Of course and Durant is on another level than Rashard was ..... the Durant discussion is nice to have but it is mostly day dreaming fantasies. His dad had to train his ball handling like his 3 pointers when he was little to have a chance to be guard like.
Jabari will never have the quickness or offensive BBiq that Durant has. I would really like him to play more like a powerful PF with a shot. I hope he has put on more muscle and continues to do so. I do not think he is a SF on offense.
Had to remind myself that this 2023-24 version of Durant is actually 40% of what he was in terms of explosion..... I merely forgot. Before he made Hampton 5.
This is the only problem with Jabari. Doesn't want to accept that he's more suited to be a Dirk than a Tatum. It's an ego issue but I think Udoka will fix it.
Maybe, do you have information that this is the case or is it conjecture. It seems to me the Rockets would be giving Jabari instructions on off-season training and not just leaving it to his whim. I really don’t have any ideas of the inner workings of an organization’s off-season programs. I think conjecture is fine and sometimes kind of fun, but it is still that, conjecture.
Total conjecture obviously. Based on hearing him talk about nothing but missing out on being a superstar scorer and he only seems to get proud of himself about improving his handles.
The Olympic Team coaches were impressed with his ability to guard forwards. I'm curious to see how Udoka plans to deploy Jabari this year. We have more depth at C, and Jabari's yoga ass might want to be a forward more than he wants to bang down low. Every damn time Jabari's name was brought up Udoka was screaming for more physicality. Jabari going to bully this year? Year 3? Please lawd.
I think he sarcastically remarked about my post but so was I saying there is no player currently playing like Durant or Nowitzki. Or in history ....
Sam Vecenie still out there trying to make "Fetch!" happen with his wildly overoptimistic pre draft eval. of Jabari Smith Jr . He is what we see. The truly great young forwards (if that's even a term) are guys like Paolo Banchero and Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren and others. Jabari is - OBVIOUSLY - way behind them - no need to try to "if" him into that conversation based on box score wish casting
I would actually bet on Jabari getting those numbers next year if he wasn't on the Rockets. He was really unselfish last year, which I really appreciated. Rockets have at least 5 other players capable of averaging 17. It seems easy on paper, but to actually have 6 players on a team averaging 17 would be crazy. Cam, Green Fred, Alpi, and Amen are all capable of 17 a game. I doubt Reed gets 17 next season, but even that is realistic if he ends up being a top 3 rookie, as most experts are predicting. Conclusion, Rockets should average 170 as team next year.
Jabari is a really nice player, and it really hurt the Rockets when he got hurt. I think/hope that most of his issues will be fixed by simply getting older.
The question is, if Jabari can and wants to create his own shot and if we want to draw up plays for him that are not just corner threes. He has created his shot in summer league. In College he basically just shot over people without getting seperation. I do believe he should be able to be something like the third playmaker on a team. Someone that can abuse overeager close outs and bad matchups. But he hasn‘t shown that in the NBA yet and it doesnt seem like he has a problem with this. Of course I want him to take steps forward by hitting his shots at a higher rate and putting on muscle so that he can‘t get pushed around under the basket. But I also really want him to try to get his every night. That doesn‘t mean he needs to force shots, but I want him to work for his shots in addition to hitting open threes or converting when he gets the ball under the basket.
Creating for others will be the next logical step but he has not taken the step of creating for himself enough.....a very windy road ahead.
Bari's gonna be just fine. He's got a competitive spirit. He'll put in the work. He seems to want to be great. Wouldn't be surprised if he averages 20/10 this year with even better D.
I think this is fair, but its also fair to note if he does give you 17/9 with efficiency and plus defense at 21 that it is indeed impressive. It's more a matter of role and projected role. It would be impressive in an Al Horford kinda way, not a Tatum kinda way obviously. And its somewhat noteworthy to me, that if he was healthy, I think Tari Eason would for sure give you 17/9 with great defense if he was starting... In either case, I am being optimistically optimistic about Bari this year. I appreciate his recognizing his holes, head down, seems like he's beefed up a bit so far this offseason, etc. On the list of things we want out of our young guys: Alpi = 3 ball? Jalen = actually being good, consistently Bari = high 30s from 3, consistent, more bulk, better defense Amen = some semblance of a shot Cam = ability to pass Etc I might have the most faith in Bari doing it this year... partly because its not a huge ask or anything
