you can see the evolution on this guy and the commitment to the fundamentals of the game. I have really liked him although his performance has still lot to improve. Attitude shows a lot this year.
Once he gets some respect from the refs he will Be legit. I've never seen a guy get called for soo many random fouls on clean blocks at the rim. Happened again last night.
If he can't nail the 3 at a high clip, he will go the KD route and shoot midrange just not being KD. He will have good shooting seasons but that shooting form isn't really spectacular either. Sengün, him and all Rockets need a good shooting coach.
Bari shot is off because his balance is off, you can pretty much look at his feet on turnaround midrange shots or wing 3s and tell it’s going to be off…. He has to get stronger .. players are just crowding his space , throwing his balance off .. Wing 3s seem to just be a tad out of his range right now - he needs to increase corner or top of arch 3s
He's definitely improving in some areas. Hopefully he gets in the lab this summer and gets that 3p% up to where we expected to be when we drafted him. If that part of his game comes around he'll be a very good player for a long time.
Per NBA.com he is now up to 62.2% from 0-5ft Other noteable rookie forwards Banchero 63.6 Murray 53.0 Mathurin 54.0 Sochan 59.4 Eason 52.4 Jalen Williams 70.0 (!) It might be fair to say that his 3 point shooting is currently more concerning?? I wonder if this is an indication of what they have been working on with Smith? Put the ball on the deck and get to the rim, and finish. Certainly an improvement from early in the season Edit: he is 84% from 0-5 feet the last 10 games. Clearly an improved area
This is why I want him to stop that pull up mid range jumper. I don't mind him taking mid range jumpers but when he has so much momentum going towards the rim just go, attack, he'll either get fouled or finished. I would rather him take a pull up 3. He is capable of hitting those its just it seems his confidence on his 3 shot is so low right now. We really should get that back. He passes up on so many open 3s now where before he was just jacking it up there the moment he felt he had room to now he's hesitating and passing off.
Variety keeps people guessing. If he hits that pull up jumper, next time he is coming down the court the defender now has that in the back of their minds. At this point, if Jabari doesn't stop at the 3pt line, they can't just sit back in the paint and will have to stay with him.
Silas should have challenged the clean block called an ‘And-1’, that would have been a 3 point swing in a close game. Smith is definitely getting the rookie treatment by the refs.
Both things can be true. Im happy about the pull up. But I also want more attempts at the rim. It looks like they have to foul him a lot, even if he is not finishing well yet, we need him to develop that part of his game. Also, can't remember where I read it, I believe it was The Athletic. But his usage is like 20pts below compared to his time in college. That should be a KPI on our PG. "Either you increase this thing up or you are not a PG"
He improved greatly since November. Back in December he was worst on the team with low 50s. It still needs to be higher if he's to become a star level player but at least i don't close my eyes when he is unguarded underneath now.
I mean I see only KD or Lauri as archetype, the way he is gravitating towards playing as SF. Don't get me wrong, it's not the hardest thing to make the All Star reserve extended list when they announce injury replacements. It's not easy to play like that night in and night out though. I would have preferred a sturdier PF, with Victor likely being another skinny dude emerging.
One thing that really speaks to the high BBIQ of Jabari is how quickly he has developed as a passing target for Sengun. Similarly to KJ (and before that Augustin), Smith is always looking for cutting and trailing opportunities when Sengun has the ball and / or making his move towards the basket. Not only has this resulted in a lot of bunnies and AND-1s for Jabari, it will eventually help ease the pressure off Sengun as Jabari’s man has to keep an eye on him to prevent opening up cutting lanes as well as box out trailing attempts.
Durant can (and could, at age 18) put the ball on the floor and dribble and pass - that's just not anything you can learn to do at his level. Kevin Durant is basically the archetype for Kevin Durant and nobody else - he's one of the most unique players in NBA history, basically a 7 foot tall shooting guard who can create off the dribble also anchor a defense as a rim protector.
Well, at least Jabari will grow into a shooting 7'1 player with his growth spurt. You would get 7'3 Wemby lol and 6'11 Sengün.
Similar to Jalen in the first half of last season, it seems they're getting his game more well rounded before unleashing his 3pt game at a higher volume. For Jabari - possibly more than any other scorer in the NBA - having a great playmaker right now would be such a big difference maker. I know that's true for every player, but especially for a shooter who does not handle the ball much. There have been too many mouths to feed and too many players that our PG's/Sengun have to think about getting the ball to in exactly the way they like. For our offense I really believe subtracting a scorer would benefit Jabari the most. Sixers were having similar problems (on a larger scale) with Embiid, Harden, Harris and Maxey all looking to eat in the starting lineup. I think that moron Rivers has finally figured out that one of Maxey or Harris should come off the bench and the Sixers are peaking right now because of it. God I wish we could bench KPJ and let him develop as a 6th man but I think our best bet is replacing Gordon with a PG who doesn't need shots in the offense except ultra wide open ones.
