Rockets Jabari Smith Jr. has found his best self

No Houston Rockets fan has experienced a rebuild quite like this one.

Yes, there have been rebuilds. Some of you are old enough to remember the Rockets tanking for Hakeem Olajuwon even though they already had Ralph Sampson. That’s probably the closest analog, but it’s still not a top-down, from-scratch rebuild like the one we’ve been watching.

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When the Olajuwon era was dying, and the Rockets landed Steve Francis, they got quickly off to the races. There was no more vying for high lottery picks. They pivoted to Yao Ming mid-era when their pick leaped. They were a plucky, competitive bunch until they stumbled into James Harden, and now we’re here. The point?

We are not used to evaluating young players over here.

There is an underlying assumption that after four seasons, we “know who a player is”. As far as assumptions go, this one isn’t too far off base. Rare is the NBA player who stagnates in his fourth season, only to make “the leap”.

It seems that Jabari Smith Jr. does not care for our assumptions.

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Rockets’ Jabari Smith Jr. is having a monster season

Last year, Smith Jr. averaged 15.9 points per game while shooting 45.0% from the field and 36.8% from deep.

It was his best season, but only by a fairly narrow margin. OK, we (with some exceptions, I see you, Darren, shout out Big O) collectively thought. This is who he is.

It wasn’t so bad! Smith Jr. was one of the best shooters in the NBA who could reasonably play any minutes at the 5. That’s something. He had real defensive utility, even if he wasn’t elite. Really, this was the floor version of Bari that was advertised during the draft process. Limited on-ball ability, defensively versatile 6’11” floor spacer. It wasn’t sexy, but we were willing to take it.

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But this year’s version of Smith Jr. is downright sultry.

He’s averaging 19.0 points per game while shooting 48.9% from the field and 44.7% from three-point range. This is closer to the ceiling version of Smith Jr.:

Is it sustainable?

Rockets’ Smith Jr. is primed for a career year

Smith Jr.’s shot profile has barely changed. In 2026-27, 51.1% of his field goals are coming from…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/rockets-jabari-smith-jr-found-101606899.html

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Publish date : 2026-11-02 10:16:00

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