Brah Carl Landry was 24 his first year in htown and averaged 8 ppg. Jabari will be light years ahead and already is.
I'm sorry I've let you all down in that regard, and Clutchfans deserves full transparency and disclosure as to why my threads have not included graphs for some time. First of all, I have moved to the hill country north of San Antonio, where I am operating undercover to undermine the hated Spurs in every conceivable way. I now have a state-of-the-art purpose-built statistician's compound sitting atop a well-defended hill, and constructing it did entail a fair amount of time and effort. More importantly though, am now the father to a little girl (almost two years old now!), and much of my time has been consumed by teaching her the ways of a Master Statistician. She is already becoming quite proficient with her abacus. I have a little boy arriving this December, and I intend to immediately devote myself to his training as well. However, I assure you and everyone else that once this hectic schedule dies down a bit, I will resume posting graphs, and they will be more detailed and insightful than ever before. And once my two little statisticians are of appropriate age, they will obtain Clutchfans accounts and post graphs as well. While these steps have indeed resulted in fewer graphs being posted over the short term, they were necessary to secure the long-term legacy of my operations in a sustainable way. I hope you all can be patient during this transitional period, and I appreciate your support.
Jabari isn’t a star, he isn’t dominant at anything. But he’s good enough at a lot of things that he’s definitely a plus on the court and he’s only improving. And respectfully, as I loved Carl, Jabari is sharing the ball with a lot more talented players than the Landry teams. And he isn’t even really playing the same position.
Grok to the rescue: ### Jabari Smith Jr. vs. Carl Landry: First Three NBA Seasons Comparison Jabari Smith Jr. (drafted 3rd overall in 2022 by Houston Rockets) is currently in his fourth season as of November 2025, so his first three full seasons are complete (2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25). Carl Landry (drafted 31st overall in 2007, rights traded to Houston Rockets) entered the league later at age 24 and established himself as a efficient bench scorer early on. Both played primarily as power forwards, often for the Rockets, with Landry being a post-oriented, high-efficiency interior player and Smith a modern stretch-4 with 3-point range. Here's a side-by-side per-game stats comparison for their first three seasons (regular season only, sourced from Basketball-Reference and cross-verified with ESPN/StatMuse): | Season | Player | Games Played | MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | Notes/Awards | |-----------------|-------------------|--------------|-------|-------|-------|------|------|------|-------|-------|-------|--------------| | Year 1 (Rookie) | Jabari Smith Jr. (2022-23) | 79 | 31.0 | 12.8 | 7.2 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 0.9 | .408 | .307 | .786 | Started 79 games; high volume but inefficient | | | Carl Landry (2007-08) | 42 | 16.9 | 8.1 | 4.9 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.2 | .617 | .000 | .661 | Limited games (bench role); All-Rookie Second Team | | Year 2 | Jabari Smith Jr. (2023-24) | 76 | 31.9 | 13.7 | 8.1 | 1.6 | 0.7 | 0.8 | .454 | .363 | .811 | Improved efficiency; key starter on young Rockets | | | Carl Landry (2008-09) | 69 | 21.3 | 9.2 | 5.0 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.4 | .574 | .333 | .789 | Traded mid-season to SAC; elite efficiency off bench | | Year 3 | Jabari Smith Jr. (2024-25) | 82 | ~32.0| 14.5 | 7.8 | 1.7 | 0.8 | 1.0 | ~.450| ~.370| ~.820| Career highs in most categories; full-season starter | | | Carl Landry (2009-10) | 80 | 27.2 | 16.1 | 5.5 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.9 | .520 | .000 | .806 | Breakout as starter (traded to SAC); career-high scoring | #### Key Insights and Overall Status After Three Years - **Scoring**: Landry showed faster early impact per minute in limited roles (extremely efficient inside the arc, often >60% FG in years 1-2), peaking at 16.1 PPG in year 3. Smith started with higher volume but lower efficiency as a rookie, steadily improving to mid-teens PPG with modern spacing (averaging ~2-3 made 3s per game in years 2-3). - **Rebounding/Defense**: Smith has been a superior rebounder (7-8 RPG as a starter) and shot-blocker from day one due to his length (6'10" vs. Landry's 6'9"). Landry was solid but more undersized/post-focused. - **Role and Opportunity**: Smith was an immediate high-minute starter on rebuilding Rockets teams (30+ MPG all three years). Landry began as a deep bench player (low minutes rookie year due to injuries/competition), gradually earning more time and becoming a reliable sixth man/starter by year 3. - **Efficiency/Style**: Landry was one of the most efficient scorers in the league early (career-high FG% driven by dunks/layups), but no 3-point game. Smith offers stretch ability (career ~35% from three after rookie year) but shoots lower overall FG% due to perimeter reliance. - **Advanced Metrics (approx. career through year 3)**: Smith's PER hovered ~12-15 with positive WS/48 as a starter. Landry's PER was often 18-22 with elite TS% (~60%) off the bench. - **Accolades/Context**: Landry made All-Rookie Second Team despite only 42 games. Smith had no major individual awards but contributed to Houston's improvement (play-in to potential playoff team). By the end of three years, Landry was a proven high-value role player (traded multiple times for assets); Smith is viewed as a core piece with all-star upside if he continues progressing. In summary, through three seasons, **Carl Landry had a stronger per-minute impact and efficiency early on as a bench energy guy**, making him a "status" surprise as a late second-rounder. **Jabari Smith Jr. has accumulated more total production (points/rebounds) due to starter minutes and provides more versatile defense/spacing**, aligning with higher draft expectations. Smith looks like a long-term starter with growth potential; Landry peaked as an excellent role player/scorer.
terrible comparison. carl landry had post moves and he was strong. Jabari Smith is a poor man's robert horry.
I would take Landry over Jabrari, but that is not as much as an insult as it sounds. They are two enormously different players and the comparison is ridiculous. Maybe compare Smith to a poor man’s Lemarcus Aldridge or dollar store version of Kevin Durant.
I am pretty sure he is a troll and another account of a poster here. His "graph" before was just a line going up so yeah its def bad satire.
I've been a Jabari "hater" (aka "realist") since before the draft, but I have been mostly pleased with him this season. With the personnel and talent on this team now, we truly just need him to be a consistent 3&D guy. The defense is good, and the shooting is finally getting there. Now, normally I would be skeptical about a small sample size uptick in shooting, but this appears to be less of a hot streak and more of a conscious change in shot selection. Nearly 50% of his threes are now coming from the corners, where he's always been much more efficient (this year, he's 45% in the corners vs 32% above the break). In his first three seasons, only 20% of his attempts were from the corner. He's cutting out the low conversion attempts and it's making a big difference. If he can keep up the defense and stick to taking and making corner threes, I'll have very little to complain about. However... His stats are largely unchanged. Compared to his best season ('23-24), it's actually wild how similar they are, especially after adjusting to per36 or 100 possessions. Honestly, the only signfiicant differences are that his three point percentage is up (thanks to sticking to the corners) and rebounds are down (thanks to the double bigs gobbling eveything up). He's still not a positive self creator, and still struggles to convert what should be easy shots for him. He's missed 14 of 30 layup attempts and literally half of those misses have been blocked -- not great for a 6'11" guy. He's also just 5 for 23 in the midrange to start the year. You get the picture. If you want to talk advanced stats, well...some are up and some are down. Probably not a ton to conclude from that this early in the season.
Scola and Mandry Combo will be forever loved...... Bari can never dunk like that ......he is almost like a giant Luther Head dunker.
I hate to contribute to troll threads People call Jabari “a high end role player” like that’s a knock. Folks need to take both brain cells, rub em together and see if they can’t get a spark going on that one. Jabari is pretty good at like everything, his versatility is so undersold with that bullshit ass backhanded compliment. If he starts hitting 40% 3s or that middy becomes KD automatic too? I mean he’s like top 50 pretty easily right?
Poor mans Robert Horry? some of y’all disrespectful af. JSJ is 22 years old contributing heavily for a 10-3 team. How about we listen to Jokic and let these young ballers write their own stories Plus every single team would love to add Jabari to their squad
