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

Here is the situation. Jabari just needs to asset himself
HE DOES NOT LACK TALENT
He lacks Confidence and opportunity.
I'm sure Banchero would have DOMINATED when J.Green and Porter Jr held the ball most of the time under Silas's watchful eye
<that's called sarcasm>
Being the #1 guy means that you get extra attention, extra attempts and a long leash
I think given that Jabari would be further along

Rocket River
but Yule C

 

Good god, chet got paid 250M for 15/8

 

Yeah I like Jabari at our price.

 

i have a feeling that's going to fck them. he can't stay healthy. it's one thing when you're on a rookie contract, but full max, you need to be available because OKC's depth in the future won't be what it is now when you're taking up this much cap space.

but like with us and jalen last year, they had to sign him.

 

Once the Chet and Williams' extensions kick in, OKC won't be able to be the super deep team that won the championship this season. They'll essentially be locked into their top three, for better or worse. And they better pray Chet's injury history isn't an ongoing issue, because they could end up in a world of hurt.

 

actually because they kept drafting they have a wealth of cheap talent. Case in point: Ajay Mitchell. Very talented kid that was on an 2-way and they now have him for 3 yrs at like $3 mil per. They won’t have to pay Cason Wallace for another couple yrs. They have Wiggins making $9 mil per for the next 4 yrs. They have a bunch of prospects on rookie scale deals that may pan out like Sorber and Topic. And they have a ton of picks going forward. Okc is the team most capable of handling these big contracts because they do such a good job of keeping low cost talent flowing through their org. That’s why I get concerned with the premise that we aren’t interested in continuing to develop talent cause we are focused on winning. Or that we might sit out the 2026 draft (back to back drafts). Good teams walk and chew gum at the same time. It’s actually a necessity if you want to stay good. We better keep adding and developing young talent or it will come back to bite us.

 

Looks like we did get the worst player of the top 3. This guy had so much hype. Smh.

 

Based on contract value purely on their first contract?

Can you imagine the Rockets if we had to pay Sengun, add Chet at max ($20m a year more than Jabari) and then have to consider upcoming extensions for Thompson (likely max), Reed and Tari? Probably not.

 

Man I can't even describe how much I'd rather have Jabari at half the cost of what OKC is paying Chet. Chet is better, but is he twice as good? More importantly, can he even stay on the court?

With Paolo, I understand some people see him as a true #1 option down the road. I personally doubt it but I get it. Chet Holmgren though? Yikes.

 

OKC just won a title and are the favorites to win again and y’all talking about what Chet is getting paid…

if the Rockets won a title and we were paying mediocre Jabari 50 mil/yr I wouldn’t give a fck…the ultimate goal was already accomplished

Rockets haven’t won a title in 30 years and have only been to 2 WCF since 1997 when freaking Bill Clinton was President

 

The thinking does not go like that, OKC paid him a Championship bonus, how do you even pay Jabari a bonus when the Rox don't have a championship.

 

It's the summer bro in a not so exciting free agency period, give everyone a pass.

 

Jabari's game will age like fine wine. We kept him at a very good value given where the cap is going.

Would just like him to put on muscle and focus on becoming a PF/C instead of every summer deciding to work on becoming a playmaking wing. A stronger Jabari with a more polished 3PT shot is worth every penny we've invested.

 

I'll ask the same thing about Chet vs. Jabari that I did with Paolo:

Is there anyone here who previously wished the Rockets could have drafted Chet at #3 (while paying him 5yrs/$250M now) instead of Jabari (5yrs/$122M).

This time, to be clear: Who gives a care about the other team's perspective. Just asking about what would be best for the Rockets.

 

this offseason needs to hurry up and end ASAP

if the Rockets had won a title with Chet and gave him a bag, I wouldn’t be sitting here wishing we had a much worse player in Jabari instead because he gets paid half as much

 

Your wish probably isn't going to come true. Jabari's best path for long-term success is trying to be a 6'10 Klay Thompson. He's gotta hit jumpers (including lots of 3s) on offense, be serviceable defending PnRs on defense and snag ~8-10 rebs per game.

Sure, he'll gain a few pounds over the years and might play part-time C on very rare occasions.

 

I mean it's about building a roster not just having the best two or three players on the court--otherwise Phoenix would have actually been good this past season instead of missing the playoffs. If I'm an OKC fan right now I'm clear-headed in understanding that this contract has a high chance of backfiring and preventing further championships down the road. (There is a chance it could turn out just fine for them.)

 

ask OKC fans if they’d rather have Chet and his contract or mediocre Jabari and they’d look at u crazy

PHX built a roster of redundant dudes who play no defense, that’s nothing like what OKC has going on

doubt OKC ever wins the title this year if Chet was replaced with Jabari

 

Lots of good analysis about OKC's issues with Chet on a 25% max rookie extension. The Rockets should be better off with Bari & Tari basically getting paid total what Chet will be paid. OKC has one more season with the current roster and then it will be cut, cut, cut with Chet's and J-Dubs extensions taking place. It will get really tight when SGA's super max kicks in two years from now. They have a lot of quality depth on good contracts that they have developed from late first, second round draft picks, and rookie free agents that will become very expensive when they enter repeater tax territory. They are probably banking on being able to use their treasure trove of draft picks to keep developing affordable depth - something I hope the Rockets do as well.