I wish he was Lamar Odom. Let's compare him to someone on the Warriors 2015 championship team. He will be more so like a David Lee or Festus Ezeli
The most concerning thing right now: There is no on court position where his teammates have the confidence to pass the ball to him. And even worst, he is not asking for it now.
They don't play the same position because taller. I don't compare him to Odom because their games aren't at all comparable. Jabari Smith is solely a 3 and D player, much like Ariza. He has basically no handles, he's not going to be much of a rebounder because he shies away from contact and never boxes out, he has no post game, he's not an above the rim player. He's nowhere near the physical presence Odom was. He's more of an extra tall SF that basically can't dribble or pass I'm not sure why the comparison upsets you, Ariza was a key piece on a championship team once upon a time. Jabari could develop into that too as the 5th or 6th best player on a championship team if he learns how to hit his 3's and actually play some D.
Because their game is absolutely nothing alike and Jabari can't contribute in "a lot of other ways" on offense? Odom was vastly more skilled all-around.
I was really happy with Jabari last night. He didn't look desperate to get up shots, which I think has contributed to his shooting woes as much as anything else. He let the game come to him, stayed locked in, and really just seemed... I don't know, at ease? I've seen him push the issue a lot with no results, so I'm glad he decided or someone decided he didn't need to chuck and could just let the better players take shots while he played a role. He'll get his shots as time goes on, but there's no need to force it. His efficiency was soooo much better even on a small sample size.
He looks like a small forward right now because he's 19. He shies away from contact because he has the body of a teenager. Give him another year or two to bulk up! He actually did have a solid post game in college. If you watch some of his videos from Auburn you'd see that he has more skills than he's been able to show here. He just hasn't been able to show it yet because, again, 19-year-old playing against grown-ass men, and also because of Silas' bad coaching.
Ben Simmons was once compared to Lamar Odom. A versatile big who could handle the ball - lankier Royce White.
I honestly thought it was pretty disappointing showing. 2 tank off games against the worst defense in the league where the Rockets basically have a phi slama jamma retrospective going on at the rim and he barely does anything. I mean - if there's a "beat up a bad team to boost confidence" time it was the last 2 days
But seriously that Spurs defense is trash. My goodness I'm surprised Pop tolerates such a crap defense.
That's making excuses. He's always shied away from contact, even in college. It's who he is as a person, not physical limitations. Dennis Rodman was 6'7 210 when he was drafted and he was a rebounding machine from day one. He had that dog in him that Jabari simply lacks. The problem with his "skills" that you claim he has is that they aren't NBA caliber skills. His fadeaway, which is what you are referring to when you say "post game"....he never actually had a real post game, is not NBA caliber. He could certainly chuck them, but against NBA caliber defenses it would be a VERY low efficiency shot. Part of this is due to his complete lack of ball handling skills. The guy can barely dribble a basketball and against NBA defenders, even bad ones, that won't cut it. Players who are legitimately skilled don't need these kinds of excuses made for them. We didn't need to hear "Sengun is only 19" because when he was allowed to play, he played well. You talk about Silas' bad coaching....the bad coaching was keeping Sengun off the court for so long.....for allowing Jabari to play over Tari for so long. Those are the kinds of things he's really doing wrong. Jabari was never forced to earn his playing time and it shows. He's one of the worst players on the court just about every night, but he's still in the starting lineup.
I don't think his shooting issues are going to be worked on until the offseason. He tried to shoot his way out of it and it didn't work. Now we just need to wait while him and the coaching staff figures out what broke him between his last year in college and his rookie season. Whether that's going back to building up his shot mechanics, to shooting closer, to seeing a psychologist, who knows.
He’s improved his handles greatly and his driving just this year, and his passing is highly underrated because it’s not flashy it’s just the right pass. His post moves (dribbling) will get better once he gets stronger and not as easy to move off block while dribbling
Say it with me: You can't learn dynamic playmaking skills overnight, you either have it or you don't.
I definitely see your point. I just don't want to see him jacking anymore bad shots. He had the one side step 3 from a crossover where I was like okayyyyyy Bari, but I'm glad he didn't let that get to his head. He looked like he was really trying to set good screens and keeping the spacing right even after he hit that shot. I would have def taken a heat check myself lol
Imagine genuinely thinking he's closer to Lamar Odom than Ariza, some of you are totally clueless lol
It would do Jabari a whole world of good to be playing with Harden and being fed the ball on a consistent basis in spots he is most comfortable with.
Yeah Odom was a point forward, with disruptive ability on D with some elite defensive seasons. Probably a lot longer than Bari too. I still think Bari can be an A+ defender for today's generation, but offensively, he seems like a spot up shooter at the moment when his shot falls and an occasional rim attack with slower, bigs closing out him. Of course i predict his shot will eventually start falling and i see potential on his mid range/post fadeaways. His handle is gradually getting better. Finishing may come with his body getting stronger. In fact, a lot can change as his body matures. Can't predict the end result of a matured and well trained body-ie Giannis rookie to now. Let's not forget skill development can't be predicted either. Our own Hakeem was raw offensively. If he replayed his rookie year here this year, yall would think he's bound to be a better Capela getting all his points off clean ups, under basket and lobs. That's probably how Silas would use him too. Karl Malone couldn't hit a mid range jumper or FT when he got started. By prime, he was money from face up-mid range and consistent at the line. T-Mac looked like he was going to be an elite high energy defender both under the basket and on the perimeter his first few seasons. He did have Pippen comps, and Pippen had Rodman comps and Krause wanted trade Pip for T-Mac. TMac looked like he was going to be an elite offensive rebounder like our very own Tari Eason. In fact, Tari and year 2 T-Mac have similar per-36 to Dennis Rodman. Instead T-Mac turned into an elite scorer rivaling prime Kobe, and then evolved into an elite point forward with high iq/vision that JVG and George Karl both think is criminally underrated about him. But, he also basically quit defense/became selective as many offensive stars do. There's tons of examples, but you can't predict a player's end result based on year 1 and 2.
