Jabari Smith Jr: What is his ideal role?

I see good flashes of Bari taking it to the rack. I hope he gets encouraged to do that more.

 

He's a teenage big. I don't think hardly anyone truly knows what he will be in the prime of his career.

Just because of the players the rockets tend to get I would assume he'll play the 4/5 mostly but that's not really saying anything about who he'll be in 5 years.

 

This is what I see. PF for now. Maybe center in the future.

I think he's going to have a really good 2-3 dribble midrange game to counter bigs that try to deny his 3 point shot. I don't think there is a good comp on who Jabari will become. I'm guessing he will be a switching defensive center (or PF) that shoots 10+ 3PA/game at ~40%. With or without a great handle, that's a great player.

 

He literally went a whole game against adams with 0 rebounds. He cannot play center just yet. Eventually we can use him as a center when he bills up but I still wouldn't do that for a whole game.

 

Right now, putting Smith up against actual centers is self-sabotage. Alperen gets regularly pushed around by them and he is far bulkier than Smith.

 

Jabari's ideal role:

Throwing down in timeouts

Too soon?