Rockets sign Jabari Smith Jr. to 5-year, $122M extension

Your last statement is far too big a generalization. They must decide who the core players are and pay to keep them together. Period. In today's cap environment, it is not possible to keep an entire team together forever. Tough choices have to be made and younger, less expensive players must step up into bigger roles.

Cason Wallace is a clear replacement for Dort and may very well end up being a better player than Dort is now.
iHart can definitely be replaced in 2026. If J-Dub and Chet improve, his replacement doesn't have to be as good.

The perfect world for OKC will disappear next summer to some extent and the following year will be very rough.

I must say, it would have been interesting to see what would have happened with the Chet and J-Dub contracts if OKC had lost to the Nuggets. SGA's extension was a no-brainer either way.

 

Honestly watch a few minutes of Chet in Game 7, he is a much different & better player than Smith.

he is way more like Durant than he is like Smith stylistically, and he's an elite rim protector & shot blocker, Smith is not even an average one.

 

He is but it's going to be The Great Gazoo from the Flintstones



People going to think he's talking to himself. Could get bad.

 

Personally it is better OKC won so Chet and others get their $$$ and makes their cap situation harder.

 

Regardless 15/8 is not worth 30% of the cap to me esp considering his injury history. His efficiency and production only slightly better than Jabari, not worth 2x markup IMO.

I rather have Jabari+other players you can sign with that money.

 

I do not get those guys, they dance and prance around a Core 7 and Core 5 but when other teams are really putting the dollar signs where their mouths are instead of just talking about a Core, they are mad as hell, lol.

Why are they mad about someone else paying Core Money to Core players?

Nobody complained about Sixers paying Embiid who has not led the team to anything in a weaker Conference.

 

Nick PornHair Wright. JayW has a higher ceiling than Banchero at this point.

 

The question isn't weather OKC can afford their 3 stars, that is obviously the case.

The question will be if they can retain key roleplayers.

Hartenstein becomes a FA after next season for example. You think OKC is going to really be able to outbid some team that desperately needs a center?

Dort also becomes a FA after next season. That's two key players that are sure to come at a high price tag for them. Players they simply do not win a championship with.

The question should be irrelevant of Jabari. Is Chet worth that price? I don't see him as a superstar player, I just don't. I don't think if you put Chet on the worst team in the NBA right now that team does little next to nothing.

Jalin Williams, I think he'd be a PG13 team kind of player where he would lead a team to the playoffs at least. SGA obviously is going to do that. Chet I don't see that for him. He's not Wemby-lite. So far he's a great stretch big that blocks shots and has a tendency to get eaten up any low post center, so there's that as well.

That's superstar money AND Williams should be getting more than that.

 

Spoiler

The thing is I have no problem with both, Jabari getting paid reasonably more than he does now and Chet getting paid......

Sure Dort and IHeart are out of the door but I still say those are the role players, you have to have a hierarchy......without hierarchy it's a mess.

Spoiler

With Dort I think they have a Thunder bonus where he can roam around and then return back when he is 32 or 34.

He always said it is his 2nd home.

They are so dominant that they probably win their 2nd Title in the next 3 years and it would not matter.......2 titles equals what the Supersonics did in 3 decades.

In the 2nd Apron era, it is much easier to leave than to stay, that is just Reality Check.

 

Who is mad? Everybody is happy to see how Chet's contract will let us catch up on OKC.

Embiid and Ben Simmons are the perfect examples why NOT to pay an injury prone guy big money.

 

That's not a realistic expectation. Think about it logically: if you're away from the rim on offense and away from the rim on defense then how are you grabbing 8-10 rebounds? In the entire NBA there is currently one single player who makes lots of 3's, is decent at defending PnR's and grabs over 8 rebounds per game. That's Jayson Tatum.

What you're describing is a move further away from the basket so logically his rebounding would be static or go down. Durant is mostly going to guard the worst-shooting non-C which is usually the PF. That means Jabari is going to be chasing around wings on defense and parked in the corner on offense. I'm not worried about the drop in individual rebounding because our 2 new starters are far better rebounders than our 2 outgoing starters.

Realistically I'm happy with excellent rebounding relative to his role, not looking at those absolute numbers. But basically his best bet is to be the PF version of Klay Thompson - the difference being Klay excelled at guarding smaller wings while Jabari is far more switchable and his height can bother taller players.

 

Ok, I meant mad sarcastic and gloomish .....of course it is not like mad like when someone hit you with a bike or a stick......

So betting on a 37 year old over the next 3 years is better than betting on 23 year old Jay Dub and 23 year old Chet Holmgren who just won the Chip....

Presti's 2nd round picks are on an island of greatness, Stone does not care about the 2nd round.
Lmao.

 

You would have a hard time catching up in younger age and vitality.

I'll give you an example.......your end bench players are Tari (24) Finney Smith (32) Steven Adams (31) Clint Capela (31) Uncle Jeff (38) Aaron Holiday (29) Tate (29)

Their end of bench players are Ajay Mitchell (23), Topic (21), Kenrich Will (29), Aaron Wiggins (25) Isaiah Joe (26), Thomas Sorber (19) Brooks Barnhizer (23), Jaylin Williams (23) and Ous Dieng prob still 22.

 

I dont think anybody is mad just saying Chet is overpaid. Embiid is overpaid too on his new deal.

Why would Rox fans be mad about this? Its good news not bad.

 

DFS, Adams and Clint are rotation players not end of bench players. They are there to win now because KD is 37.

Not sure what your point is any team can get unprovens like Brooks Barnhizer for their end of bench guys. Ousmane Dieng is literally a scrub you think we need to catch up to that? SMH.

 

Who is gloomy about this? Lol. Jayden and Chet are lotto picks not 2nd round picks.

KD is literally one of the best players ever he is better than JDub and Chet for the next 3 yrs. Cheaper too its looking like.

 

We got Bari on a bargain basement deal. Glad we signed him before all of these deals came out.

He isnt better than chet or PB, so it wouldn't have mattered that much...but the price def would have gone up.

Hope he out plays contract big time.

 

It would be STUNNING if durant next season is better than Jdub. Crazy things happen certainly but i wouldn’t bet on it.

 

Why would that be stunning?

Expecting a big drop off because of age?

KD was much better offensively last year and defensively they werent that far apart. And jdub was surrounded by talent on both ends.

Unless KD falls off a cliff, on this team, I think he'll definitely have a better year than jdub.

 

Durant has already dropped off a lot impact wise and he's gonna be 37. All of the impact metrics favored jdub last season, so for it to flip back to durant at 37 would be stunning to me. I'd put the odds that kd is better than jdub next season at like 5% (barring a major injury obviously).