people love defending Jalen here so much. and i’ll never understand why. I’ve seen better flashyness from Iverson and Crawford. jalen’s just a better dunker but he never drives he just likes his scoops. there is no backbone in him. why do yall defend him so much. just stop. it bores me.
this. I’ve been super happy with Bari’s defensive development. Watching him play D this year has been great. The frustrating part is him not getting to his spots quickly and pulling the trigger. That’s been the problem basically since we drafted him. He needs to sit in a room and watch KD clips. The feel for the game offensively is just not what we hoped it would be when we drafted him and it’s been a slow process. a better question might be, what would Bari’s development look like if he hadn’t lost all that time this season with the broken hand? He was playing the best basketball of his career right before he went down. there's no denying that Bari has been slow to develop but I was convinced he was taking another step before the injury. Now this season feels like a dud. Bad timing right before he’s extension eligible. Hard to know how high Bari’s ceiling is, but it was always gonna take time with him.
His age is also a factor in his slow development. He just became eligible to drink a beer (maybe now he can put on a few pounds).
I haven't been the biggest Jalen fan over the last few years due to his consistency issues(hopefully behind him now), but in no way has he hurt Jabari's development.
It’s not JG fault - he’s one of our most unselfish players Bari plays better at SF than PF, so if it’s anyone’s fault it’s Brooks (in multiple ways) Brooks is playing SF Most kick out passes reach Brooks before Bari and Brooks is a blackhole Bari also has failed to improve his dribble, while you can tell he’s worked on getting lower, watch how fast he gets off the ball when a guard comes to guard him
it’s true. He has said he plays countless hours on call of duty and obviously gets a lot of tattoos in the off season. Lol. He needs brian cushing to train him in the off season. Jabari is worse on every stat this year vs last year, except maybe free throw percentage.
before his injury he was better across the board, his performances in those 2nd games of back 2 backs were horrid… fans have to understand that when drafting young skinny kids - we have to wait for their body to mature (legally) it’s the part that sucks about not making kids stay 3-4 years in college so you can better judge how they frame will grow
You're not asking the right question. Per The Athletic and as of yesterday, VanVleet-Green-Brooks-Thompson-Sengun lineups have a -8.4 net rating while VanVleet-Green-Brooks-Smith-Sengun lineups have a +6.6 net rating. It is Thompson holding back Jabari and the team too - we've gotten worse as his minutes have increased. Yes, I see Amen's incredible speed and spectacular dunks that Jabari will never have. But at the end of the day, you're giving at lot more touches/usage to a Westbrook-style player instead of developing the stretch big that every team craves. This is a huge mistake that crushes our offense. Every defense sags off of Amen and packs the paint, which reduces Jalen's ability to drive and Sengun's space to operate. Amen's offense is limited to driving into a wall of bodies in the paint or lurking along the baseline looking for lobs and put-backs. The one time each game he hits a corner 3, you can practically hear the other team's coach applauding and the other team's announcer saying "Great! We'll live with those shots". But it's even worse than that, because Amen is holding back Reed too. Swapping out Amen for Reed resulted in him scoring 25 points on the road against the best defense in the league. I know that's just one game, but the very next game Reed goes back to the bench while Amen clanks his way to 13 points on 13 shots, soaking up 40 minutes in the process. Why must it be that way? Obviously Amen has a lot of value... as a bench player. That was his role earlier in the year when we were the 4th best team in the league. When Fred comes back Amen should go to the bench.
Jabari's problem is Jabari. Not Jalen. Jalen has been around and Amen has been more than fine. Jabari has so many issues that if he was 6-9 instead of 6-11 he'd be working at McDonalds.
I keep wondering when people will realize that the guy who looks like a role player is exactly that! Jabari Smith Jr is fine but he has zero elite skills - doesn't matter if he's playing next to Jalen Green, Jalen Williams, Draymond Green, Gerald Green, former Astros outfielder Gerald Young, or 1990s rapper Young MC.
Does Jabari really develop more if he gets more set shots? Maybe more on ball play would allow him to develop his handles and general offense but all he seems to have (offensively) is a shot with great length. A little post fade, but a shot nonetheless. He hasn’t shown he can do much on the dribble and can be soft inside. His rebounding in traffic isn’t bad though. So he’s capable of being strong inside in some regard, at least.
This is the correct answer. The two main "plays" the Rockets run is get the ball to Alpi and see what happens or give the ball to Jalen on the perimeter and see what happens. There is way too much standing around. It's painful to watch. Ironically, against the Pels Thursday, there was a whole lot of moving without the ball and the Rockets shot 57% from the field, which is unheard of for them. Maybe it was just a coincidence.
Rockets offense past 2 years have been centered around Sengun. Bari’s first year was a mix between Sengun isos and PBR and isos for the guards. Bari has always been a complimentary player with offensive limitations. His game has always been pullup jumpers, post play, and threes. Can’t expect him to take players off the dribble or attack the paint. That’s never been his game. What he has improved in is handling, defense, and 3 pt shooting.
rockets offense the last 4 years has been centered around alpi and jalen jalen has consistently option 1a or 1b the whole time bari has been totally ancillary to that combo his man defense has blossomed his shooting which was his greatest strength in college has not blossomed I think largely due to the fact that jalen and his usage and ball dominance is not generating quality looks for bari
