FVV should pass Jabari the ball in the 1st quarter when the pressure is at it's least. Hopefully, he can knock down a couple of 3's to get going. Sengun and Jalen will get their touches, but Jabari needs to regain his confidence.
If Jabari shot 20 times a game he'd probably be a 20/10 guy. He's averaging 11 on 9 attempts per game. Jalen averages 21 on 18 attempts per game by comparison. Bari's attempts are down by 2 from last year. People really need to relax.
Seems like its Jabari who needs to get himself going earlier in games. His field goal attempts are pretty evenly spread out (except in the 4th since he's been benched a bit). But he actually shoots better in the second half of games.
I mean, maybe? He’s shooting .25 from 3 on basically open shots. I can’t imagine that number would climb if he started taking harder shots.
I think Jabari needs to play the Amen role in the first quarter. Dunker's spot, cut to the basket, hit that little mid range when teams double off him onto Alpi. He can hover around the basket and use his rebounding to get a few put backs and maybe get to the line a time or two, then he can get into the rhythm of the game before worrying about knocking down 3s.
If Jabari shot the ball 20 times per game we'd lose every game. He'd be taking shots away from more efficient players. He'd be THE least efficient players taking the most shots . There is no one in the regular rotation that scores less efficiently than Jabari. Jabari is one of the least efficient players in the entire NBA. We have a team full of players who are shooting poorly and Jabari is the worst of them all. There is no way to spin his offensive production as good or ok right now. It's one thing to say he should/could improve but he's awful right now.
I'm for moving Jabari to the bench, but he's going to improve his 3 point shooting over 25% even if he's taking harder shots. It probably would still not be good shooting more shotws, but he's over 20% for his career for making contested threes. Over a long priod of time even if he's taking 50% contested threes, he's probably in the upper 20s for a long span of time.
I’m willing to give him till the end of the year .. we were patient with Jalen and look how he became year 4. Let’s just see if he improves as the season goes on
I love Jabari, and think he's going to have a long productive NBA career as that versatile big that every team covets, but timing & contracting is the issue here. He hasn't developed enough offensive upside to justify the contract they'll have to extend him with this Summer. As long as Tari's health check's out, if I was Stone I would probably look to trade him if there's value out there on the market. I'd like to get a 1st round picks in the teens and a veteran rotation player on a good contract in return. If I could guarantee that he'd get a fair contract extension this Summer I'd love to keep him as a rotation piece for the foreseeable future, but the reality is that's the risk of loading up your team with draft pick prospects in the top 5. You just have to let some of them go in trades before their rookie extensions come into play even if you project them to be good players with high value... just not the value you see at a max level extension.
Two completely different situations. Rockets were so patient with Jalen because nobody else on the roster has anything approaching his skillset. The opposite is true of Jabari. Ain't no way he'll start the entire season if his shooting doesn't improve.
Who are the more efficient players on this team? Are they in the room with us right now? Smith and Green are tied at 38% from the field and FVV is actually below him at 37% from the field. If you look at true shooting percentage Jabari is at 52%, Jalen is at 52%, and FVV is at 48%. I get that Jabari isn't playing well....but neither is FVV/Jalen. And if I'm keeping it straight....the biggest issue in the starting lineup right now isn't Jabari. It's someone else. And those numbers tell you who. He's starting to drag the young guys down with him.
Jabari Smith Jr. has not been great. There is no metric that suggests otherwise. Whether it is good old traditional box score or advanced statistics or the plain old eye test, he has not been great. Jabari is a -5 in plus-minus this season, and that is thanks to a +15 and a +18 on the ledger in against the Spurs and Grizzlies, respectively. Jabari has a PER in of 11.2, where the league average is 15. His defensive rating is 109.9, which is right at the league average of about 110, but forget all that… watch him play. Does he look like a confident NBA player to you? When Jabari takes a wide-open shot, do you feel like it is more than likely that he is going to make it or miss? Let me ask the same question I asked all of you about Dillon Brooks in my last piece. Does Jabari Smith Jr. do anything markedly better than his obvious replacements of either Tari Eason or Amen Thompson? Amen Thompson has a PER of 17.2, Tari’s PER is 22.8, Amen is a +38 plus-minus this season. Tari is a +81, but forget all that… watch them play. When Tari and Amen Thompson are on the floor, you expect good things to happen, and they do. Maybe Jabari Smith Jr. is playing out of position with this team? Maybe the space on the floor that he would flourish in is being occupied by Alperen Sengun? Maybe he needs to take more than nine shots a game to get into a rhythm? I do not know if any of those things are the case, but I think it could be worth looking at bringing Jabari off the bench and see if he may be able to flourish in that role. Play him more in the pick-and-roll and give him an opportunity to pick-and-pop and score from the mid range. His defensive versatility allows him to guard multiple positions and coming off the bench that could be an advantage to him as he may be guarding more bench players than starters. This could be a fantastic opportunity for Jabari to gain some more confidence. If there is one thing I do not see when I watch Jabari Smith Jr. play, it’s confidence.
I think Thompson or Eason would be a viable option to replace him in the starting lineup, and I think Jabari could still be a part of a strong second unit along with whichever of those two remain on the bench. Jabari could still see himself on the floor late in games as Ime Udoka seems to like him in the role of the center in late situations. What could it hurt to give it a look? The argument could be made that the Rockets are 8–4, and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. My argument would be, as we saw when the Rockets took on the Oklahoma City Thunder both in the preseason and regular season, there are levels to this. The Rockets offense has been in the middle of the pack so far this season, ranked 14th, while their defense is ranked fourth currently. Any improvement in their offense could see this team take major leaps forward. There is little doubt that more minutes for Thompson and Eason, who are both excellent offensively and defensively would make this team better. I don’t think the Rockets should give up on Jabari Smith Jr., but they should try to find a way to put him in better position to be more successful. I like Jabari and I want him to do well in a Houston Rockets uniform. I’d hate for him to become one of those draft picks that moves on and hits their stride for another team. He works hard and I think it’s very evident that he cares. No one can accuse him of not playing hard, but when he plays... it looks hard. Not like it’s the game he’s been playing all his life. If he can find his role and excel in it, then the sky really is the limit for the Rockets. I believe that role very well may be coming off the bench playing the majority of his minutes backing up Alperen Sengun.
lol oh really then why don’t we just give Aaron holiday 20 shots? If Jabari took 20 shots he would have an insanely high turnover rate and obviously his efficiency would drop with each increasing shot. The bigger drop in efficiency will come when the opponent sends their best wing defender at him as Jalen encounters every night. By this simplistic analysis, we should just give Dillon 20 shots right now. I know you know more basketball than that.
First, FG% isn't the way to look at efficiency. I'm sure you know that so I'm not even sure why you even mentioned that. But fine, you want to look at TS%....Ok, awesome..... He's the SECOND least efficient player in the rotation. Congrats. And you are talking about if he shot the ball 20 times per game which is more than anyone is shooting the ball? Why? So his counting stats look better while we lose?
Additional shot attempts won't fix a broken shot. His shot mechanics don't appear to be the same from college and is looking too straight vs a relatively higher arc during his college days
His ego probably couldn't take it, but I think it would actually be beneficial for him to come off the bench to shake things up. He needs to be in rhytm to be effective, and he obviously can't in the starting line up. He's spotting up and is often the 4th/5th option, and that isn't getting his motor running. In a bench role, he would move up in usage and get more opportunities to build up his confidence. It's not natural for a young professional athlete to get stiffer and weaker when he's developing physically at the highest level. His shot is flatter than ever, even his top of the key jumpers are now line-drives. It's clear that it's a mental issue, and hopefully he will snap out of it. He can be a big time contributor, it's just a matter of him getting out of his own head.
