People just replace other teams fast athletic championship level role players with Jabari in their heads and do it only at the point of releasing an open 3 pointer or contesting a shot at the end of a possession. Jabari is as good or better than them at those 2 things. The problem is everything else in between: matchups, speed up and down the court, passing, movement, handle in a crowd, getting around screens, grab and go, pressure the ball defense vs a reactive gear up for the contest defense. His weak side help guarding the weakest and aesthetic reliable jump shot doesn’t come close to matching the advantages that actual conference final level role players like OG, Bridges, Hart, Vassel, Castle, Champagnie, Caruso, Dort, Jalen Williams, and Ajay Mitchell provide in the speed, fluidity, and pressure game. If he was going to be the only big on the court for a championship team, I think he would have passed Jeff Green by now.
I would like to see this happen and see if he can become more of a PF/C ala Al Horford instead of what he is now which is more of a tall combo forward. He makes more sense in that role, he is more athletic and a better jump shooter than the average NBA big man. But like you said, he would need to seriously bulk up and add onto his interior game on both ends of the court.
25 million is about average or slightly above average for players who are not in a rookie contract. I think what he makes is a fair amount.
I think this is an interesting take. Honestly, I expected Jabari to be a waste last season. I expected Durant to fill his spots, and for Jabari to lose time, shots and stats. For his scoring to rise was quute surprising. Of all our young guys, he has a decent case to say he improved, and held the improvement in the playoffs. 25mill isn't cheap, but he's the least of our concerns. Next step would be to add 20lbs so he can play stretch 5. That's probably his long term future - far more likely than developing a reliable face up handle to stay as a 4.
He shot 38% in the playoffs which is less than ideal for a shooter. The bottom line is he needs to add some size and develop a post up game. He should work with Hakeem and develop his interior game. He's almost 7 feet for God's sakes
I mean did he really rise up? He had 3 awful games, 2 good games and 1 average game. Again the issue is he's too streaky to rely upon cuz you'll never know which version you'll get.
Sounds exactly like FVV last year and virtually everyone on this board acted like he was a superstar in the playoffs.
If everyone is on a fair amount, a team will be average. The Rockets were above average despite a lot of money getting hurt because Amen, Reed, Durant, JSJ and Tari played well above their contracts last season. That said, once Amen and Reed gets extended, the Rockets aren't going to have money to afford vets. Having people on fair contracts only works out if you have the guys greatly exceeding their contracts. Personally, I think JSJ needs to be a little better for that to be a fair contract. Granted, I think he was close enough this year that it probably will end up a fair contract or better as he improves.
Imagine that - the guys who see single coverage play ok while the guys who see heavy double coverage struggle. But last year Jabari had more turnovers in the playoffs that Jalen Green, and it definitely wasn't because he was getting more touches. This year, he played about the same as he did during the regular season, but had a catastrophic brain fart that led to us losing in Game 3. Context is everything.
Jabari’s game was designed in a lab to be over rated. Makes 4 or 5 “hell yeah Jabari” plays a game, doesn’t make that many obvious “that was Jabari’s fault” plays but his presence and opportunity cost makes your team too slow and undynamic to win versus good teams. He’s like a forward version Boban Marjonovic.
I think most cases of outperforming contracts are players on rookie deals. Those are non-market-driven contracts, artificially restrictive. Other cases mostly include late bloomers who break out after they have signed their second contracts. I think on the whole, the market is fairly consistent with players' values. There are outliers, of course. Smart GMs get the positive outliers. Dumb GMs get the negative outliers.
Spotrac has the Rockets as having 2 of the best 10 contracts not counting rookie and max deals and none of the bottom 20 (Rockets bad deals are generally for small money with Rockets having option to shorten deal). 2 in the Top 25 seemed to be the max for a team of a quick look, but maybe I missed a team with 3. There really aren't many positive contracts in these categories. I'd say a smart GM gets more rookie scale deals, max deals, and/or rookie extension deals as I'd guess 98% of the surplus value on NBA contracts as a whole end up in these categories. The Rockets are headed to having over 80% of the salary cap devoted to Amen, Sengun, Reed, JSJ, and Tari in a few years if they keep those guys together. Once Sengun's current deal runs out, I'd expect that number jumps to over 90%. Maybe Stone keeps the Reed and Tari deals smaller than I expect by a little. I don't expect the Rockets will have many bad contracts once Reed signs an extension. I do think that having players on short deals underwater a little is better than no having tradeable salary in the Rockets current situation, but that will dry up in 2-3 seasons. I think Stone has wanted to trade draft picks for a star for a while and it has caused a few players to make more than they were worth. The current group looks to be more bad luck than planned, as I think Stone wanted more bang for the buck. Caveat: This assumes the young core is kept together.
38% from a PF is good. For the regular season, there were 2 PF’s that had over 250 or more attempts that had higher % than Jabari. He is a prototypical stretch PF. He was 7th among PF’s in rebounding. 6th last year. He is 22 years old. 38% in the playoffs is not “less than ideal”. It is plenty good enough. I agree that Jabari needs to get bigger, stronger and develop more of a post game. If he does those things he is an all-star. Clutchfans puts too much stake in where a guy was drafted as opposed to looking at the long game. Jabari was 18 when drafted. That is young in even today’s standards. Patience grasshopper.
Who cares where he stacks up against Santi Aldama and John Collins. It’s June and all the power forwards are on vacation. Fast coordinated athletes are playing the power forward in the finals. It’s not like our 3 best players can’t play the 4.
37% from 3 then. He has not been used as a post up guy, especially in the playoffs. I do agree that he should be and would be pretty good at it with a few more pounds. However, with this roster configuration and this bonehead coach, Jabari is best suited for the perimeter.
Bari is nothin special. Given that he’s 23yr old I do expect him to continue to get better every yr, but his development has been pretty slow so far. The good thing is that we didn’t turn him into a negative asset by giving him a bad contract like we did with Jalen Green. I don’t see a rush to trade him, but he should definitely be made available for the right return. His best outcome is high end role player. I agree with others who think that developing an interior game and more strength could help his career by playing more at the 5. But I just don’t think he’s nasty enough. Would love for him to prove me wrong.
I largely agree. I think Jabari is ultimately a really good third option and a top 5 PF in the league. He was a steal at his current contract. I’m a fan of his, but not max contract fan. Unless the league fixes it for us, we won’t have all-stars at every position.
