Now we’re comparing Jabrari to Kevin Durant??? What a pathetic bunch of kool-aid drinkers on this post. Here’s the reality, since I’m not drunk on the kool-aid. In year 2 of the disappointing 3rd pick in the draft, Jabrari has gone from a whopping 12.9 points per game to 13.2 points per game. He has played about 30 minutes per game average, so those numbers are legit. Kevin Durant averaged 20.5 points in season one and 25.4 points in season two. I don’t disagree that we may see Jabrari score 14-15 points a game next year, but his 3point percentage ain’t getting much higher than it is and adding two points to his average is on the hope he gains some weight and jumps his 47% twos up to around 49%. Please don’t ever compare this “at best” average third pick in the draft to a superstar like Durant.
Jabari is still really raw. And he's a 38/47 guy right now. Yall need to chill lol. He's 20. Probably the player I'm worried about the least.
What you fail to realize when you consider Jabari PPG is he’s not a 1st option or even 2nd or even 3rd .. hell not even 4th on this team Jalen Alpi FVV Brooks will always take more shots than him - truthfully he should be 3rd option at worse We’ve seen how well he plays when he knows he’s the 1st option or even when he gets fed shots … most recently dropping 18 in 1st half and then frozen out 2nd half … similar to what happens to Jalen (Brooks is a major issue with this lately taking horrible shots)
Good lord. Mathloom was responding very specifically to someone who said they were disappointed in Jabari’s shooting because he wasn’t as good a shooter as someone like Kevin Durant. It specific data to refute a specific comparison. He didn’t say Jabari was as good an all-around player or scorer are Durant. and you responded with an unhinged diatribe. Perhaps read, reflect, breathe, and only then respond (or, better yet, don’t).
Are you too daft to understand the difference between comparing individual metrics and comparing overall players? My God man, this isn't a difficult concept. By the way, the overarching point isn't about raw numbers -- it's that Smith has made major strides in his shooting percentages (3 pt %, FG%, TS%, etc.). How about trying to read before ranting.
You're just addicted to dissing Jabari at the moment. I didn't compare him to Durant, the previous poster did. And we're not comparing their games, we're only comparing their shooting. But good job taking one more opportunity to dump on Bari.
So why has it been difficult for now 2 different coaching staffs to incorporate Jabari into the offense? Credit to Udoka/Sullivan for getting his efficiency up but he seems like such an afterthought/safety valve. Like when he does get a shot it's "oh yeah Jabari is here let's get him a shot". Occasionally he'll get a curl or a ball at the post but he mainly serves as a floor spacer and that's it. He does defer way too ****ing much to other players. Passed up a 3 the other night just so Tate could take a similar one.
That's not being a movement shooter he didn't come off screens and get the ball. That's just an ISO 3.
This is the right development environment for him imo. Part of a successful starting lineup and he is functionally needed by the team for his defense and shooting. He will get organic opportunities to take more shots and when he has improved it will show. He's missing this experience way more than he's missing the experience of scoring a lot. I think we're coming off tanking and people are still used to the idea of giving more minutes and shots for someone to develop. Kobe Bryant came off the bench for 2 years because that was a playoff team. We're not a playoff team yet but also Jabari is not Kobe Bryant. It's great way to drop bad habits and develop good ones without your intermittent efficiency affecting the team. He does deserve an extra play or two at this point, I definitely agree with that. I think his growth will match his personality, slow and steady till the momentum takes over. You'll be happy with year 3 Jabari because he'll be our first prospect going into year 3 with good coaching before it. You know what they say about big men and their 3rd year. Also don't underestimate his defense/rebounding/shotblocking for a switchable PF. Defense is exactly HALF of the report card for an NBA player and he's critical to our excellent defense. There's no difference between Cam and Jabari in terms of impact right now. One is all offense with only one defensive skill. The other is all defense with only one offensive skill. We're developing them both perfectly and keeping their confidence high (confidence feeds growth). I wouldn't worry about him too much man, he will undoubtedly take a step up in the summer now that he knows it takes to get shots on a winning team. He absolutely should feel like he's a one dimensional scorer that needs to add things to his game. He shouldn't feel like he's a victim of being underutilized and he has all these secret weapons we're not using. He's closer to the former than the latter.
Btw I was just looking at some stats and wanted to rub it in your face that Jabari (21 years old) is the best player in the starting lineup at making wide open 3's (45%). In 2013-2014 while 3 years older than Jabari, Klay Thompson (and Steph Curry) were 46%. Kevin Durant in 2013-2014 at 4 years older than Jabari was 49% while taking 1/3rd fewer wide open shots than Jabari. Clearly Klay and Durant would have been worse when they were Jabari's age but NBA.com doesn't have these stats before 2013-2014. I hope it's good news for you that Jabari's wide open shooting is trending in an elite direction.
I was wondering who all the responses were to since I had them on Ignore. Turns out it was the nephew that lost his **** after we, along with every team in the league, chose not to bring back his favorite player from China.
Next off-season, Jabari should work on his handles and strength. That will help with his finishing, post-defense, and self-creation. That would rise his superstar potential.
