The thing with Bigshot was that I witnessed him bailing out teams with Kobe, Shaq, and Duncan on them.(and Dream) He had tons of moments on teams with All timers. I just don't think any player can sit on the bench and get hot that way with a cold hand. Elite skill.
I still like Tari better currently, but man is JSJ playing great lately. He's been more active on defense. Getting to the glass more. Cutting more. Just making it harder for defenders to depend on an aggressive closeout to defend him.
I think Jabari can do the same things That level of defense That level of being a utility man That level of being need offense at times I legit see Horry as the way he can go Though he has 7 rings. . . . most feel he never reached his potential Rocket River
I'm not an X's and O's guy, but these plays show the more involved JSJ. The 2nd play, I remember being surprised that he took it all the way to the basket and then made the dish. JSJ attacking the x-out rotation kept the advantage Green created.
Yeah, the X-out was executed about as well as it could have, but the strong-side to weak-side action was simply too fast resulting in Jarabi being able to attack the close-out. What re-using the strong-side with that pitch back did was shape the defense the way we wanted them. First, Amen’s driving threat shifts their big enough so the pitch gets Green downhill around Landale unimpeded … I just feel like at the moment of the pitch the defense is already beat … simplifying everyone’s reads from there.
I know I am probably using bad terminology, but I think the Rockets have been bad of keeping an advantage the past few years. On that 2nd play, in the past it would seem like JSJ would have either shot, maybe take one dribble around closeout and shot, or pass the ball to his left pissing away all the advantage created by the primary actions.
Thats a byproduct of coming off the bench. He wouldn't do alot of the dirty work before. Now he's trying more.
Horry is his ceiling but he can go beyond that. Just depends on if he can consistently knock down those mid range shots and just his mid range game entirely. If he can do that he's going to look a lot more like the #3 pick people hoped he would be. If he's hitting mid range jumpers he becomes a very hard player to guard because of his size and since he can legit play the 3 well...I'll just say its very smart of him to work with Durant in the offseason. Of course it is extremely unlikely he'll ever be that, that's a generational all time player and he'll never have the handles Durant has I believe but if he can establish that he's a threat in the midrange it just becomes harder to deal with him.
If only there was a way to have Jabari learn from Durant every day and shore up the Rockets scoring droughts in one fell swoop.
Learn what from Durant? He doesn’t have Durant’s skillset. Only thing they got in common is body fram.
I don't get the Horry comp. Horry in his prime was more athletic then Jabari. That's about the only aspect Horry was better. Jabari is already a better shooter, better rebounder, and better defender than Horry ever was. The reason Horry is being remembered as a "great" role player is his big shots in some of the most memorable games. Without those big shots, Horry would have been remembered as a very average role player who happened to be on some championship teams. Horry is Jabari's floor, not ceiling.
Horry has 6 championships. He was clutch from 3. He doesn't get bodied by small players. He was consistent. Check yourself before you wreck yourself
I imagine that I am in the minority, but I still see the chance for Smith to be a star player. Firstly, I think he fits very well with Thompson. And I also think that he can play center if he packs on a few pounds. Maybe not as a starting role but definitely a good few minutes. I think we could engineer him more shots off of movement or simply just passing him the ball in the post and allowing him to take easy jumpers. and he is only 21 years old. I’ve seen marginal improvements in ball handling and passing out of the ball handling. it may come down to how many opportunities he gets, and if the organization tries to grow him into that role.
I think Jabari's improvement is 99% tied to how much he improves his skills and mental fortitude. Over his first 3 years, we haven't seen much. That could change, but it's more up to him than the Rockets. He definitely needs more sand in his britches, but that isn't his biggest problem IMO. Seems like everybody wants to blame the team for their favorite players' lack of development. It's a broken record on this forum.
