Eventually... I don't see FVV here long term. He's a 2 yr rental to teach the kids how it is done. Once Amen Thompson gets going, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if we see FVV traded with Green.
If you want to be a king, you learn to get to the line. This game has a chance to change his trajectory... if he learns the lesson.
I’m seeing incremental improvements by Smith - they are tangible and Smith is gaining confidence. I don’t think his ball handling will ever put him in the absolute top tier of scorers - but he is certainly positioning himself to become a 20+ point a game scorer if he keeps improving.
Dirk was never a great ball handler but they had a complete team around him getting him the ball at the spot he can turn around jump shot where he made a living. Fortunately Jabari seems to have turn around jump shot so he (team) should focus more on that and let him get the confidence up
Jabari was the lone bright spot on an extremely frustrating night for the team. I really thought we had the game after that comeback. But Jabari was awesome. It was also a nice little window into how much better our team could be if even one of our players could get a superstar whistle. I felt like I was watching Embiid those fouls were so soft.
Jabari's dribble will never be Kyrie or Harden but its drastically improved this year. Like incredibly so. It was painful to watch last year. Glad to see him finally have one of those heater games like he did in the SL. He's the guy. You could see it last night. Nothing flukey about what he was doing. He got fouled on multiple shot attempts at the height of release simply because guys couldn't block it or disrupt it.
One thing I will say about Jabari. He's a competitive dude. Multiple times last night, you could see how pissed he would get when defensive rotations were missed resulting in easy baskets for the Hawks. Seems more than willing to sacrifice scoring in order to get wins
....the reality is, scoring is not just about the things you do in isolation, it's about how you put yourself in a position to have scoring opportunities. When he works hard on the board like he is doing more recently, that gives him an extra few opportunities a game to get easy put backs, to get fouled, etc. Being a 20pt scorer is about hitting the easy or unguarded buckets(he has improved his consistency and touch here), making the most of getting fouls when defenses are scrambling to defend you(again, working the board has increased his opportunities here), and finally just scoring within the team concept - making the most of the opportunities when his play is called or otherwise being ready when others find him in rotating defenses. I agree if he is putting in the work to tweak the little things in his game(attention to detail), none of this is unsustainable for him to be a versatile 2-way guy with 20/10 stat lines - that's a priceless role on your team if he can do that with efficiency....and he doesn't necessarily have to be the focus of the offense to do that.
Great game by Jabari but I still think what's going to leave us shocked is his defense. I see incredible things ahead for him defensively. I can see him picking up things from Brooks and Udoka. His defense is improving rapidly at the moment. Monster player he's going to end up being. 20/10, 2-3 stocks and can guard 5 positions. That's a max player if he can get there.
said it earlier in this thread. he's going to gradually make the rockets feature him more and more. It's not going to happen at once. it's the organic growth and breakout you're supposed to see when your young guys strive to get better and put the work in. Sengun and Tari are both displaying it as well.
