Does Jabari Smith have All-Star Potential? | Tari Eason Season Over! (w/ D’andre Williams)

Does Jabari Smith have All-Star Potential? | Tari Eason Season Over! (w/ D’andre Williams)

Welcome to Houston sports talk with your host Robert land thanks for checking into the best Houston sports podcast and joining me for the first time on the show is a Rockets content creator on social media DeAndre Williams I know a lot of you guys out there follow him

It’s great to have you here DeAndre and it’s good to do this coming off that Phoenix win which in my mind was one of the more impressive W’s this season yeah definitely um always good to have a show with with some good vibes and after after a w definitely one of the better

Wins um saw a lot of production from everybody for the vets and young guys included so yeah definitely definitely a great way to start the show Jaylen had what might be his most complete game of his career I think 34 efficient points nine boards four assists two steals

Strong defense and the rockets were plus 17 with Jaylen on the floor he’ scored 34 the previous game but DeAndre was nowhere near as efficient on offense or as tough on defense as he was on Saturday yeah you could definitely see they uh him specifically came out with a

Certain Edge um I know works out with Deon Booker and Kevin Durant in the offseason so I think he took the match up a little personal the second time I saw him and Deon Booker were drawing at each other the first game kind of carried up to the second game obviously

We saw the the dust upep we had with Bradley Bal but um just the passion and energy and like you mentioned on the defensive end is what I was really impressed by we’ve seen him have these moments scoring the ball efficiently being able to shoot the three ball well

But defensively you could really tell he took it personal guarding his match up one-on-one on and off the ball which has always been an issue for him staying engaged off the ball but yeah definitely one of one of the better games of his career if not the best game of his

Career all around yeah definitely and and I want to get into jabari’s development in a second but first the news came down that tar out for the season he’s having surgery to remove a benign growth on his shin he’ll have a bone graft have a rod put in and should

Be ready to play in four months according to ma obviously disappointing news but DeAndre when I heard this it just made me feel better because it sounds like once this is removed it’s gone this is not a recurring issue and I was starting to worry he had a long-term

Condition a bit of bittersweet news I guess you could say in that aspect of we were left wondering for so long what exactly what was going on with with tar it was they were very vague the team doctors and the team overall about what exactly was happening so now that we

Know exactly what’s happening what the rehab process is going to be like I believe they said he’s getting the procedure done on Monday so um we have a timeline now what exactly is going to happen so I guess that’s the that’s the good news of it obviously we would have

Loved to have him with us for the rest of the season especially trying to make a late play in push but um yeah like you said it’s it’s better to finally know what’s going on and um being able to have a plan set regarding his his Medicals and and his long-term Health

Yeah I guess a lot of people are going to question The Rock health staff and you know what they’re doing there but you know at this point I just need more information I don’t know about you Deandre but I’m needing some of these Rockets beat riters the guys

That are on the scene that can ask these questions and everybody here knows the names of who I’m talking about I need them to start reporting on what’s Happening behind the scenes I just can’t believe we can’t get anything but like you know a a random udoka you know just

Line or two every couple of months or something like that it was always been vague surrounding it and um I know that they were trying to keep it very very touch and go from the Rockets perspective but like you said like this this is the job of these beat writers

And journalists is to try and get the tough information out and to ask the tough questions especially to a guy like e who you you could tell he was keeping his cards close to his vest regarding tari and and we know how important tari is to this team we know uh how freak

This injury had looked for a while especially with how regular the play had looked from a injury standpoint but yeah definitely a little bit of questions for me coming in for some of the beat Riders and honestly the Rockets uh medical staff in general the Worden that came

Out was pre-existing uh injury it’s making me think was a pre existing pre-draft was a pre-existing um just for the moment of the injury so I know they’re still being a bit vague with that about exactly how long that benign growth had been there but I I completely

Agree I feel like this should have been something they should have been able to to kind of pull out an emay a little bit sooner than we got it yeah and I just don’t even feel like this is oka’s responsibility this is where Rafel Stone’s got to step in and you know be

The GM and he’s the guy who oversees the medical staff and if he can’t answer the questions then have somebody on the medical staff do it but I I just did not understand that but let’s move on to this x thread that you recently did on jabari’s development this year and that

Really caught my eye because sometimes I feel like Jabari gets overlooked because he’s not quite as sexy as the rest of the Rockets young core can you go through the key points in that thread what are you seeing from Jabari in his development this year and just overall

Well the massive thing that I’ve seen for him is uh while it’s not perfect he looks more comfortable putting the ball on the floor uh you can definitely tell it was an emphasis in his offseason workouts his game especially last year had been mostly refined to um Mid post

Sitting in the corner a lot of times and a lot of just catch wonderful pull-up stuff and that still is the majority of his shot diet now but you can tell he’s getting a lot more comfortable attacking Closeouts in general putting the ball on the floor in transition there are times

When he’ll grab the rebound and the guys feel comfortable letting him get the ball and go um and while it isn’t perfect per se it’s definitely an area of growth I think that for a team that runs a very basic offense the way we do

Now where a lot of it is high pick and roll drag screens delay actions um a lot of mid post stuff to shenon they start throwing a little bit to to Jabari at times that’s important to have a guy another guy you believe can attack in multiple different facets and e may

Spoken on it he spoke about it last press conference about how they want the offense to be able to you multiple guys that can attack from multiple angles and I think that’s just the layer of jabari’s game that he’s been able to tap into since he came back from his ankle

Injury his shooting’s really suffered it’s just 39.4% from the field and 29.4% from three you wonder DeAndre if the ankle still isn’t affecting him because we’ve seen his percentage go down with this you know I thought early in the season you know we really saw this incredible jump where I want to say

At one point he was closing in on 40% from three and and definitely uh you know great from the field as well much better I think the ankle injury is still affecting him a bit I i’ be very doubtful if he’s 100% or even close to

It I will say he’s the effort that he shown despite uh this Nag anry on the rebound on the on the glass has been a massive I guess development in his game and something that’s that’s starting to change my Outlook on his future long term and just how good of a player he

Can be um but regarding the shooting I haven’t noticed any major differences with his form um he’s always had a bit of a a clunky looking form to me for a guy that tall I broke it down in the thread he’s always been more comfortable

Going right than he is going left so I’d have to look at some of the film a little bit more to see what exactly has changed but um definitely has been a bit of a a down strrretch for him but he’s still a 20-y old guy second year in the

League so you expect some of these ups and downs at times um I think the more important thing for me is despite these shooting struggles he’s still finding a way to impact the game in multiple facets on the glass attacking downhill and defensively especially um the way

Eem has utilized him defensively I think has been huge for his game huge for other team let to run a bit of a heavy switching one through four type of style so yeah despite the shooting struggles I still think he’s been able to find a way to

Impact the game but I I do wonder if this is just kind of the shooter he is is he G to be a guy that’s streaky will he ever be able to reach the quote unquote Elite shooter status that he was kind of promised to to be coming out of

Auburn so um but again he’s only 20 years old he’s got so much room to grow so many more reps to to take so I’m not completely out on the shooting but I am starting to wonder is he really more of a 35 36% three-point shooter who has

These ups and downs rather than a super Elite movement shooter who’s going to be 38 39 40% long term if you look at his three-point shooting and the rockets wins versus losses you quickly notice his shootings a barometer for winning in wins Jabari shoots 44.7% this year and losses

28.2% that shooting Gap was pretty similar last year and DeAndre his home Road shooting splits this year fall right in line with the win loss splits which explains a lot about the Rockets Road issues that’s um that’s something that’s still concerned me a bit rookie

Road struggles I I kind of excuse a bit it’s your first time 82 game schedule constantly on the road trying to develop a bit of a schedule but this is year two now you’ve had that year under your belt uh he was playing he wasn’t like a guy

Like Chad where he was able to sit out and watch like you’ve been developing these habits these habits developing a schedule so that does kind of concern me a bit um it’s not just him In fairness dvar it’s it’s most most guys in the Rockets their splits are down on the

Road but I am a bit concerned with that um and and to highlight what you said about the win loss split I think it does show just how important his shooting is to this team especially for a team that is devoid of it when arguably your best

Or second best shooter doesn’t have it that night you just see how different the offense looks teams love basically running five in Shale defense on us anyway and when we can’t kick it out to Jabari and he can’t hit that corner three can’t hit it out of a horn set you

Do kind of see um how stagnant the offense gets how much more teams are able to load up on the shenon Fred Van Fleet pick and roll so it definitely is a a major difference uh in the teams offense overall when he is hitting shots versus when he isn’t so yeah it’ll be

Interesting to see these last I believe we have 22 games left in the seon if he’s able to pick it up on the road I think that’ll be a massive swing in either direction for how the Rockets rest of the season looks I know that they’re still fighting for the play and

I know e may still telling those guys they can get it so I’m really looking forward to see just how he responds I know he’s seing the road stuff I know the the staff is telling him like Hey you’re this at home you’re this on the

Road we got to find a way to adjust we gotta find what we can do in the schedule with shoot around and whatnot so I’m very interested to see how he goes um in terms of the road Sports rest of the season yeah and it it it came

Under a lot of people’s radar in that Saturday game hey the Rockets played a lot better because they stayed in the the same city over a few days and they repeated where they were at so that tells you this is like a young team issue I mean this is what happens with

The young guys and you don’t see the variations I don’t think quite as much with Dylan and Fred and you know even Jeff Green you just don’t see that and and I’ll just point out that you know big guys in the NBA take longer to

Develop uh Paulo I think a lot a lot of people have noticed might not be as far along this year after last year I mean other guys you know it it’s it’s not always linear and the nice thing about Jabari is for the most part until this

This little slump with the ankle injury we’ve seen him tick up the whole time you know this the last 20 or 30 games last year you saw a tick up you know as the season was going along this year it’s ticked up I mean is there a

Scenario let me ask you this DeAndre is there a scenario for his development where Jabari still has All-Star potential I mean I don’t want to give up on that quite yet I definitely think there’s still scenario for it um I think a lot of it will have to do with him

Putting the ball on the floor like I I mentioned that in the threat of um just how different his game looks when it is more than two dribbles I said earlier he looks more comfortable doing it but it is still a bit limited um just the type

Of athlete he is he’s a bit stiff um for a lack of a better term and you’re not going to see much like the big draft buzz word is is wiggle you know he’s not gonna be a guy that’s gonna beat you side to side he’s gonna have to be a guy

That uses his length uses his strides to try and get B past you shoulder-to-shoulder type of stuff so if he can get more comfortable putting the ball on the floor I definitely think that there’s a world where he still can be a legit All-Star type of player a

Legit top 40 top 35 caliber player and that’s that’s super valuable I think another aspect of that is going to be um just how good he can be on the defensive end it’s been a little behind what we’ve expected or what we’ve grown to expect from him this season post ankle injury

Which is to be expected he’s coming back from an ankle injury but he’s been a phenomenal ISO Defender this year they’ve used him a lot more in guarding pick and roles and being a screen Navigator which is something I never thought he’d be able to do after he was

Coming out of Auburn and especially seeing how he was utilized last year I think the major jump for him and especially in the long-term Outlook of this team and his fit with Al shingun is as a weaks side shot Blocker we see uh a lot of times when you have a Nicole yage

A damont sabonis a reason why that team’s defense can lag behind with those type of guys is because is because there isn’t a backline rim protector to protect them and and to make up for some of their faults that they physically can’t make up for the Nuggets were smart

When it got Aaron Gordon as phenomenal of a Defender he is I think his biggest asset is as a weak side shot blocker being a guy that can come over and clean up a lot of mistakes I think that they expected Jabari to be that coming out of

Auburn he kind of had that Dynamic with Walker Kessler where he was the I’m going to body him up I’m going to make sure they can’t get an easy bucket at the rim and Jabari did play a lot of cleanup at times but to me he is still

More Wing Defender uh I never looked at him as a big quote unquote I looked at him as a jumbo Wing more in line with a Lorie marinin than he would be in line with jiren Jackson Jr per se but I definitely do think there’s a world where he becomes an All-Star caliber

Player still I think it would be huge for the longterm outlook of the Rockets as well if he’s able to reach the potential that a lot of us had set for him pre-draft uh I think the sky’s the limit for him I haven’t heard anything

Bad about his work ethic he seems like a kid that loves the game loves to grind and just wants to get better so I have no doubt in my mind that he’ll be able to reach that one day like you said though bigs do take a little bit longer

To to develop so the quote unquote year three leap I might not be expecting it next year for him to become an All-Star caliber player but I do think year four year five year six your bars M junior is gonna be he’s gonna be one hell of a

Player I’m praying and hoping long term it’ll be in a Rockets uniform yeah just to go back to what you were talking about at Auburn I I watched nearly every single game and I was watching them you know just not highlights I was watching the entire games and what I noticed is

That Kessler was more the guy that was having the clean up for Jabari because that’s the kind of player Kesler was that that’s sort of what made Kesler like oh he could be go be and that’s what he’s done he’s basically stepped in as the goar guy over in Utah and when I

Look at jabari’s offensive development I sort of look at somebody like LaMarcus Aldridge Lamarcus never had a handle close to what we’ve seen with Javari and what he’s already developed but he had the height and that high release and an unblockable type shot and Aldridge is second year his numbers similar to

Jabari but he barely shot threes jabari’s twoo percentage is actually 4% higher and he’s two years younger than Aldridge in year two remember Aldridge made Seven Allstar teams DeAndre and jabari’s already a much more versatile Defender than Lamarcus ever was yeah I I definitely could see that comparison

Lamarcus Aldis was I mean he was such a talented post scorer especially in that mid post area I think Jabari does have a bit of that in his game I wonder with like you mentioned with a three-point shot and how the modern NBA Works probably won’t be as much in the mid

Post as LaMarcus Aldridge was but he’ll make up for that with the three-point numbers I do like I said earlier I look at more of a guy like a Lor marinan I think that’s like the type of mold and impact he could have on the team being

More of a jumbo siiz Wing a guy that if you do bring in another big per se let’s say we get lucky in the draft and you get alexar I think you can move Jabari to the three and you just have a super big lineup you can still switch one

Through three with him and he’ll be able to make up for a lot of the shortcomings Shona have on defense um and you allow him play with another five you can still play him at the four and like Lori I don’t think that either of them can be

Real small ball fives per se we’ve seen it this year where they’ll sub Jeff Green into that spot they’ll make Jeff Green play small ball five because jabari’s frame at the moment just isn’t physically capable of taking on just the bruisers of the NBA a lot of the bigger

Fives so I I see the Lamarcus alers comparison a little bit I think U from a scoring perspective I definitely could see that I wonder if in the nature of this offense will get that many touches I think that’s the one thing with how many guys we have on this team and

Obviously this team could look drastically different next year but I do Wonder in the quote unquote hierarchy of this offense just how many touches he can get I think that’s the beauty of his game though I don’t think he needs a million touches a game to make a real

Impact especially with how he attacks off of closeouts him as a spot up shooter and just in that mid post where it is going to be mostly one to two dribble moves turning around and facing up like you said very similar to Marcus aldr having a shot that it’s 610 611

With a 71 wingspan unless you’re Kevin Durant or a true five you’re not blocking a shot you talked about his work ethic I want to go to a conversation a little clip that I have with the ringers mirin fader last year who did a great feature on Jamar Jabari

While he was at Auburn a couple of years ago it’s worth listening to this brief two-minute part of that conversation because if you want to talk about the work ethic and maybe what its potential is uh listen to what I asked and what she had to say about that you wrote a

New York Times bestselling biography about Giannis and I mentioned that because jabari’s Dad said in your feature that he thought jabari’s defensive potential was similar to giannis’s which is very ironic because Jabari had his breakout defensive game mirin just a couple of weeks ago against Giannis he held him to 16 points which

Is giannis’s lowest point total this season wow that’s fascinating isn’t that such an that okay I when he told me that at first I I paused you know when somebody Compares themselves to any kind of potential with Giannis like I don’t know you know that’s very very very

Unique but if you look at where Giannis was and we’ve seen conversations like this when people are talking about Evan Moy there was a really nice feature that came out on ESPN recently about like the Giannis model and and having Evan study him in the way that giannis’s body has

Changed you look at Jabari and like yeah his body’s going to change but how quick he is and the anticipatory skills he has on defense I think he has so much potential in defense and you saw it in that game that you mentioned and the

Other thing is that he wants to be a good Defender sometimes it comes down to that right it’s willingness to compete and pride on the defensive end and I do think that Jabari has those internal qualities inside you’re the perfect person to ask this question do you see similarities between jannis and Jabari

And their work ethic I definitely see the similarities in the work ethic just in this sense of like you have to kick them out of the gym pure love to be there childlike enjoyment you tell Jabari something that he needs to work on he’s going to be in there for like

Two days straight trying to figure it out and that is so very Yannis the other thing is this idea that you’re never a finished product you will always work and work and never quite arrive I think they both have that and I think they both are big dreamers you know Giannis

Wanted to be great he didn’t want to just be good he didn’t want to just make the league he wanted to be great and I think Jabari wants to be great as well but they’re both so softspoken they’ll never say things like that out loud but

Internally there is this fire I hate to be cliche this fire burning that so wants to be better yeah DeAndre I mean what she said when I heard her say that it’s what made me so excited about Jabari coming to Houston because you can see it now you can see you know there’s

Never a night where I question jabari’s effort there’s never a night where I question that that guy is not in the gym we saw what he did this summer with his handle over just one summer and you talk about well he he’s not good at going left well give him another summer he’ll

Work on that yeah I 100% agree um I think a massive thing that I noticed during the summer was um the talks of him doing yoga and it seemed very small to a lot of people but I think he heard some of the talks about him being a

Little stiff in his upper body not being able to move as laterally quickly but I think he took it personal I think he took a unconventional route to doing that by doing yoga and I look at that and I think okay he gets it he’s listening to his critics he’s listening

To his coaches and he wants to prove him wrong he wants to prove everyone wrong in the fan base out the fan base and and I value that like you said you see it on a night to night basis um I think em mentioned it before with guys like

Shenon Jaylen their shots may not start to fall and it might affect some of the other effort that they put on the floor I don’t ever have that question with Jabari uh I know night in and night out that he’s going to give his 100% kudos

To his father I know his dad had a massive part to do with that having an NBA dad is probably such an advantage um I know he’s been taught how to be a professional and I think he takes pride in that I think he takes pride in even

If my shots not falling even if I can’t get to the basket I can make sure you can’t either I can make sure your shots not falling tonight and that’s important to me I think that’s why eay loves him so much I think despite all the talk we

Heard in the summer it was never a question of well how does jaari fit I think everyone saw the fit between him and eay and said well yeah they’re gonna love each other this is gonna work so um I definitely think long term with his

Work ethic how bad he wants to be great um the fact that I think he’s not too cocky he’s not overconfident himself self and he’s willing to listen to his critics um guy’s the limit for him he’s going to be as good as he wants to be

The other part and this is another thing that I really love about him is he he he loves taking those big shots he wants those you know we saw the shot in summer league that he had the crazy gamewinner we’ve seen you know the shot last year against the Pelicans and I’m genuinely

Surprised when he misses big shots at the end of the game the Suns he missed a couple of free throws I was surprised he missed a wide open Corner three at the end of the game I get surprised when he misses those because I feel like he likes those moments yeah definitely and

Um back to to his a days when he was playing with Atlanta Celtics that was also his responsibility you know he was a top five player in the country festar McDonald’s allamerican so whenever it was those close moments they knew who the ball was going to and I think that’s

Something that he’s carried with him into the NBA of I know in my height my size I can get this shot off against whoever and especially in those clutch moments like you said I think he wants to take those shots that’s so invaluable it’s one thing to think you can make it

It’s one thing to know you can make it and I think he has that that that’s such a self-belief in himself in those moments and I think that goes back to a work ethic I don’t think you believe in yourself to make those shots unless you’re working on the shots tirelessly

When nobody’s watching so I completely agree we’ve seen it before uh I agree with you too I’m expecting a out of an atto that the play is gonna be called for Jabari in the last minute because they know the type of mismatch he is and they know that he wants to take that

Shot the other thing is I mean we me and her were talking about the Giannis comparison and we’re talking about work ethic and I’ve heard KD comparisons he doesn’t have the body of a yanis or at KD and that he’s not the athlete they are 62 athletes in seven foot bodies and

That’s not Jabari but he’s he’s no slouch either and that’s why I compared him more to Lamarcus but Lamarcus was a worth worse athlete at that size and you know hopefully you know the key to me is just you know that shooting’s just got to keep inching up and then maybe he

Adds some other skills that we’re not expecting with him I want to hear from everybody that’s uh out there watching and listening what do you guys think get in the comments um also DeAndre in my last show I asked Red Nation Hoops salmon Ali if Rafel Stone should be

Fired in a couple of months and we kind of on that and some some things um I’m going to post the link on the screen at the end of this video my conversation with Salon but do you have a strong feeling either way DeAndre whether Stone

Should be back next year I think this last 22 games is gonna heavily determine it I don’t think he’s done himself any favors I think when you come out and declare this is phase two um and that we’re moving forward I think ending the year still having to go to the lottery

With your own pick that from a from the owner’s perspective doesn’t look great I don’t think Tillman’s up there saying well this is what we wanted phase two to be you know Tillman fleshed out a lot of money this summer they went over the first luxury tax which is something I

Always question with with Tillman when the new um CBA was drop was how much of this is he gonna be willing to spend is he gonna be willing to dip his toe into that first and second apron um and he did he fleshed out a Max contract for a

Guy who had only made one allar team he went out and overpaid Dylan Brooks went out and overpay to Jack landal overpay to Jeff Green so I I think from Tillman’s perspective he’s looking like I paid this much money I went over the apron and we’re still three seeds better

Than what we were I think he’s looking at it a bit iffy from an owner’s perspective I do think he’ll probably have one more season though I think they’ll give him one more season uh I think the Stephen Adams move was built for that of hey we might not get it this

Year but we have a guy next year who we think is going to be able to patch up some of the holes we have we have 16 million roughly in cap space um a lot of tradeable contracts in Jeff Green Jan Tate the Jack Landell deal which is not

Guaranteed which was a brilliant move by him the Ricky extensions are coming up I’m interested to see how he deals with that so I think he I think he’s bought himself another summer but I think that that summer is going to be make a break for him I think depending on the moves

And depending on how the team looks going into the All-Star break next year that’ll be the the final note on raell Stone’s 10 years of Rocket one way or another yeah and and one of the things that I didn’t get a chance to get into with solman and I just disagreed with

Him on is he talked about the fact that you know who out there is much better that you’re gonna be able to get or you know he just didn’t have Solon was like well you didn’t have the confidence that hey you can go get somebody better

Because my point was at best he looks like a medeor mediocre GM he doesn’t look like a guy that’s going to go out and put together a championship team I mean sometimes you can luck into these things but you you typically want the guy that can go out and get a

Championship and he’s like well you know it’s not like you’re gonna go out and get a Sam prey why not why can’t you get a Sam prey you know why can’t you get you know somebody that is from the Miami organization might bring some of what they’re doing there you know because you

Win this at the edges and my biggest concern with him is I don’t think he knows how to win at the edges I don’t think he does a lot of the little moves that need to be done to make you better and I you know when I look at the back

Of this roster that’s that’s a big deal you know I I still heard him talking about you know boban being a great move if you like boban around make him a part of the coaching staff no one was gonna go out and sign boban to be a part of

Their team most likely you know if if you want to bring in some of these other guys at the back of the roster you know get get some guys that are just a little bit better that you can at least feel like you can put out on the court more

Than they’ve been able to put out some of these other guys on the back of the court I mean you know whether it’s Nate Williams or you know Nate Hinton or whatever if if you don’t have guys that you feel like oh we can take that chance

On you know because DeAndre you’ve seen What’s happen in Memphis you know they they’ they’ve found a couple of guys this year I mean GG Jackson in the second round but obviously that’s a draft pick but you know um is it Vince Williams I think he he’s been a surprise

For them just a totally undrafted guy that they that they able you know with everything that happened he came in and oh my God it’s it’s that’s something you just don’t see from from Stone yeah even regarding Memphis even a guy they just released in Jacob Gillard he’s 5’8 and

Was was giving them productive minutes and starting point guard with G so that’s definitely some of the concerns I have with him I’m a big guy in how valuable second round picks are and I feel like he’s been a little too willy-nilly with throwing out second round picks in certain deals the Steph

Adams deal for me after seeing what other teams got for two to three second round picks just kind of concerned me uh we knew we needed a backup center this year bis MC bio was right there we didn’t go get him the Thunder just signed Mike muscala after he was

Released that’s another guy who would have been able to stretch the floor and give you some quality minutes at backup center I know that it’s just it’s real hard though to get those guys if you’re the Rock and where the Rockets Rockets yeah yeah as the as a middling playing

Team I I I do get that part of it but um there were other moves he could have made having believe we started the year having six second round picks at our disposal um five in this draft class and I think we’re down to two and all we

Have to say for it is Stephen Adams a guy that might be a trade filler guy in the summer a guy that might not even play for us at all so that’s some of the issues I have with him I do agree with rounding out the roster I think that

That’s a that’s a huge thing for a GM the point of a rebuild to me is finding out if you have your guy I’m not necessarily completely sold that we have our guy I think that we have enough assets to maybe go and get one if we’re

Lucky at a trade but I I I don’t think we have our guy when you don’t have your guy per se you gotta be able to round the roster out with quality veterans quality role players um guys who fit the team we still don’t have a movement

Shooter a real movement shooter like we we discussed all year long as Rockets fans about Jac landel the lack of a back of five and having to play Jeff Green in those minutes so it’s it’s a lot of issues with this roster that you could see coming that he didn’t address and

Didn’t and chose not to address at the trade deadline as well um and then going back to the off seon the Brook Lopez deal falling through and Jack Lando being your backup plan if Jack Lando was your backup plan for Brook Lopez not being available I think that says a lot

About the plans that you did have as a GM during the offseason so I’m not fully s fully sold on Stone yet um I do think he’s bought himself another summer like I said but I do agree with you I think that there’s a guy out there that’s

Looking at this this Houston Rockets team the assets that we have and is saying I could build something with that and I could build something a lot better than what raell stone has built yeah and my concern just of giving him that extra year is this is around the time where

You need to be getting rid of those Brooklyn picks and use them to get something and I’m scared of stone having that responsibility and I’m scared of him having another responsibility of a big off season after we saw what happened with the Lopez thing the landel

Thing it may not look bad if you are able to make a trade using that contract that you might not have been able to make otherwise same with Jeff Green you know some of those contracts were set up to trade and I get it yeah but you know

It just it just scares me because of some of the other stuff and you know I’ve kind of already expressed a little bit that but before we go just remind everybody how to find you and and all your content uh so I’m mostly on Twitter right now I am starting my YouTube

Channel up soon but at Twitter or on Twitter or X now I guess I should say at um Williams w l LL MZ um that’s where I’m mostly at now um I do have my editing page on Instagram at DeAndre does um but I’m mostly on X now just I’m

Trying to push out content but I am trying to move over to YouTube now a lot of people have been asking me to do it um I was super against it at first but enough people asking I guess you got to take the hint right yeah absolutely and everybody loves hearing about your

Opinions and and what you think about what’s going on some great threads if people go on his X page about you know what what some of these guys are doing right now and where they’re at like we talked about with your Bari thanks so much for doing this man uh thanks for

Thanks for having me I watch the show all the time um love when we get talking spaces so I’m I’m honored to be here thank you man you’re listening to Houston Sports Talk hey don’t forget to support us by subscribing and commenting on YouTube you can always listen to us on Spotify

Apple or your favorite podcast app tell your friends about us and share our Show links on social media spread the word everybody thanks for [Applause] [Applause] listening

Host Robert Land asks Rockets content creator D’andre Williams what he’s seen from Jabari Smith this season & if there’s still All-Star potential. Did we see Jalen Green’s best all-around game this week? Williams hits on that & if the Tari Eason surgery might be better news than you think.
(:37) Was it Jalen Green’s Best All Around Game vs. Suns?
(1:30) Was Tari Eason injury good news in a way?
(4:00) Jabari Smith’s development this season?
(5:12) Is ankle injury affecting Jabari’s shooting?
(7:03) Is Jabari’s shooting barometer for winning?
(9:45) Does Jabari still have All-Star potential and how?
(12:35) Jabari Smith vs. Lamarcus Aldridge?
(14:39) The Ringer’s Mirin Fader on Jabari similarities to Giannis
(20:20) Does Rafael Stone deserve another season?

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