Jabari Smith Jr. is the Rockets' franchise player

You actually watch what he’s doing on D - so many folks on here complain complain and they just look at the statbox - (Bari ends up guarding or closing out at 3pt line how many times a game ) (Last night he guarded every position and played Randle better than Alpi) on offense he always makes the right pass but as far as his shots, they are very sporadic - when he does get the ball and chance to score few times in a row he usually makes his shots (then Ime subs him because that’s what he does once his players start hitting shots (see Reed / in past JG) lol

He’s our glue guy on both sides - similarly to DB … I’m praying for a 38-39% from 3 this season

 

Folks complaining about Bari would be having a heart attack if we had Paolo - takes way more shots than Bari to only average 6 more pts a game … shoots 5% lower from 3 .. averages about the same rebounds and is a worse FT shooter

 

the dirty little secret is that Durant has screwed up our defense and has not been the offensive panacea that we thought he would be. He is a bad fit with Amen and Sengun who both need the ball in their hands to be effective and want to operate from the same space on the floor as Durant. Ime is not a good enough coach to overcome this and it would be a reputational nightmare for the Rockets to trade Durant after he made such a big deal wanting to play for us. There really is no way out this year with Ime’s and FVV’s stupid extensions. Ime ain’t changing and we can’t trade our way out of this poor fitting team. I think if we trade anything it should be to get our hands on a 26 draft pick and look to continue the re-build in 27/28 when we might be able to unload all 3.

 

I am constantly amazed by posters here who preach patience with Amen's shot and insist he's a max player but dump all over Bari... who is 3 months younger than Amen. Anyone here who fantasizes about Amen becoming a 30% 3pt shooter can't rule out Bari shooting 40%.

 

They have different roles, but I think we need patience with Jabari as well. We need patience with all our young players, although we should be upset when players regress and ask why? Amen can be an amazing player without a 3 pt shot, Jabari cannot.

 

Jabari’s PR team is an elite versatile defender.

 

I hope u are right. But I don’t see a good shooter. And don’t see a good offensive player generally. If it doesn’t come together this season will you be saying it will get better in year 5?

 

His season average has gone down after this prolonged slump but not by a lot because of his earlier good shooting. And his volume is up. It shows that he's not an overall bad shooters. He's just in a bad stretch.

That said, it is still disappointing that he has not lived up to his pre-draft expectation as a great shooter. This is his 4th season, usually the last season people give a player slack for development. That doesn't mean he will never improve if he doesn't by the end of this season. Some players are late bloomers. But I will give up on him on that end.

The main reason for Ime to still play him big minutes is because of his defense. Individual defense is hard to quantify. Eye test is often our only recourse, and it is prone to subjectivity. I think a lot of people say his defense is overrated because they don't like him, especially when his shooting is so off. If you want to scrutinize a player's defense, you can always find his faults even for the best defensive player in the world. No player can play perfect defense just like no player can hit every shot he puts up. But my eye test tells me that he is a very important part of our defense which is not bad despite some slip ups lately.

 

Spoiler

Last 9(start of 2026): 12 points, 7 rebounds on 32/22/66

Only Ime’s other favorite players (Davison, Holiday, Okogie, DFS) are shooting worse.

 

What are you even talking about? KD has been thr offensive panacea thats why the Rox had the 2nd best offensive rating even without FVV. We never even got top 5 offensive rating last how is KD not the offensive panacea? Rox would be a lotto team without him.

Rox were 0.500 without FVV last year did you know that? We had Dillon Brooks all that time too so acting like DB was the missing piece is just delusional.

The defense sucks because last year we had Jalen, DB, Tari and Amen thats 4 really good defenders on the wings. Now we have just Amen, KD and Okogie, and Okogie cant score so he doesnt play a lot. Going from 4 to 2.5 yeah the defense will take a step back. Its not due to KD as KD is a good defender and better than Jalen.

I see a lot of posters now dont even bother checking the facts before they post whatever they think is going on.

 

Anyone think that in 2-3 years he might have matured enough mentally to play more regularly like he is tonight?

IMHO his biggest issue is mental

 

Jabari, please forgive me for comparing you last week with the ultimate weakfish loser CJ Stroud.

I stepped over the line. My bad.

P.S: DO NOT make me regret this apology anytime soon.

 

Jabari Smith Jr. is Carl Landry. Literally.

 

Jabari Smith is Jalen Green

 

Bodes well for our Rockets. Love to see it.

 

Terrific game all around. Looked like an AS tonight. If anything, this is confirmation








He’s going to lay 10 duds in a row

 

Never a doubt!

 

Well he is 22 dawg. A little immaturity is to be expected. What I love about Jabari is even if the offense comes and goes the defense and hustle is consistently there.