Now, don't many of y'all feel stupid. He's cold for a few games and the Chicken Littles want to trade him for pennies.
To be fair, it was some of the iciest cold I've ever seen. 30% / 20% the last 8 games until tonight. But yeah, it was obviously just a slump.
he plays like this when he gets shots regularly - then he didn’t get a shot in 3rd qtr … just nuts how our team fails to feed hot players
I see what you're hoping for, and as a fan, I want Jabari to embrace that glue guy role. It would be terrific if he could do what DB was doing here and is doing in Phoenix: challenging guys with hard play, contributing a few baskets here and there, always in the right place for a catch-and-shoot bucket, etc. The problem with Jabari's D is that he seems a step slow; this year, he's made strides, but he can't make the covers that Brooks made look so easy. And rather than holding things together on offense (like a glue guy player), when Jabari catches the ball, it sticks to his hands. I'm struck by how slow he is as a decision-maker. He doesn't see potential passes; his handle is quite unstable, etc. And he doggedly believes in his shot and that he's a scorer. I'm happy he had a great night against NO tonight. We need his shot to be true more consistently. But overall, Jabari's shot is erratic. He's now changing his shot to release the ball even later (on the way down). He's still young and developing. Maybe he pulls it together.
lol I love how the anti-Bari squad will always dismiss games that don’t fit their narrative. This game didn’t count. The first 30 games didn’t count. The only ones that count are the handful in which he was cold.
So happy for this guy. He plays with the right mentality and is always trying do what he can to help the team. I totally identify with him as an overthinker. It can absolutely kill your shooting and other things. You can see him trying to fight through it. I'd love to see him overcome it as he matures.
Agree. He’s a good nba player. Am hard on him because i like him a lot. I’m seeing durant flashes in him.
Maybe IME maybe right in saying our problems are mental. Jabari smith jr shot the ball with confidence tonight and i lived every minute of it!
I dont think he is as gifted as Durant however he works hard and has a good mentality and his game although just being a role player I think he can contribute and be "one of the guys" on a championship team. I rather have him than Paolo Banchero, for example.
His mindset comes rare amongst guys our age. Dude never quits. Seeing jabari finally get out of his slump made me so happy tonight. He can be a special player.
Credit to Jabari for not wavering through this funk. Hes always had some lulls here and there but never for this long.
handful? pretty sure that all true rockets fans want Bari to succeed. But the reasonable take is that it’s important to see him continue to shoot well over time in order to properly judge where he’s at as opposed to pointing to one game. I certainly hope this is the beginning of a long sustained run of good shooting. But obviously it’s important to see more. Hopefully he’ll finish the season at 38% or better. Then there will be a lot less “haters” as u call it.
I think his main problem is he tries to be Durant too much instead of being himself. I admit, I didn't really see this game, I was too busy burying the Texans to really focus on it but I was listening to it. I've seen the highlights for Bari and you know what you don't see? Not a single crossover attempt into a shot, all these shots are pretty much set shots, and when his feet are set, he's a good shooter. If Jabari took all this KD or big wing stuff out of his game he'd probably be a lot more efficient. He needs to play a lot more like a PF that can shoot than trying to be KD or Ingram or any of these other big scoring wings, be more of himself. I will say, since he's still so young I don't mind him experimenting with his game but he needs to pick and choose when to do that and when to understand when we need him to just be solid.
Yes, handful. He was shooting over 38% for the first 30 games. Then, over that last 10 games, he had four sub-.25 games from 3 that cratered his average. I’d consider that a “handful.”
Yep. The fire Jabari calls were premature. That being said it is critical he gets more consistent on wide open 3’s for this discombobulated offense to stay in games.
15ppg and 7 rpg in 35 mpg on 43/35/80% averages, in his 4th year at age 22, halfway through the season. It's not terrible but it's not great. If he wants to be a real championship piece, he's gotta get better. He can't too volatile, he's gotta bring intangibles, defense every night. Can't sulk and let poor shooting impact everything else. He's such an easy dude to root for, I'm definitely a fan but he's gotta get better. Stop being ok with being a role player and have some irrational confidence
