If you have shown enough to let scouts think you have high potential, you want to start making big money as soon as you can. Almost all top picks are this kind of high ceiling players. Teams at the top of the draft want to hit a home run, not just a double.
Aside from tapping into the international market, the game needed fundamentally sound stars therefore Jokic, Doncic, Giannis, Wemby all those oversea guys emerged. There is this American way of concept 'fast food thinking' Supersize Me, everything chop chop, easy fast money on the go.
You’ll turn anything into a Sengun post huh? I don’t disagree with you btw, but when people call you out for having Sengun colored glasses on, you should listen.
Kind of funny how it's a perceived negative to have some sort of favoritism towards the guy who is clearly the best young player on the team based on both the eye test & advanced metrics.
If you think he's doing everything better than expected except shooting 3's you must have really expected him to be complete dogshit. Now sure, I only expected him to be a 3 and D player, so 3's are an entire half of what I thought he could do.... but let's not pretend he's Evan Mobley out there on D. I wanted 3 and D and thus far.... well, at least he's overly cocky while being terrible at everything.
Yes everything but shooting is better than I expected. Defense was expected. I was expecting him to have no skills whatsoever except decent defense and a PJ Tucker kind of offensive game in his rookie season. The game is half defense and half offense. All the stats you think about are sub categories of those two things. Players spend half their career on defense and half on offense. Jabari has been the best defensive rookie this season and that's equivalent to being the best offensive rookie this season. The only hiccup this season is he's a few percentage points too low on 3pt shots but that is true of 12 players on the roster so there is obviously a systemic issue affecting the numbers. It is very clear to me that a tweak to his 3pt shot and some muscle is going to turn things around a lot for him. I won't be surprised when it happens, just like I wasn't surprised with his game this season.
This guy cant shoot. Jabari all of a sudden has a hitch to his 3 point shot and doesnt look as smooth as it did when he was shooting it from college range. If he doesn't make significant improvements by sophomore season... then R. STONE needs to be re-evaluated.
I think the hitch stems from two things: the range of the NBA 3 and lack of confidence. If you watch him in the mid range, his shot is way more fluid, especially from the college 3 point line. I think he'll eventually get used to this. The second problem is confidence. If you go back and watch summer league (after game 1) or early regular season games, he took at least 1 transition walk up 3 per game and hit them at a high clip. His fluidity and motion were COMPLETELY different on those shots. He was in a nice rhythm, on balance, and it was like watching Auburn Jabari for those little flashes. When he had the confidence to just walk up into a shot, he was money. I think this will also improve by year 3. Overall, I don't see him struggling to shoot forever. Reminds me of Dirk's rookie year when he was called a bust. Not saying he's ever going to be Dirk obviously, but the bad transition into the NBA shooting range is similar.
Well...I have to say I thought a consensus Top 3 pick would have something more to offer than "no skills whatsoever", so I guess props to you for expecting him to be thoroughly terrible, you nailed it. Defense and offense are not weighted equally though. Tony Allen was not equivalent to James Harden. Matisse Thybulle is not equivalent to Paul George. Brook Lopez is not equivalent to Nikola Jokic. I expect Jabari to be better than he is today as well, which is currently one of the NBA's worst rotation players. But to say he's just a tweak away is silly, especially if you start out by saying he's totally unskilled. That doesn't make any sense.
Citation needed. Based on what metric are you making that statement? Is this 100% "eye test"? Just to throw one obvious name out there, by literally every metric, Walker Kessler is MILES ahead of Jabari Smith defensively. I'm not sure I'd even say Jabari is the best defensive rookie on the Rockets.
Nah, I disagree about the bold. Jabari DOES play well from time to time it's just that people don't pay that much attention to both sides of the ball and see it. Also, people were hyped about Jabari from the Summer league lol, you can pull up those threads and see it. He was hitting pull up 3s and everything. And this is the problem with many fan and media perceptions of the NBA, but the coaches know. You NEED great defensive players to win. Period. Defense should get a lot more love and attention and when it comes down to the playoffs it always turns out to matter a lot more.
A lot of players do well against effectively G league talent, it's what they do against NBA caliber competition that matters. I have no doubt that Jabari Smith would be a beast at the YMCA.
