If Tari is indeed Kawhi Light, then Udoka is right about Tari approaching said skillset.....he has just been injured a lot.
Is Jabari getting his shot stuffed so much in practice that he thinks he has to shoot it fast to get it off and that’s why it’s flat? Need to but reed on him in practice. Just don’t let Jabari dribble.
Smith's court time is shrinking. It looks like he is being phased out. I was so excited when he was drafted, and while he has flashed some outstanding games he seems to keep regressing. A light is either going to come on or he is going to be gone.
My issue is that the entire starting unit is really inefficient offensively. All of Jalen, Jabari and FVV have been pretty poor. Yet Jabari is scapegoated the most because he takes the least shots and doesn't pound the ball the most (Jalen, Fred). Granted he also doesn't bring much else offensively so that is warranted but between the three he's also the most apt defensively. Fred and Jalen try but they get abused. Jabari at least is a roadblock. Of the starting 5, FVV is the absolute worst in terms of impact. By a mile. Jabari being the next. Then Dillon then Jalen and Sengun in 1st. We're reaching our limit with FVV captaining this team. I think he's stunting both Jabari and Jalen personally. Waiting for Fred to make a decision which ultimately ends up being "pass Sengun the ball in the post" only for him to get doubled and passing back out to Fred or Jalen to take a contested 3 or tough 2. I also can't help but notice that Cam Whitmore as well seems to have just....regressed. Badly. I just don't think it's as simply as "get rid of Jabari send him to the G League". I don't think he just forgot how to play basketball in one offseason, specifically because so many other players on this team have also taken steps backwards offensively. Sengun included. Sengun hasn't been great this season either. He's been much worse than he was last year. Like Jalen, he's been much better defensively but a shell of himself offensively. If everyone else was setting the world on fire and Jabari was the only one struggling I'd understand....but it seems to be a team wide problem.
Smith will likely still carve out a pretty significant role in the league. I doubt that it is any sort of star, but I think the likely outcome is still a high-end role player. Personally, I don’t think that people just lose their shooting ability like that. I think it has a lot to do with his physical maturity and I think that’s caused some calibration issues. I do think there is a world where he doesn’t play that great this season and maybe it allows us to get him at a value contract? Honestly, he may want to focus long-term on putting on even more weight and becoming more of a stretch 5. He used to hit the occasional pull up three-pointer or the turn around jumper would look nice and smooth. I wish we would get him a few more of those shots. I Think he is lacking confidence, and trying to just do his part to defensively and in the rebounding department. we really need that particular player/position to be efficient.
Jabari could still end up being a really good player for a dozen more years. I'm still in love with his potential as a high impact player, but it's time for him to show something. Play time is over and he needs to step his game up. The frustration is that, instead of doing that, so far he's going in the opposite direction. Maybe it's just a slump, but the timing of it is unfortunate. People are rightfully losing their patience with him.
He's always had these slumps with his shooting. Last season he had a 10-game stretch early on when he shot 32% from 3. Difference is he preceded it with a first 6 games shooting 39.5%, so his 3P% never looked too bad. I'd give him another 15 or 20 games before starting to get really concerned that there's something wrong.
People say "high end role player" but expect him to be a near 7', 20/10, weakside shot-blocking, perimeter switchable defender who hits 40% from 3. Idk what kind of role that is but I'm pretty sure that's a bit more than "high end role player".
Confidence level is back to normal. If he keeps shooting like he did today then we are literally unstoppable.
This is just one game and it was very encouraging. Maybe Udoka spoke to him before the game and it boosted him like Alpi. We have to hope Jabari continues shooting efficiently and being a factor on the boards.
