Considering Eason had surgery and became Mr. Glass it might be for the best Jabari didnt have surgery.
Jabari is probably our best transition defender. Always puts in and gets back to offer some resistance
Think one thing that is underappreciated is that Jabari gives Udoka the chance to run his small ball lineup. Udoka was trying to run it with Amen at center but it was just impossible against players like JJJ who abused him in the post. When Sengun is not playing well and Adams is slow, Jabari gives the offense a new dimension with run-and-gun offensive schemes. Honestly our rebounding and defensive rating have dropped significantly since Jabari went out. He pulls people towards him for offensive rebounds so Amen and Tari can crash at will. Also pure defensive win shares Jabari is currently ranked 15 in the entire NBA before he got hurt. We desperately need him back, not to mention his shooting touch when the team is stagnant.
You know the Rockets are down bad when people are counting on Jabari Smith Jr and his 12.4 PER to come in and save the season
I feel Bari has gone from under rated to overrated very quickly. You guys are setting yourself up for disappointment if you think getting Bari back will solve everything. Wait till he has a couple of bad games after he’s back, then you will be the first one jumping on him. lol
I think JSJ is overrated on this board and elsewhere, but PER? The Rockets main current problem would not be captured in PER (i.e., the Rockets aren't doing the defensive things like rotating to closeout on shooters and tagging guys rolling to basket that don't show up on individual raw stats) . Sure the Rockets still have some horrific quarters scoring, but they weathered those most of the time when they kept the opponents from getting easy baskets. I will say that JSJ is typically good at being in the right place even if he doesn't always make the stop. Last night I was watching on a tablet so tough to pay too much attention to defense. Cam was having a bad game on defense after having a good spurt late December through most of January. I didn't see it this game, but the last 15 games or so I've seen lots of instances of Green, Sengun, and Adams not closing out. JSJ may help some with Sengun and Adams as one of JSJ's primary roles is to switch with the center any time the center gets on the perimeter.
Strongly disagree that Bari is overrated. Even if he isn't shooting well from 3 on a particular night, opponents know he can hit that shot. Same thing with Tari, Cam, even Reed. For example, as poor as Reed has been from 3, the opposing coach is not designing a defense that leaves Reed open. But he is telling his players to sag off Amen to blitz Jalen and pack the paint around Sengun. When those things happen and Amen gets the ball back, everything freezes. That's how you have a game last night where Reed has a better plus/minus than Amen by far. That's why it's so devastating having a primary ball handler getting 35+ minutes a night who can't shoot. It's Amen who is overrated - he has zero gravity in the half-court.
I don’t disagree that Bari has been a big contributor to our early success, and that he’ll definitely help when he comes back. But right now I feel our problems are more to do with teams having figured us out (zone, face guarding Amen etc), running out of fuel because of schedule and taxing play style, coach lacking creativity (4th quarter drought again and again), than missing Bari.
I think the Rockets made a mistake by standing pat at the trade deadline. /continue your discussion about Jabari will be the savior.
Lol exactly. I think people forgot how Jabari is the definition of mid. Nothing special, not terrible. He's just Jabari. Half the time you don't even know he's on the court.
Foolish to assume a player's worth is from points per game. Amen doesn't average as many points as Jalen but he plays way more because his impact goes way beyond stats. Same with Jabari which is why he starts.
The problem with Jabari is he takes loads of unbalanced jump shots and he gets blocked at the rim because he won't adjust his straight arm when jumping up
This was always the plan unless a Superstar became available. The team wouldn't have thought they would be in this position.
People thinking this is a championship year are wildin. We don't have a superstar yet and almost all of our players are under the age of 23. Maybe if Jalen lived up to his potential and stops giving us this roller coaster ride.
I believe Rox were 2nd in def rating and dropped to 4rth without him and thats considering Amen replaced his mins.
Situational awareness. The landscape is constantly changing. What they thought their position was 5 months ago (or even 1) is irrelevant. If you go into enemy territory with intelligence about where they are, then you ambushed, your response can't be "we didn't think the enemy would be in this position". Now you don't want to knee jerk and make stoopid moves so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that they tried to get KD and the price tag was too high. IMO, he was the only worthwhile target.
He'll probably shoot badly when he first gets back, dude broke his hand and is likely rusty and out of rhythm. Hopefully he can shoot himself into shape before the playoffs. Assuming we even make it in at this point.
