I would add that the money to sign Bari would likely be nearly double as well and statically he is not as good today so it would boil down to a gamble on the future and the two years younger he is. Ironically with Tari it's also a gamble just a different one where you hope his health is solid and not an issue.
1 Jabari's rookie season was a huge disappointment by anyone's definition. 2 He improved his efficiency in year two, which isn't saying much, but at least there was clear progress. 3 Last season, at best, he flatlined. His efficiency actually declined and there were no improvements in other aspects of his game. Outside of jump shooting, he has There is probably only one CF member who was more excited about drafting Jabari than I was (@AuburnRocket ), but this past season my eyes were opened and his upside just isn't very high. He's not gonna be what I hoped. Right now, I have serious doubts he will ever become a starting caliber player on a championship contender. Maybe down the line in his career.
I guess you didn’t notice how well he was shooting in the latter half of the year or in the playoffs. I think you are concentrating on his handles too much and his draft position. With a good offensive coach he would be a very consistent spot up shooter and would be a critical guy late in the shot clock with mid-shot. His defensive is not as flashy as Tari’s, but is still outstanding (better than Dillon’s and Tari’s). Jabari’s stagnation is clearly at the feet of his coach who refuses to unleash his offensive strengths in favor of Fred, Jalen, and Dillon.
I'm considering the full season. His 3-point shooting against the Warriors doesn't erase the entire regular season. I don't give a care about his draft position; it's mostly folks who are married to the IDEA of Jabari who are biased by his draft position. If Jabari comes into camp, wins the starting job and levels up in year 4, I'll give him props. I really want him to succeed on the Rockets but that won't stop me from being objective. The extra slack he's being given on this forum is amazing. Every player that didn't progress last year has a group that blames it all on Udoka.
3 I don’t think it’s uncommon to give a 21 year old player some slack. Jabari started the year off shooting poorly which brought his % down on a full-year basis. His shooting was much better for most of the regular season (on low volume thanks to Ime). Development is not linear and not the same for every player. So many people complain about Reed not getting the opportunity to improve, but hold Ime blameless in the development of Amen as a pg, Jalen, and Jabari. Jabari shot 29% in February over with 4 GP, he shot 29% in October over 5 GP, he shot 32% in April in only 3 games played. The rest of the year he shot 35% or greater and was lights out in the playoff. I will admit I didn’t realize how many games he missed for injury which somewhat takes away the injury argument vs Tari. However, his injuries are not considered chronic where Tari’s leg problems will be a concern for the rest of his career. A 21 year old 3 year veteran with horrible offensive coaching deserves some slack. Potential means a great deal, especially in a league that is set up to put horrible penalties on 2nd apron teams.
I disagree, but you are entitled to your opinion. I see a lot of great attributes and future success in that 21 year old. I'd hate to see him traded honestly. He didn't choke under pressure in his first playoffs, and that's a great indicator of his mental toughness to play really well against good teams under pressure. Of all players taking 3 or more 3 PT attempts per game he led the Rockets in the playoffs shooting 45.5% from behind the arc. He also left the team in SH-EFF in the playoffs, at 0.65 and was second behind Adams in SC-EFF at 1.529. My biggest concern isn't Jabari improving. It's bullheaded Ime using not using that kid a lot more in our offensive scheme that concerns me.
I think it's fair to look at the eye test for Jabari and say "okay, this guy is probably not going to be Chris Bosh or KG or whatever the loftiest comps were". But at the same time, he can still be a very good roleplayer in a rare and valuable archetype in today's league. Not too many 6'11" two-way players with a good jump shot out there. Usually you end up sacrificing either the defense or the shooting.
How should Ime use Jabari more? He isn't skilled at anything but catch and jump-shooting. You are on the opposite end of people here who don't want Jabari to do anything but shoot off the catch. No dribbling or posting up because bad things usually happen. I actually jumped on that bandwagon during the Warriors series because it's like he had no awareness the Warriors defenders were targeting him every single time he put the ball on the floor. That isn't mental toughness. Despite his 3-point shooting in the series, Jabari never looked comfortable on the floor to me.
Tari is a great complimentary piece off the bench.. No way in he'll I'd want him starting for a full 82..
What stand out are still the same things right at Draft day. Shooting Being tall and rebounds Perimeter Defense Can block a few shots He just came in really early at 18 years of age.
If a contract that is fair for both sides can be made keep both, we don't have to choose, we have both who can help us win games as a team. Both looked fine based on this point in their careers in the playoffs, Jabari's although his confidence ebbed and flowed a bit regular season, but his shooting and size will help in future playoffs and he still has a lot of talent. Tari will help in the postseason as well, he was load managed true (although they both played 57 games this season, as Jabari was injured), but he also he keeps improving each year and statistically/advanced stats has outperformed Jabari overall in his career so far.
YOU MISSED THE POINT DUDE/ NO ONE IS SAYING TRADE THESE GUYS, IT'S JUST A WHAT-IF YOU HAD TO CHOOSE, WHO WOULD YOU RATHER KEEP
Jabari pre/post All-Star splits Before All-Star game, .568 TS%, 35.4% 3pt After All-Star game, .554 TS%, 35.3% 3pt I'm not really noticing how well he was shooting in the latter half of the year.
I agree that my hope for Jabari to be more than a role player has dwindled, much like Jalen's the past year. I do think that Jabari has been improving incrementally year by year, more so than Jalen, just not as much as I like. Interestingly, for the first three seasons of Evan Mobley, I thought he was quite comparable to Jabari's level. Mobley started out quite good as a rookie and remained good but not great for 3 years without significant improvement. I thought he had reached his ceiling and would never be a star level player. But than he took a big leap in his 4th season and he is a legit all star level guy now, maybe even franchise level some day. So I'll give Jabari one more season before I write him off as a role player. That said, even if he never improves from this point on, he is still a good role player to have long term.
"Latter part" is a bit misleading. He had a very poor start of the season. Then he started to shoot very well from mid-November till he went down with injury. I think he shot around 40% from 3 during that stretch. After coming back from injury (which is right after the all star break), he had a period of 3-4 weeks he struggled. Then he started to do well again until the end. So if you cut his season by the all star break, you are actually looking at two somewhat identical trajectories--bad then good, and the overall results look similar. It is quite possible that his shooting would have stayed at a high level had he not got injured and had to reestablish his shooting game. It was a hand injury. So he probably couldn't practice shooting for a while during that down time.
I looked up his last 10 games, 37.8% on only 4.5 attempts a game. That's... decent but not great production for a 3&D archetype. The problem with Jabari is that he shoots a very low volume for a player whose job is to shoot 3s. So any small game sample is going to be hard to take seriously. And any larger sample size data has him as a below average 3pt shooter. Honestly I was one of his biggest fans coming out of the draft and thought he was the perfect big next to Sengun, and I would more than most Rockets fans to try to look for the positives in his play. But honestly he has never put together a stretch to make me believe.
Yeah, we all scream for him to take more shots. I do believe that if he had a more steady diet of shots, he would shoot better. A big part of shooting is mental. This is especially true for a guy like Jabari who is clearly confidence driven. It's a combination of him being too passive and our offensive system not prioritizing on getting him more involved. This is why I still feel that something may happen that will unlock him to the level he should be able to reach.
