Role player or star, it’s irrelevant to me how we designate him. The big question at the draft was, can this guy be the second best guy on a championship team? After what I’ve seen this year, the answer to me unequivocally is yes. and just like my stance in the pre draft process, his value for these rockets is higher than Banchero’s would have been. Let’s not kid ourselves: Banchero would have been completely incompatible with Sengun. Jabari on the other hand is a perfect fit. He was my top pick before the draft. It’s looking like I might have been wrong in that Chet has a higher ceiling. But there’s also still time for my fears about Chet’s frame and injury prone-ness to still play out as well.
Funny you bring up MPJ because I would actually consider him a role player lol. I think you hit the nail on the head here - we all have very different definitions of roleplayer and it causes a lot of head-scratching in these conversations.
He brings that competitive mean streak we need. I hate seeing him get blocked at the rim seemingly every other game but otherwise, he is a guy that just grates on the opponent and gets fired up for the more meek players on this roster. That's infectious and guys like Jalen, Alpi, and Cam are so mild mannered - you need a guy doing that thing night in and night out. I think Brooks has had to dial it back a bit after he got a tech for reacting at anything earlier in the season so it's nice to see Bari and (when he plays) Eason bringing energy, effort, and fire to this club.
Based on your description it seems that a role player can't be a "core player"? Are these mutually exclusive categories?
Alpi and Cam are basketball alphas...they respond within basketball terms...Jalen, on the other hand, needs someone or something...very unfortunate situation! Talking about getting help for the front court, I wish there was a chance we were able to get Collin Sexton for his obvious alpha dog mentality and Walker Kessler for his length from the Jazz
At what point is a roleplayer no longer a roleplayer? When do they graudate? Lets start with Trevor Ariza. Ariza was a roleplayer and I don't think anyone would argue otherwise. Lets bump up his 3 point percentage to 40% and bump up his defense to elite. A wing defender who can defend the other teams best player, maybe flirting with 3rd team all defense. Still a roleplayer? Now lets make him 6'10 and give him a midrange game. Not a go-to part of the offense but something useful to take advantage of mismatches a few times per game. A 6'10 guy who can shoot over anyone, so he can punish on switches if he gets a smaller guy on him. Still a roleplayer? Now lets make him a much better rebounder than Ariza, including some offensive rebounds that can lead to him getting some easy putbacks. At this point we're probably around 20 ppg, maybe a bit more. is this still a roleplayer? I think this is what Jabari can be and that's a really good player. Probably an all star and definitely a player that every championship team in the league would want. I don't know if it matters what labels we put on him. He has a role but it's a really important role and he plays it really well. I love Jabari, I love what I've seen, and he's probably #2 on my list of rockets I'm most excited about.
Jabari gets stronger as the game goes on, and this will be even more obvious as he fills out. He's going to put up at least 24 & 12, while leading our D.
Jabari is already what I thought pre draft, a prime Rashard Lewis with all NBA defense. That alone is worth a max and that is his FLOOR. Ceiling depends on how much he can improve his handle and dribble drive scoring.
craftednba.com An underappreciated site with simplicity in abundance. Now that I'm less argumentative than I was in my 20's and 30's I'm fine w/ aesthetically appealing graphics replacing endless array's of numbers (assuming similar accuracy ofc)
I think Banchero is not as good a defender as his stats show (not that they look good) and Sengun is not an excellent defender. You can't live with these two guys at PF/C because you'd be scoring a lot but giving up way more. Offensively, Sengun and Banchero are so similar in production. Personally I think Sengun will be the better long term defender. IMO Banchero would not look as good here because he can't score as efficiently as Alpi nor defend better. In that sense, I think we'd trade one of them. Jabari is perfect for Sengun. I bet in a couple of years, Jabari might even be better at protecting the rim which would give us so much flexibility defensively. Defense is half the game, if you don't factor it in that way yes it will seem like Jabari is in a lower tier for potential impact on a game. IMO Jabari is some muscle and a baby hook away from being a $30m+ NBA player.
No, they don't. It still doesn't change the fact that the Rockets are 8th best defensive rebounding team in the league this season though.
Like I said, it doesn’t pass the eye test. When we play higher competitive teams, we always give up a lot offensive rebounds and get killed on the boards. Just recently Boston, Miami, Chicago, and the Knicks killed us on the boards but you keep shooting out stats
I don't know what to tell you buddy. Rebounding is objectively one of the most undisputed stats in the game of basketball you either get the rebound or you don't. Stats say we get it. If you don't believe it, you don't believe it.
See what I mean. Can’t jsut keep looking at box score and stats. This is not a good rebounding team. . We always give up critical rebounds. But go ahead and read some more stat to me. I watched every game and I known what my eyes tell me. The same at we alway seem to make the 50/50 balls
I still can’t believe Bari still has doubters. What more do you need to see to make you understand how important he is to winning?
