Its crazy how much he bites on jabs, spin moves, step-backs, and the bad thing is he doesn't recover well. On help defense he just stays squatted down and watches them go up in his face. Ime needs to start trusting Tari more.
He needs to be careful to gain strength while maintaining his flexibility and not gaining too much weight for sure. I've been starting to see him as more of a combo forward than a big man.
I'm happy with Jabari. His defense is improving and I like the length he has. There were several defensive possessions last night where he was instrumental. If he can keep shooting the 3 ball well and just add any kind of consistent move driving to the basket, he will be good.
Meh. This is being overly critical. Smith generally guards the other team's best or second best player and has a really good defensive rating (107.5). We currently have a top 5 defense and he's a major reason why. Eason is perfect in the sixth man, energy role.
his lateral quickness is terrible. he really needs to put on some more weight so he can play the 5 when Sengun sits. Jabari's becomes a super mis-match when he plays the 5, which is something he did quite frequently last year. At the 4, he is too slow to be switched onto smaller guards on the perimeter. Offensively, he struggles against players that can stay underneath him.
I guess my biggest concern with Jabari is he doesn't seem like he has any elite hops or movement. Like the knock on Sengun is he is slow laterally but just on the eye test he definitely seems a lot more nimble than Jabari. Like if you compare him and Tari you can clearly see he is a lot less athletic than Tari, when Tari bites on fakes he can use his athleticism and height to still recover but when Jabari bites on fakes he either gets left behind or he has to push the opponent. The other issue I have with him is he doesn't have that dawg in him that Tari has, Jabari avoids contact and very rarely takes it to the rack, he gets like 1 FTA so that's very Ryan Andersonesque IMO. Yes he is there to provide spacing but playing PF you'd also expect him to be a bit more aggressive cuz hey, he is 6'10. Instead when he drives he stops and does his mid range J which drives me nuts. Other than those 2 (admittedly big) issues Jabari has been pretty decent so far. He's still left behind by both Banchero and Holmgren, but at least he doesn't look like a bust anymore. His shooting has been much improved from his rookie year so you hope that gets better as he tightens his mechanics more. The nice thing about Jabari is even if he doesn't turn into a star his dual skill set of being a good defender and spacer still makes him very valuable as 3nD and he should be Sengun's PF partner for the next decade or even longer.
He isn't that switchable, like Jabari can switch 3-5 but he won't be hounding pgs and sgs. He can barely keep up as is when he bulks up and gets older he is gonna get left behind by guards. I see him developing into an Al Horford type of player, eventually he will play PF/C interchangeably and provide spacing on offense and paint protection on defense. Hopefully by then he'll have Horford's impact on winning as well.
Some people get really offended and just need somebody to yell at/something to yell about. It's ok that people are disappointed with Smith's output/reality vs. the draft projections (#1 overall, "Big 3 at the top of the draft) - he can still be an effective NBA player, but I just don't see this guy as having all-star level talent in today's NBA. I know this won't stop the call-out culture, that's the lifeblood of the BBS. But it's possible to not be high on a player, and also, not be an irredeemable hater of that player.
Eh, agree to disagree. He's switchable enough to play the 3. I've seen him defend well against some guards. He won't keep up with speedsters like Fox or Morant, but how many 6'10" guys can do that anyway? Whether that continues to be the case remains to be seen. Guess it will just depend on his physical development. I think I'd rather see him stay relatively thin and get somebody else to play a backup center, at least while he's in his 20s. (Who knows whether he'll even be playing here by the time he's 30.)
Gaining strength without gaining a whole lot of weight is the key. I think his body just needs to mature with better muscle mass. Hopefully that won't slow him down.
I'd like to see us up Jabari Smith's usage. He is taking about 11 shots a game. Would not mind seeing him up around 15 shots a game. IMO, he has earned it. Very coachable. Shooting efficiently. 3rd option after Alperen and Fred.
These kind of posts take me back to the Harden days, where people complained that he hogged the ball too much and should rely on others not named Chris Paul and Eric Gordon to put up shots. Jabari, like the role players back then, can only take so many shots per game with his lack of handle and lack of a post-up game. If you can't drive or operate one-on-one then you have to have your shots given to you, which the defense can simply choose to take away.
He's actually been shooting well so yeah, he should get more shots. They really did look for him a lot more so hopefully that changes. I think once he figures out what shots he should avoid and just starts shooting that open three with no hesitation he'll really reach that next phase. Right now he's a role player but if he starts scoring more and shooting well he starts to become a real option and hopefully grows from there.
Klay can't dribble or isolate either, but the Warriors are opportunistic about finding him in transition, and he does a great job of moving without the ball. (Seeing this Jabari?) Also, I think something that we haven't seen much of is Jabari flashing to the paint off of Alperen post-ups. Would love to see Udoka install elements of all of the above to get Jabari a few more catch-and-shoots. God knows that Fred and Alperen love to share.
Yeah, it's really not usual for a guy of Jabari's size to even have a face up game. If Jabari could dribble and face up he'd be Durant or some other elite big. Plenty of bigs need to get the ball in the right spot to go to work so there is nothing wrong with that. Jabari just has to shoot with more confidence. Pump fakes way too much when that's literally what the defense wants him to do is put it on the floor and attempt a drive which he's not good at. Someone needs to remind Jabari that he's 6'11 with a 7 foot wingspan and as such can shoot over most of the league. I'd love for the team to work him into switches where guards are guarding him in the mid range and for him to just nail those shots like he did tonight. All he has to do is just rise up and shoot over them, they can't affect his shot.
Offensively it feels like Bari is coming along. His 3 pt percentage has dipped after a hot start but his midrange game has definitely improved. I can see a pathway to a #3 option on a championship team…some day. his defense on the other hand, just continues to be astounding bad. And im not just talking about mental mistakes. His slow, lumbering, late rotations highlight his limited athletic ability, especially his poor lateral quickness. Im looking for that to improve substantially but I fear it’s just an inherent limitation.
Again, people keep saying stuff like this, numbers don’t show it. The Rockets have a very good defense and Jabari has a very good defensive rating.
My only issue with Jabari is that he still sucks at shooting 3s when we were told he's the best shooter in the draft. He definitely improved so far this season though so I'll give him that.
I thought last night was his best defensive game of the season personally. Active and not as many mental lapses
Part of the reason he takes so little shots is because his shots aren't really good shots. He takes a lot of middies or post ups into a fade away and when those shots don't go in he becomes passive a lot of the time. If you look at Jabari he only takes 5 threes a night which is around the same no of attempts as Dillon Brooks. The rest are most mid range Js which shouldn't really be a large part of your team offense unless you have Chris Paul or Kawhi or someone who just makes those at a high efficiency. Jalen gets a lot of flack but the reason he can Chuck shots is because his shot diet are 3s or drives to the hoop, those are the kind of shots that mesh well with Sengun.
