He was supposed to be an elite shooter coming out of college. Together with defense, that's how he was projected to be the #1 pick until Orlando changed their mind right before the draft. His shooting was very disappointing during the rookie year. Now he has been shooting at 36% for 1.5 seasons, I'm not sure if he will ever turn into a 40+% shooter. But who knows. And I believe he still has some unexplored territory on offense such as a midrange or a low post game. I guess what he will be offered will depend on how he performs the rest of the season and more importantly in the playoffs. He seems to have some mental blocks when it comes to high pressure situations.
I do not recall many draft classes with teams yearning for an elite 3 and D ....anything other than a superstar or star player. This was one of the exceptions that you go in and get a Top 3 pick and waiving the white flag .......oh yeah our guy has to be All Defense and a great shooter. Imagine the Draft when a team is getting Alvin Robertson instead of Michael Jordan. Or even Kevin Willis instead of Charles Barkley. The mindset is just wrong.
I don't recall these mental blocks in high pressure situations. He rarely touches the ball in the fourth quarter as Ime goes to Jalen, FVV, and Sengun almost exclusively. Jabari is the youngest of our core and has continued to improve in the role he is given. This year's injury was extremely disappointing as he was playing at the highest level of his career and shooting over 40% from 3 after a slow start. Ime offensive coaching this year has been abysmal even during our ascension to the 2nd seed (weak schedule and fortuitous injuries to our competitors). Jabari's injury forced him to insert Amen in the starting line-up. To his credit, he started to move FVV off the ball more often and the result was a temporary explosion on offense. When FVV got hurt, we had nobody other than Dillon that could hit a 3 pointer and the offense has grounded to a halt. If we get FVV and Jabari back, we will see if Ime can take advantage of the knowledge he got for that short span after Amen got the starting job and FVV going down or if he will revert to JVG style offense. If he moves Amen back to the bench in favor of Dillon Brooks, he deserves every bit of criticism he is currently getting and Jabari will continue to have pedestrian offensive production.
I don't understand your Robertson-Jordan and Willis-Barkley comps. They are nothing like the situation in 2022. The overwhelming consensus in that draft was that there's a big drop after the top 3 prospects. Different people had different opinions of how Paolo, Chet, and Jabari should be ordered. Jabari was pretty much the default pick at #3 after Paolo and Chet were gone. I don't know why you think it is a wave of white flag. Looking back, the only player that should have been picked in the top 3 was Jalen Williams. All the other players are debatable at best. Elite 3&D players are very valuable in today's NBA. Switchable bigs on defense is very rare. Every team can use a 40% 3pt shooter. If you combine the two aspects, you get a top prospect. If Jabari is shooting 40% from 3 and is in the All NBA Defense conversation, nobody would think he was a wrong pick. He is obviously not that at this point. So there is still room for debate. If he stops improving from now on, he's just a good 3&D guy, not a star as projected before the draft.
Do you remember him botching end game free throws? He also seemed to be much more fluid in summer league and preseason games where there's no pressure. I am a fan. I have high hope for him and believe he will continue to improve. I do think that his not meeting the shooting expectations so far is totally mental. He clearly has the shooting touch any shooter needs. He just needs to loosen up.
Because the Jalen pick did not hit.....at least not in the way he was supposed to and taking a role player was not cutting it. You could have sold me on Jalen as Ja Morant if he was better and Jabari as JJJ if he was more athletic.... You do not usually start your rebuild with a Green and a Jabari......it is that simple. You get these players when you already have an SGA, a Chet or Jalen Williams in place......not the other way. Especially when your GM guy Stone is not a great trader!
I also remember him hitting 3 pt shots to win games and send them to overtime, but that's ok. I just don't see that as much of an issue. I agree with his main issues are around confidence and aggression.
Defensive rating is a primitive advanced stat that doesn't account for competition and depends upon the other 4 guys on the floor- in this case Jabari's teammates. Our schedule became significantly harder when Jabari was injured then FVV became hurt and that crippled us on both sides of the floor. Better defensive advanced stats show the following- Actual DPM for Jabari of -0.3. Defense LEBRON +o.4 DARKO Defensive DPM- 0.0 So, overall, average defensively. He has the potential to be terrific defensively. Great size, long arms and good lateral movement for a big. He's just not there yet.
I still love Bari, but I would be surprised if he gets paid as much as Jalen. Jalen is highly inconsistent, but he's at least dominant for stretches. Bari has never shown any ability to be dominant. Thus far, he's been nothing more than a role player. And this injury isn't helping his case, even if it is kind of a fluke thing.
It depends on the draft class. Jabari made sense where we were picking, given that 2022 didn't appear to be an especially stacked class at the time, but more of an average/slightly above-average one. In hindsight it would have been nice to get J-Dub instead, but eight other teams also passed on him.
He is in a unique place that you are going to pay him either way despite his inconsistent shot. Color me unimpressed but admitting he is necessary to this specific squad.
$40 million over for years and he's still not a consistent shooter. His jumper was the main reason he was drafted at #3. He's getting $12 million this season and y'all think the Rockets should (more than) double his salary to $25m - $30m per year? He hasn't earned that (my opinion). Not yet at least. Rockets should let him become a restricted free agent if they can't sign him to a team friendly deal because I doubt a team will take a chance on overpaying for Jabari. That's If he's not included in a package for a star (Durant, etc) in the off-season.
I think a better exercise is - if Jabari was a free agent, and not a Rocket, what would you be willing to pay him?
I would trade Jabari. He's a jag and not a natural basketball player. I'd rather have Bol Bol at that spot
