Rockets 2026-2027 player previews: Jabari Smith Jr.

In the Rockets player stock market, there’s a lot of buzz around AMEN, and REED shares, and controversy around SGUN, but the hidden gem in that selection of Rockets growth stocks might turn out to be JABS. (Full disclosure, I own a great number of entirely fictional REED shares.)

Quick, who is older, Jabari Smith or Amen Thompson? Yep, it’s Amen, by a little. If we can believe Amen will continue to improve, we can believe it of Jabari Smith Jr., too, I think. Now, whose upside do I think is greater? Well, that’s obviously Amen With A Jump Shot, but that’s not to damn Jabari with faint praise. Amen With A Jump Shot is likely First Team All NBA and possibly an MVP candidate.

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Jabari already has a jumpshot, and it’s getting better. It might get better still now that the Rockets have hired the consensus best shooting coach in the NBA.

Let’s do a player comparison, so you can see where Jabari might really be in terms of another player we think about maybe a lot more than we should around here.

PTS

RBS

AST

TOV

BLK

STL

FGA

EFG%

3PTA

3PT%

Career 3pt%

Player A

18

9

3.6

2

1.7

.7

13

.582

3.2

.30

.309

Player B

16

7

1.9

1.4

.9

.7

12.6

.542

6.3

.36

.347

I didn’t include it, for space reasons, but each shoots about 3FT a game. Player B shoots FTs at 80% and Player A at 67%. True shooting for A is .596 and True Shooting for B is .570.

I think we’d say player A is better than player B, but how much better? Not a lot in my opinion of traditional box score stats, and maybe not any, depending on what you’re looking for the player to do. The compared seasons are the 5th for Player A, and the 4th for Player B.

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But what about defense? Well, let’s go one metric. Player A had 2.9 defensive win shares last season, Player B had 3.3. VORP sees A at 2.3 and B at .9.

Now let’s talk salary. Player A will get paid $50 million this season. Player B will get paid $23 million.

Have you guess who we’re comparing. Well, obviously Jabari Smith is one player, he’s Player B. Player A is…Rocket bete noir, Even Mobley. Mobley plays some center, but he’s still a power forward, just like Jabari.

I won’t argue that Mobley isn’t a better defender than Jabari, he is. Is…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/rockets-2026-2027-player-previews-091545607.html

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Publish date : 2026-10-07 09:15:00

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