That's because I'm taking Jabari's whole season into account and his role on the team, not just his recent play. I even brought up the Jalen Green example to demonstrate how we can't judge players by their hottest stretches. When Jalen went off in March of 2024 I didn't scream from the rooftops about how much he improved and that this was the true Jalen Green to expect going forward. I think most people realized even at the time that it might be a hot stretch. And indeed, he was still the same player he was in years prior. Sure, Jabari has played very well for the last 20 games. How was his first 46 games of the season? Why would I ignore those games in a season by season comparison?
He's exhibited the following improvements for his season as a whole over his career averages: 2P%: Up to 54.3% from 51.8% 3P%: Up to 36.1% from 34.6% Assists per 100 possessions: Up to 2.7 from 2.2 Turnovers per 100 possessions: Down to 1.8 from 1.9 Steals per 100 possessions: Up to 1.1 from 1.0 Fouls per 100 possessions: Down to 3.6 from 3.9 Points per 100 possessions: Up to 22.3 from 20.8 Nothing massive, but some decent all-around improvement. The only category that's down any significant amount is rebounds, which are down from 11.2 to 9.7 per 100 possessions. I mostly chalk that up to KD's presence though. KD is grabbing some of the rebounds Jabari had in the past been getting next to the shorter Dillon Brooks.
Capela and Steve-O probably are a bigger influence on Bari's rebounding numbers. They are in a different stratosphere than Jock as a backup. I don't get a sense that Bari is missing any boards he should be getting out there.
He did play next to Adams some last season, but good point. Probably some of all three? He's spent a lot more time playing next to 2-3 other tall players this season in general.
Most of those improvements had already been seen by Jabari's second season. A significant portion of Jabari's career averages include his rookie season. I said he's practically the same player as two years ago, as to exclude that terrible season.
Another way to phrase this might be that his 3rd season was pretty disappointing, but we just didn't notice it that much because we were all having fun. But even comparing his second season to this one, he's made some slight improvements, most notably related to increasing his role without losing efficiency. Having a career high in usage while matching or exceeding his best season so far in every category but rebounding (which we already discussed) is not a bad accomplishment. None of this means he will be a star player. I think that ship has more or less sailed, and I already thought that last season. But he's a very good roleplayer, and if he's the 4th or 5th best player on your team, you're doing well on depth.
I think we're in agreement in assessing Jabari as a player. I never even considered mentioning his decreased rebounding as a knock against him as the team structure is quite different since then. I appreciate that he can increase his usage slightly while maintaining the same efficiency, but his efficiency and percentages have only recently rebounded. Not long ago his shooting percentages were lower than even his third year. Hopefully he finishes the season strong.
