Rockets sign Jabari Smith Jr. to 5-year, $122M extension

I'm not so sure Jabari starts. Tari projects better into the starting lineup than Jabari especially defensively.

Sengun
Amen
Durant
Tari
Fred

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Jabari / Reed / Smith / Adams off the bench in the regular rotation. Tate / Holiday / Capela the next 3 in the rotational / loading management spots.

 

Yeah that's true, Jalen Williams is probably going to turn out being the best player in that draft.

Someone in this thread compared Paolo to other guys who put up good stats but just don't really take their team anywhere, I do get the same vibes. He's young, maybe he matures and learns how to impact the game more effectively but this upcoming year with East literally wide open is the year for him to prove that he's not just an all-star fluff player.

I didn't know that about the efficiency of the two. I do feel like Bari gets a bad rap around here, the guy plays within his role and does what is asked of him and never tries to do more. I think that's what frustrates people though is he was drafted #3 and passed on by two teams so we'd like him to try to do more.

 

I'm content with Bari being a super role player. Not everybody needs to be an All Star. If he can just be an incredibly good role player that makes key defensive stops, can make a clutch bucket, and get you 15 - 18 ppg consistently with 8 - 10 rpg, that would be pretty damn good of Bari. Maybe not the super star (or KD Lite) everyone hoped for, but that by no means makes him a bust. He definitely has the right team player attitude to be part of a championship team.

 

Tari isn't starter material and that would be 3 non shooters in the starting lineup. Now that Jalen and Dillon are gone there are 0 dumb players in the starting 5 and that's essentially what Ime was after. Tari is defensive Jamal Crawford. Nothing more.

 

Jabari should be motivated by Paulo’s contract.

 

Im motivated for Paulo to make an all nba 3rd team. Then the magic will be going nowhere as Sengun would be making like 60% of what paulo is making at that point.

 

[Mike Vukonov] "Jabari Smith Jr.'s extension with will start at $23.64 million, then dip in Year 2 before going back up in Year 3 and up to $27.43 million in last year (I call this a roller coaster deal). Rockets are clearly planning for big salaries in the 2027-28 season"

 

Yeah, one of the worst things that can happen to a team is having a player making the NBA 3rd team (a second or third tier star) that forces them to pay him the supermax. Think Jaylen Brown, how Boston is stuck with his contract which makes it so much harder to trade him.

 

I can live with the deal, but you want your role players to do more than just shoot from the perimeter and play solid positional defense. I need to see better passing, better movement off ball, better help defense, better stocks and better IQ before I declare this is a steal. You look at the best role players in the league (Caruso, White, Horford) and they're all super smart and affect the game in so many ways. Jabari has a long way to go to be at their levels.

 

In 26-27, even if Banchero hasn’t gone all NBA, the Magic is tied up in salary to their top four guys with an astonishing 91.7% of the cap.

I would rather go the Rockets way of prudently building a team. Note that Paolo Banchero ~ Alperen Sengun + Jabari Smith Jr in contract $ wise.

 

Banchero has always been fool’s gold. I said before he was drafted and saying it now. I guess they had literally no choice, but to put the nail in their own coffin. They are going to win plenty of games, because of the Bane signing and getting Suggs back who I think will become one of the best pg’s in the league before his career is over. They are lucky to be playing in the East, where they will easily get a top 4 seed. Banchero has one elite skill and that is passing(court vision). He is subpar at virtually everything else, especially defense.

 

There is only going to be one big salary year 2 and that's Amen's 2nd contract. By year 3, KD's contract presumably would be off the books so he can get a raise again.

 

Now is the perfect time to debate the Paolo vs Jabari value proposition: Who would you rather have?

Paolo at 5yrs/$245M or Jabari at 5yrs/$122M?

Another question to ponder for those still wounded the Rockets ended up with Jabari at #3: Would you still rather have had Paolo based on these two contracts just given out?

 

This is not a hard question.

The Rockets would be better off with the better player - this includes the obvious ones like Banchero, Holmgren, Jalen Williams, hell it probably includes Andrew Nembhard and Christian Braun and may include more in a few years. It might include Tari Eason, at least that's what the numbers suggest.

You can talk yourself into "fit' but if the Rockets had a Banchero, they would have built their team differently in subsequent drafts and trades; that's why the Rockets were more than happy to draft Banchero and instead had to settle for Jabari.

 

Do you think Orlando wishes they drafted Jabari based on these contracts? I highly doubt it.

Orlando gave max contract extensions to both Wagner and Banchero. There is no guarantee Stone would have handed out similar extensions here. Maybe Banchero would have taken less than a max extension here, similar to Sengun. Either way I still would rather have him than Jabari.

 

this

Orlando must retain their young talent by any means necessary because nobody wants to go there

Sengun would’ve received a max if he was in Orlando and had provided similar production to what he’s done here with us, they don’t have much choice

Jabari would get absolutely exposed if he was down in Orlando…here he can just hide in the background as a 5th option

 

Houston is more of a destination team than Orlando, thus the Rockets have more leverage in negotiations. Players want to be here. Dwight, CP3, and KD all pushed their way here. Orlando doesn't have that kind of appeal, no disrespect to their city. They almost had no choice but to hand out those extensions. Who are they going to sign in free agency instead if they let those guys walk? Sengun absolutely would have gotten a max extension in Orlando and he'd still be worth it compared to Jabari's value contract.

 

Rockets have the luxury of existing in Houston. The NBA wanted to even the playing field with the CBA and the supermax deals but created an environment where small market teams have to overpay for Tier 2 players out of fear of losing them to bigger markets. Mobley and Paolo being the two latest examples.

I wonder if Amen will not even ask for the max extension in order to keep the team together. Sengun and Amen really changed this franchise.

 

You are obviously not part of any Walt Disney Crazy Fan Page.

 

Funny, a lot of people think that if Jabari was used as our 3rd option rather than 5th, he would have done more for the team on offense. We may never know because he will likely be the 4th or 5th option on the Rockets again, with Durant on board and Amen emerging.

If Paolo and Jabari swapped place at the draft, Orlando would likely make Wagner their franchise player, find a second scorer (Bane?), and have Jabari be the defensive anchor and 3rd option on offense. Who knows if that a worse team than what they have now?