MFers at least waited until the 1st couple of games of the regular season before going full throttle on sh*tting on Jalen Green and pining for Mobley…idiots doing it for Jabari after the 1st game of SL
Jabari is not a project at all you really do not know basketball. Jabari has elite skills, being 6’10 how he can shoot and playing elite defense. I believe Paolo is a Superstar he is nice, but Jabari is a Star. Jabari’s elite shooting from the outside is crazy we need to feature him and need a point guard who can pass the ball to him. Paolo is a average shooter and a average defender, Jabari is a elite shooter you will see tonight. Ivey is a great player he is quick but he is a average shooter and in college he never played defense. If a defense play a zone against Ivey or Paolo their offense will be contained if you play a zone against Jabari….grab your popcorn.
I blame mainly poor coaching and guard play. Guys were out there to showcase themselves rather than run an offense and play as a team (ahem...Josh Christopher).
We were extremely lucky to not fall out of the top 3 in the draft. I think Jabari, Paolo, and Chet will all have great careers.
Notable players on Orlando's Summer League roster: Paola Banchero Notable players on Rockets Summer League Roster: Jabari Smith, Josh Christopher, Ty Ty, Eason Of course Banchero is going to feast...he is the only one on that roster that can play. In addition, there is a reason why he was picked 1st. Jabari will get his
In my humble opinion they'll still regret not having a Ivey/Haliburton backcourt over the team they're building now with Fox/Murray/Sabonis. That opinion predates summer league And for what it's worth I do like Murray, just not over Ivey
Ivey is one year older and guards typically adjust to the NBA faster. I'd still take Jabari over Ivey. Jabari will likely take a good 2-3 years to round out. That's why it is important to make sure he wants to be a rocket for the first 10 years of his career.
Man I bet KAT's summer league debut made his team feel so unlucky as well (12 points 3 rebs) while Cam Thomas being the top scorer during the 2021 SL is a future MVP and franchise player. Summer League is not all about stats. If you watched the game closely, you'll see how Smith plays with poise rather than trying to do too much given the hype of the matchup. He let's the play come to him which is a good quality to have for a 19 year old. You can't compare him to Banchero because PB can make plays on his own. PB is definitely going to be hard to beat when it comes to ROY but we got a good one in Smith especially in the years to come.
Honestly it blows my mind that people can honestly think things like this. It's summer league. Relax. No rookie has ever been best player on a championship team or MVp or anything like that. It will probably be 3ish years before we really start to see who the best players are from different draft classes. This is all about developing
We have to wait until we see Jabari play with KPJ and Green because they are miles better then anything on the summer league roster
I didn't realize that Clutchfans was populated by so many NBA front office personnel, scouts, and coaches who can predict this type of information and make money for their takes.
The evidence of my example here may be limited but I've been told Keegan Murray is a very good defender. Banchero scored 23 points against him. Against Jabari he had 17 points. To me this sounds like Jabari is 35% better at defense than this older and more experienced Keegan Murray. If the defense we drafted has the ability to slow a sure-thing star... perhaps we're doing pretty well with the direction of our draft, no? Nice post CHAMPBOY. Goodbye zone defenses!
Banchero is basically playing point forward for Orlando. He has the ball in his hands a lot. Although he's clearly the better overall player right now, it's way too early to say the Rockets were unlucky selecting Jabari. They were unlucky with the summer league coaching staff and players who didn't help set Jabari up for success. They need to run some plays to help get him going. Before the draft I was one of the few who felt the Rockets should have drafted Keegan Murray. I didn't know though that Banchero was this special of a player. The Rockets wanted him and would have drafted him had he not gone first, but they were still lucky to have the number #3 pick and draft Jabari. You'll see. His defense alone will justify him being picked that high. Ivey would have been a great pick too (along with Murray) but the Rockets needed a big who could shoot and play great defense.
