Just because he doesn’t average 25 ppg casuals think he’s not important. Defense was night and day better with him back in addition to the excellent shooting and rebounding.
Thanks! Just want to make a correction upon re-reading that in case it wasn't clear, I meant to say he's the 5th best rebounding PF rather than the 5th best rebounder overall, but the point stands.
Any fan on this site, that can't understand Jabari's importance to this team, just doesn't understand basketball. Some folks are so entrenched in what a PG or SG or PF are supposed to look like do not have the ability to put team dynamics into context. They can only define teams based on their narrow views of how basketball should be played. The NBA is constantly changing as are the atheletic abilities of those playing the game. Right now, the NBA is a perimeter dominated game and teams that have great perimeter offense and defense are the ones that will fare best. Rules or an innovative coach may change that dynamic at some point, but I think it will be pre-dominant for many more years to come. Postionless basketball is the way of the day and the team's with the most flexibility and athleticism are going to dominate. The Rockets are positioned to dominate.
But we have Amen already. We just got him after Jalen and Jabari but it'll still work the same way, no worries
Yeah and I think I can narrow it down to a very very specific problem: People who don't understand positionless basketball think you can just put the 5 best players out there and that is just false. You can have 3 Michael Jordans out there but you're not beating a team with a rim protector in the playoffs if you don't have one. Someone has to do the job. Someone has to protect the rim, someone has to rebound, someone has to playmake, etc. They're confusing position-less basketball with role-less basketball and those are not the same. Nothing has ever changed the roles nor the fact that defense and offense are equally important. In our case, the absence of Jabari makes us a super short wingspan team and I've never really seen that work. We don't have height or wingspan advantage. Sengun, Brooks, FVV and to some extent Green all lack decent wingspan. Amen alone in the starting lineup is not enough, especially since you would prefer to have him guarding the best scorer than protecting the rim. I don't think in this kind of situation you can say "Well Brooks has just been better". I don't think that always matters as much as fit. Fit has become much more important as a principle since the introduction of positionless basketball.
Do you guys what Jabari to take a big leap the rest of the season and the playoffs and demand a big extension or do you want him to stay the same and only get a role player-sized contract?
The better our players perform the happier I am! If he's too good and thus too expensive, that's a good problem to have.
Pay the man, and extend FVV. FVV / Green / Amen / Bari / Sengun should be our starting lineup for the foreseeable future IMO, absent a major trade.
If he stays the same then he's going to be paid market value. If he takes a leap he can reach a point where he is worth more than the 25% max. So there's really no downside to him blowing up to warrant a max extension, assuming the leap is real and not just short stretch of unusually hot shooting.
you may be correct. However, I suspect he’ll get incentive markers to pad his up side. but, what do I know? I expected less for JG4 and more for The Turkish MJ.
It looks like Bari is likely to be in a bench role for the rest of the season, especially when Fred gets back. If that’s the case, I’m not sure anyone can justify anything close to $30 mil per. Letting Bari go to RFA may be the wise move. Amen is getting maxed next offseason, Jalen and Sengun’s near max extension kicks in next season. It sounds like we’re gonna commit some additional years to Fred at significant money as well. I like Bari as a long term investment, but I’ve come to believe he and Sengun aren’t a great fit. If we are gonna reconfigure the roster to start contending, I think there’s a decision to be made on Sengun or Bari as a core piece. I also think as Bari gets older and stronger, he’s gonna have a legit role as a spacing 5. lots of decisions to be made this offseason that will affect our commitment to Bari.
I hope we don't pay Jabari more than Trey Murphy, and I really like Trey as a player (and truly wish we had him as a Rocket!) But it is worth noting this: Jabari is right now the same age that Trey Murphy was in his rookie year, where he averaged 5 and 2. Of course there are a bunch of things about Jabari's game that you wonder if they will ever improve enough for him to take a step (I'm not sure they will) - I'm just pointing out he is super young. I'm leaning towards the view that we don't give either Jabari or Tari an extension, but let them go to market with RFA status, and match if we see fit.
4/85 would be a steal. I think fair market value would be around what you said if he were a free agent, but he does still have a year to go on his rookie deal. So maybe they can get him for a little under 30 a year if they offer to lock him up with generational money right now. 4 years $85M = Give Stoney GM of the year 4 years $108M = Pretty fair deal for both parties given Bari's contract status 4 years $120M = Ehh not the worst deal, but maybe we should've just sent him to RFA Anything more than that and I'm going to be pretty annoyed.
Stone should still offer a low ball contract. I say 28M per would be a steal. If you let a player get to RFA and dont match you just lost him for nothing.
let him go to restricted free agency Jabari has had everything handed to him since day 1 and hasn't had to work for his job. He started by default because there was no one that could compete. Tari was always hurt and can't play starter mins so Jabari was guaranteed that position. I want to see what a hungry Jabari looks like. Unless he wants to take 15-16M a year.
