We love him, we adore him, but we don’t really know him. Jabari Smith Jr. has only been playing in the NBA for the Rockets for just over a month. A sluggish start for the 3rd choice of the last draft, still very timid in his selection of shots. Right now ? The kid is a little better.
A month of October well below expectations, at 11.9 points at 33% in shooting, and the first low masses still too hasty to leak out: “Hey, wouldn’t we have missed out on taking this guy?” ». It’s in NBA culture anyway, to peck very quickly to end up expecting nothing and anticipating disappointment. Except that in secret, we expect a lot and we will be disappointed no matter what. In short, enough philosophy in the wind to write words and lay a paper substantial enough for it to be validated by the editor-in-chief, let’s move on to Jabari Smith: three first meetings at 14/46 shooting, big difficulties to create your shots, an almost awkward one-on-one game, nothing too fancy in short. Nothing might be more normal for a kid of only 19 who discovers the most athletic championship in the world. Then came this dark period at the end of October / beginning of November with 17 points in four games at… 6/30 in shooting. An infamy. That’s when it was thought that Jabari Smith Jr.’s rookie season might not go as prescribed by NCAA scouts.
But for the past week, Jabari Smith Jr. has been finding good shooting positions and attacking in rhythm with the rest of the “collective”. Two victories once morest Hawks and Thunder, 21/9 and 15/13 for the rookie, and a defeat for the reception of the Warriors with all the same 22 points and 7 rebounds from his leg. As we are very poor writers, the loss once morest the Warriors took place before the victories once morest the Hawks and the Thunder, whereas told in this order it would not seem. And there once more one writes to make signs. Finally not signs but words. That way we fill in the article and it’s finished more quickly. Well, all that to say that the Rockets calendar is titanic with huge tests for Jabari Smith Jr.: double confrontation in Denver, trips to Phoenix and Golden State, reception of the Sixers at home, to then chain Spurs, Bucks, Suns and Heat, all in the very limited space of two weeks. See you in a fortnight to take stock of the Jabari Smith 2022-23 experience.
Jabari wasting NO time ????@Toyota | #Rockets pic.twitter.com/nwMCOlVgei
— Houston Rockets (@HoustonRockets) November 26, 2022
