Though his ranking isn’t as lofty as teammates Fred VanVleet (No. 16 among point guards) and Jalen Green (No. 11 among shooting guards), second-year prospect Jabari Smith Jr. is on HoopsHype’s power forward rankings for the 2023-24 NBA season.
Smith checks in at No. 20 on the list, one spot ahead of Utah’s John Collins and just behind Sacramento’s Keegan Murray, who was drafted just behind Smith in the top-four picks of the 2022 first round.
It was a bit of a tough rookie season for 2022 No. 3 overall pick Jabari Smith Jr., who was highly inefficient on offense, sinking just 30.7% of his 3-point attempts and posting a true shooting percentage of 51.4, the eighth-worst mark in the league. Smith didn’t really make up for it on defense, either, failing to eclipse even one nightly block or steal.
Regardless, the Houston Rockets in 2022-23 were poorly coached to put it kindly and after the hiring of former Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka, and the free-agent addition of a top-notch point guard like Fred VanVleet, Smith should be in for a far-improved 2023-24.
The former Auburn standout simply has to work on simplifying his game and not relying on such difficult shot attempts to get his buckets, something VanVleet can help with as a creator, and focus more defensively, where Udoka will help, as he’s thought of highly as a defensive teacher.
To say the least, HoopsHype’s Frank Urbina is one of many around the NBA to view Udoka as a far superior coach to Stephen Silas, his predecessor. It’ll be up to Udoka to live up to that hype once training camp begins for the 2023-24 Rockets in early October.
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🚨 2023-24 POWER FORWARD RANKING 🚨https://t.co/yLhsUWsQx7
— HoopsHype (@hoopshype) September 15, 2023