First of all what weaknesses everywhere else are you talking about? His defense is solid you can put him on Giannis, Lebron or KD and he will do a decent job. Thats not exactly being "bad" on defense. Even with his broke shot Jabari still made it to the all star games. He is solid everywhere else. Secondly he is only 19. So what if he's barely an NBA player? You know Giddey? Dude took one step in SL and broke his leg for 30 games last year, he wasnt even an NBA player he couldnt play. Look at him now. Thats the benefit of drafting a dude who is 19 over a dude who is 22. He got time.
Its too early to tell whether he wont be an All his entire career or not, you couldnt tell Harden would be one of the best scorers ever as he only averaged 9 ppg his rookie year. Majority of redraft articles I've looked at all still pick Jabari in the top 10. He is only 19 and has time to improve vs older rookies. Case in point would be KJ Martin. KJM couldnt even do anything in the GLeagurle when he got drafted. Look at him now, at only 22 yrs old he is still young enough to be part of this rookie class. https://www.google.com/amp/s/syndic...redo-ahead-of-rising-stars-challenge.amp.html
It's not too early. Most players don't make all star, all nba, all defense, so it's pretty safe to say they won't, and you'll be right. Jabari has done pretty much nothing to distinguish him from the average/median rookie, and arguably has been below that level. Like I said, some guys flash what they can be if fully formed. Jalen Green did at times last year! Paolo did it earlier. Jalen Williams looks like a badass. Jabari hasn't flashed much,if at all; yes i know Giannis didn't score on him a few times, great but otherwise that's just not enough which is why he's bringing up the rear of most peoples rookie ladders. Doesn't mean he's an all-time useless bust who should be cut tomorrow, it's just he seems a lot closer to the middle than the top, as of right now
Jabari has had a couple of great games so he does indeed has flashed what he can do. Most rookies cant even guard Giannis if they wanted to. As bad as his performance is he still went to the rising stars challenge so he still isnt the worst rookie ever or even an average rookie, since I dont think the average rookie goes to the ASG. KJM wasnt even in the rookie ladder in the 2020 class. Last year he was already top 11 in someone's redraft: https://www.nbcsports.com/washingto...lamelo-ball-no-1-desmond-bane-vaults-top-four Btw Mobley who everyone is slobbering over is shooting 45% on hookshots and 55% on dunks and layups while being assisted 78% of the time. His supposed elite defense seems to vanish when Jarett Allen is injured but I guess everyone glosses over those. Amazing what being on a good team does for your overall image. In contrast we actually have fans trash talking Sengun and KPJ when objectively they have been among our better players.
Oh man, yes, let's crap on Evan Mobley to make ourselves feel better, I've heard this one before. Let me tell you I don't have any personal stake like the Evan Mobelords last year who just wouldn't stfu re Green . F those guys. ...but, If you'd rather have Jabari Smith Jr than Evan Mobley because Mobley isn't good enough on offense ok fine, that's your right but, man, that smacks of industrial grade copium
If Jabari turned out to be Dirk with Defense no one would give a flying F about this season though. Instead, it'll just be "He took a couple of years to adjust then adjusted and dominated." I think Alpi has a lot of games where he's average or bad though but people just ignore them. I mean that's their choice, but Sengun definitely doesn't get a lot of hate around here.
It is awfully hard to judge Jabari's defensive ability, or anyone on this team. Playing good defense depends a lot on what teammates are playing with you on the floor. The Rockets defense is so chaotic, you can't even say who can or can't do what. The only things I can see right now is who give consistent effort and who has good fundamental on-ball defense.
I want to preface this by saying I don't think Jabari is a bust or that we should trade him. But I don't think these are comparable situations. We have seen first hand the requirements for Sengun to succeed, we have seen it on the court. The "blame it on the coach" mentality for him is that he doesn't get to run the offense enough. We know the results are good when he runs the offense, and we want to see him run the offense more. It's not just some vague idea of "Well Silas sucks so if we remove Silas then everything will get better." There is a concrete example. What is the concrete example for Jabari? The problem is that he sucks everywhere, at everything, offensively anyway. On wide open 3s he is shooting 32%. So...if we somehow were able to get every single one of his 3s to be completely wide open, he'd be 32% from 3 instead of 29%? On wide open 2s he's shooting 44%, is that really that great? What can you point to that Jabari would improve at if we had a better coach with a better system? I would understand if he was shooting at a reasonable clip on open 3s but we just couldn't create those for him, but he really just seems like he sucks in every scenario from every spot on the floor. That's why it's not the same "excuse" for Jabari. I have no idea what a coach could do for a guy who seems like he just sucks at everything. If you can give me an idea of what that is, I'd be open to hearing it, and also open to changing my opinion.
I mean people are also talking about Jabari's defense? Just before the game here on All access Hollins was talking about how much of an impact he has on defense for some games. I don't know why we are putting so much stock into people that write articles, these same people dragged Harden's defense for years based on youtube lowlight clips when Harden's defense wasn't NEARLY as bad as the media made it out to be. But people DO notice Bari's defense. https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/...-slump-jabari-smiths-defense-shining-through/ While Smith only had six points at the end of the night, his defense helped ignite the Rockets on the other end of the floor and as a result, Houston came out on top in an upset win. https://theathletic.com/4093898/2023/01/17/rockets-jalen-green-jabari-smith/ Smith probably helps you more as the No. 2 or No. 3 guy because his game is a bit more scalable to playing with another star due to the shooting and defense. I mean I'm not going to scour the internet for more but most people when talking about Smith bring up his defense either first or second. So there, someone somewhere mentioned it. Tons of local articles about his defensive contributions as well. I really wish people would watch the things that don't get counted. Like how many times a ballhandler has Bari on him and how many times a pick is called so that the player gets someone else on him. It happens a lot more than people realize. Sure, it could be because the Rockets have some very POOR defenders like Green and Nix and whoever else they throw out there on the court, but its also a bit of respect that sometimes, some nights, the ballhandler knows its not easy to get by on Bari. Also, we can discuss the redraft articles 3-5 years from now, they are useless right now though.
People are blaming Sengun's defense on the coach though. I think people are ignoring this flaw for Sengun, his defense is not good. In the low post, it is decent, when he's not fouling, but in space it is not good. Yet, in this thread people were saying how it's the coach's fault in the end not realizing that in todays game if you can't defend in space teams seek you out and go at you. In this sense it is comparable to me because people are giving him this excuse on defense, saying its bad because of Silas. I think Jabari just can't create shots for himself which hurts when you play on a team as bad as the Rockets. His shot, who knows, it could be mental, it could be a hitch he hasn't picked up on, we'll see in the end. But one thing I know Silas can do is stop pulling the guy when he DOES hit his shots. If its mental, it sucks to hit two shots starting the game off then hit the bench and don't get another shot until 30 mins later. If it is a confidence issue it would help that when the guy hits a couple of shots for the coach to call something for him, try to build his confidence, let him know that not only do they tolerate him shooting the ball but they trust him to do so. That could help. It's almost a meme at this point that if Jabari does hit a couple of shots in a row that he'll either get put on the bench or won't see the ball again, but this is what happens when your team has seemingly no structure or plan. I just think if people are going to use these excuses for Sengun, use them for Jabari. Neither of them are being helped by the environment they are playing in.
So, kelly iko, who is literally paid to produce Rockets content, and one - ONE - mention in one guys rookie ladder from.... December? Come on man - that is just not much. He's not going to get a single all defensive team vote, most likely, and frankly all rookie second team is looking dicey. Anyway, rather than citing articles - Want to bet that he doesn't get a single all defensive vote at the end of the season this year? I'm sure Walker Kessler and some other rookies will. I actually think Eason has a better chance of picking up a single vote.
"Someone somewhere..." huh? Why would I care about that any way? Like I mentioned before in our arguments, dudes make all rookie teams then turn out to be irrelevant ALL the time. Every all rookie list is filled with these guys.
Also, those other rookies play on relevant teams. National Media isn't watching the Rockets every night to care that much. You're not getting any defensive accolades playing on the worst team in the NBA.
Maybe...but maybe you're not getting them because you're not that good? The counting stats don't show anything like they do for Eason with his steals and deflections. The advanced stats are a disaster. The eye test honestly doesn't show much better on net(there's good moments and bad ones), things like "get screened a lot" are more about the Rockets ineptitude in general and the fact that high screens happen on almost every play. This doesn't mean he's bad on defense or will be bad forever, but assuming that he's a hidden diamond future lockdown just seems as tenuous as the idea that he's instant shooting
It's a throwaway mention of the same magical December Sunday evening vs. Milwaukee. How much work are those plays doing in this thread, lol. If only Rodrick Rhodes were so lucky.
Exactly Jabari thus far seems either average at best or incomplete/not enough evidence as a defender. Not an athletic freak DPOY type wing defender, not a super high energy Tari Eason type, not a real rim protector. Nothing wrong with this! If he hit his 3s he'd be good enough. He's not doing too bad tonight against Denver. Sometimes he gets beat by Gordon & Porter, sometime he holds his own. Not too good, not too bad. But on offense, man he is just... bad
This summer is big for Jabari and the Rockets regarding his development. He better be in the gym and in the weight room .
