I hope he can get to Horry's level of shooting...especially clutch shooting. If he can be to Alpi what Horry was to Hakeem and Duncan - a fantastic complementary player - that would be perfect.
13 or something. Once with the Bulls and 12 with the Wizards but there were a few games when he didn't play much at the twilight of his career.
I worry a hell of a lot more about our system and culture than about our players. My biggest fear is that we lose some of this talent and it blows up elsewhere.
KMJ is more like Horry than Smith during his time with the Rockets. Horry was a dunking machine when he entered the NBA and he was also great at slashing much like KMJ has been this year. However Smith does looks physically more like Horry but his play isn’t similar other then at times parking behind the 3pt line. Horry constantly looked to help set screens for his guards while Smith seems to space himself away from the play to try and get an open shot. Also Horry was not only a good one-on-one defender but also a great help defender. Smith seems to get lost on help defense unless it comes his way. In general Horry had great instincts very few players had but unfortunately he never really wanted to be more than just a role player. Smith seems to want to be the star but doesn’t yet have the feel for when to take shots, when to pass or when to switch or box out. It will come but right now he needs to just prove he can make shots. I can’t remember any other starting PF to shoot 38% and avg less dunks than most starting PGs.
You could what now? I don't know how to get a rolling 20 game sample without access to one of the fancy paid databases, but simply looking at Jordan's final 20 games of his career, at 40 years old, he still averaged 22/7/4 on 47% shooting. At what point do you think we'd find a 20 game sample that makes him look like a bust? He scored at least 10 points in 1,238 of 1,251 games. Maybe you meant Deandre Jordan...?
Well I think a lot of people thought he would shoot 40% from 3 in the NBA. If he had done that this year, his scoring average would be closer to 15, and we'd all be gushing about how good he is. What if he shoots close to 40% next year from deep? Ironically the thing most thought he would struggle with is his finishing in close, but that has been about the best part of his game this year (0-3 feet he is one of the best on the team)
Jabari's finishing in close is definitely not great despite what the percentages say. His makes are pretty much all uncontested dunks or lay ups. Any kind of contest or body contact, he fluffs it more often than not. His percentages are also misleading due to sample size as well; his makes for the season total to 47 and he has attempted 67 which is extremely low for a big. To compare Jabari to someone who finishes well at the rim, Sengun has made 131 out of 193 shots at the rim with a field goal percentage of 68% (3% lower than Jabari) but with much more of his buckets generated by himself.
If 47 of 67 is too small a sample to say he’s great at it, then 20 of 67 is definitely too small a sample size to conclude that he’s not great. Jabari is excellent at cutting, a lot of open finishes he gets are because he thinks quicker and moves better than his defender.
Meaning, make a youtube video of his worst plays during those 20 games and make him look like a scrub. Every player has gotten blocked, or had an airball or turned the ball over, or even tripped over his feet. This was not a knock on Jordan... but that even the best players can look bad at times in a 20 game sample.
Jabari doesn’t have a problem finishing at the rim, the knock all along was his ability to generate rim shots (pause) due to his lack of ball handling (pause). And that has played out, with only 13% of his shot attempts coming within 0-3 feet, which is why his overall efficiency is so bad when he isn’t hitting his outside shot.
imho he severly lacks ball handling, it would open up a lot of things for him...they should make him balhandler for a few weeks just to give him confidence boost and stimulate him to improve in that area....
People are gonna trip out when they see what Jabari looks like with real coaching, real veterans and a real PG. His archetype is almost impossible to fail but credit to the Rockets for somehow making it happen.
