[2022 NBA Draft/1-3] Jabari Smith Jr., F, Auburn

lol that just shows how bad the magic are also. not surprising really.

 

It's the depth perception. And color red.
"I really feel a lot of guys are not comfortable playing in this arena," McGrady said. "I hear guys saying things about how they're not comfortable playing in the arena, how it's not a good shooting arena for whatever reason. "I feel the same way. I really feel the same way. It's not just our guys. It's guys around the league. They hate our arena. Who was the last player to score 40 in our arena?"

 

That would be unfortunate, since wemby is exactly what we need and is the most talented prospect possibly ever.

 

Smith will be fine but just like Green last year I fully expect him to struggle until the game slows down towards the end of the year.

 

We won’t be in the running for either.

 

Smith looks way better than Green djd last year. He looked like belonged in there, was aggressive, just missed some makable 3's

 

I thought he looked decent.

I think the challenge for the Rockets going forward is shot distribution between Sengun, Jabari, Green and KPJ.

I would prefer if the Rockets began staggering Green and KPJ's minutes more, so we have more Green + Sengun and Jabari + KPJ combinations.

 

Did we trade our pick this year?

 

He'll be more than fine. If these are the kind of shots he's going to get every night he'll be in the running for ROTY.

Did not make many bad decisions out there, didn't get exposed defensively or something, wasn't part of the TO bonanza that the rest of the team had (he had 0) really looked like a veteran out there all things considered. Just seemed to play within the flow of the game.

The only thing he did wrong was one ugly shot he forced up in the paint other than that he took the shots he should have taken and just missed them. Some nights he'll hit them and will drop a cool 30.

Also had a great pump fake drive move that tells me he can maybe be more than just a spot up shooter. Tons of potential for Smith.

 

John Collins kind of tore his ass up

I'm not worried about Smith long-term on D, Collins is just a very good player who had a hot game. Welcome to the NBA Jabari

 

If ha had hit one more three that would be considered a pretty good game. 20 points, 7 rebounds, didn’t look lost defensively no turnovers. And 37.5% from 3.

Now I am not worried about his shot. If he plays like he did yesterday and hits his threes at around 38% that would be just fine. But I still hope he improves at scoring close to the rim and maybe get a little crafty, either with a spin move or crissover, or a step back/fadeaway.

 

No I'm using the stats to accentuate a point. Maybe you need to brush up your reading comp lmao

 

Well if you want to be fair Battier was like 23 yrs old his final year and was part of a strong ass college team under one of the goat college coaches. Jabari us 19 yrs old, played 1 and done, with a crappy team under a mostly unknown coach and he had nearly the same output as peak college Battier. Thats why the two to me arent comparable cuz Jabari's physical tools make him almost even with peak Battier even if he hasnt grown or had systematic training yet. Once Jabari gets experience and grows his body out he isnt just gonna become better Battier, he is another tier already. Itd be like if you called Kobe a better Smush Parker.

 

I hope the coaches show KPJ and Green and everyone else some film of how many times they missed Jabari in the corner. Just like Alpi got himself free in the post and got ignored, Jabari was free in the corner and got ignored. Funny thing, if you were to let these two play together more, both would happen less. It all starts with KPJ not seeing it (I don't even think he does it on purpose - but this should be what coaching should be for).

Other than Alpi's and KPJ's turnovers, Tari not getting enough minutes and Mathews getting too many minutes, that was the most frustrating part of this game for me.

It's quite obvious to me that Jabari is a winning player. He moves very well without the ball. He gets back on defense.

On defense, it seems to me that Jabari's perimeter defense is stronger than the post defense. I believe Sengun is actually a better post defender than Jabari right now. In the post, it seemed like Jabari was sliding backwards without really challenging the shooter a few times. I'm sure that will improve.

 

Jabari needs to make his open shots. Simple as that. Guards arent going to keep feeding an ice cold shooter 'cuz the fans' .. I did prop up watching him make moves to the basket. That is the brightest thing about his debut. Im sure the shooting nights wont be as bad as last night. Its up to everyone else to pick up the slack. His defensive IQ was on display and he more than likely had a bunch of jitters playing in his hometown for game 1 of his professional career. Not too worried. Need to be able to count on him to be the good shooter that he is.

 

Smith looks a lot better with Wemby next to him. Tank city baby!

 

He should do some fake on 3sss

 

I thought he played sound defense on JC, just better offense. I’m not worried about his defense. He has good fundamentals

 

I wonder if somebody spoke to him after the first quarter because you could Forget he was even on the court in that 1st and then after that he just came out agressive

 

i thought he looked good. he definitely chucked a little bit but if makes just two more threes everyone is posting his statline to social media.

it seemed like he was rushing his shot most of the game. near the end you could tell he was trying to slow it down some which shows to me he has a good mind.