My biggest eye raise is not from the "nobodies" on Twitter who are making noise, but comes from these guys who get gifted actual press credentials and dont rise above the unprofessional. When they get credentialed it should immediately hold them to a higher standard. Im all for petty bickering and typical male bravado. This just stinks of intentional drama for clicks and likes.
Appreciate the Rockets content, but i've always hated the F the haters dialogue. Its a waste of energy. People that hate on others that are above them are miserable people. Unfortunately that seems like most of America these days. No need to acknowledge these people.
That's what social media has done. No better way to see it than teams winning the lottery, their fans being excited about getting a high draft pick, only to somehow turn into apes and start flinging feces at each other for an entire NBA season for some reason. Everything is a "you vs us" mentality if you ever express doubt in something. People called Jabari a "bust" when he struggled and now the Rockets fans who were waiting for the opposite to happen come out and do the same thing to Paolo. Or Keegan. Or Ivey. Then when Jabari struggles they do it again and so the cycle goes. The most toxic thread on CF is pretty much that. No nuance to the situation, just two extremes. One side wants KPJ cut and catapulted to the moon while the other wants to give him a max contract. Twitter is bad for your brain. Going on it to see sports drama is the male equivalent of watching Real Housewives of X County.
Never understood the sudden obsession with Paolo, I distinctly remember in the draft subforum, people were generally down on Paolo and high on Chet, and then meh on Jabari throughout the year. I still think Chet is the only "unicorn", Paolo is meh, Jabari a high floor, with intriguing ceiling due to his height and shooting, but has obvious weakness. Also what is there to even complain about, we had the 3rd pick, unless any of you are really Ivey/Murray superfans.
Have not watched the highlights yet, if he can at least start being to drive hard and finish at the rim I would be satisfied, he is going to have a lot of mismatches both big and small and to maximize his shot he is going to have to at least be able to drive hard with someone on him and finish.
There are genuine concerns about Jabari. There are also those with no middle ground that make much more out of those issues than is reasonable. I see calling out those people to be no more divisive and misleading than calling out someone for calling these people haters. When I was pro-Chet, I didn't feel vitriol from Jabari fans. When I flip-flopped to Jabari, I didn't feel vitriol from Chet fans. On here, and from the tweets I saw, it seemed that a portion of Paolo fans that were the ones spreading the most hate towards other groups. This may be childish, but I follow a tic-for-tac philosophy regarding debating online. I can have a reasonable conversation with someone being reasonable. When I feel vitriol, I try to mirror the response.
I love how people can hate hate hate all day and then when they look dumb it's, "I don't remember there being any hating, maybe just a little constructive criticisms." Beyond that it's, "Why even worry about what these haters say?" Sorry, but people who spout nonsense deserved to be called out, mocked, and ridiculed. Maybe stop hating on rookies and other young players if you don't want the egg on your face later. No one will even think you're cool or smart if the kid does turn out to be a bust. The worst though is Rockets fans who spent all of 2021 ******** on Jalen Green only to play victim in 2022. Then it's KPJ, Bari, etc etc. It's never-ending. Everyone else should refuse to call them out though? That's nonsense. Don't talk **** if you can't handle having it thrown back in your face.
That sentiment would be fine in theory, but can you show me like 2-3 posts on this board where it was obvious someone "hated" on Jabari, instead of them just voicing concerns or things he could improve on? Most of you guys see statements like "his handles are clearly an issue and limit him atm" as hate and it's just nonsense.
And I think Jabari will be the better player of the two over the next 10 years. and now with Chet out the whole season. The Jabari pick looks like a blessing he Fell to us. We got the consensus number 1 pick in the draft heading into that night when he fell that’s when ppl backtracked but let’s all not forget he was widely seen as the number one pick the last 2 months of the college season snd heading into draft night.
Here's one in a quick search.... "It's crazy that most people think Wiggins has been a bust yet Smith skillset tops out at being Wiggins and that's if he ever develops a dribble-drive game." Do you find it reasonable to limit a 42% on high volume 3-point shooter with high defensive potential to that of a player that shot threes poorly on low volume in college and had trouble guarding until his 8th season in the NBA? People aren't going to outright say they hate Jabari. They are just going to have 100s of posts that revolve around the only way to provide value is to be able to dribble well.
Okay I looked it up and seems jiggyfly said that, I'll admit that was a bad post. 99% of the discourse here seemed to be about him being a great 3&d player even for a contender, but that it would be good if he could develop some aspects of his Ball-Handling and offensive arsenal when it comes to ceiling vs Paolo and Chet.
I think here on CF people would still be arguing if our current top 5 (KPJ, JG, Tari, Bari, ALP) won it all in the future. For real.
Have seen a couple of things already that are leaning in the whole Jabari > Paolo direction. All I'm saying is that refraining from this is just the best course of action. You can prop up Jabari without dragging Paolo/Chet into it and vice versa. It's toxic AF. Don't fall for the bait. Rockets fans are known to engage when media folk drag their players. It's why Green is always put in weird spots on lists. These guys need traffic/engagement and Rockets fans are a goldmine as of late. Matt Moore came out and basically admitted that he trolls Rockets fans.
Can't we just let people come around to him instead of dividing up into these groups? Or just ignore people who are irrational?
It would be good for him to dribble better. Though, there are multiple ways to provide value and it isn't limited to ballhandling. Jabari's defensive ceiling is best defensive player (though, Chet's is as well). Sure, he does not have the playmaking for others ceiling of Paolo. Jabari does have the better ceiling as a 3 point shooter and mid range shooter as his shot is just so quick with a high release that he only needs to master a couple of dribbles to be efficient there. I will say, I hate inefficiency from high usage players. It should not be construed as hate towards the player. If they improve their efficiency, my view of their skills changes. For a player that provides the majority of their value on the offensive side, but are inefficient, I'm not going to be as high on their ceiling as others. I probably come off as hateful for fans of inefficient, high usage players, and lately the biggest non-civil discussions I'm in comes down to me not assuming inefficient players will become efficient just because they are 19 or 21.
