Jabari Smith to James Harden: ‘Come back home’

Dawkins was in the NBA’s smallest market, Oklahoma City. In contrast to the Clippers, the Thunder almost never get any free agents. They have to not only nail the draft — they must crush it. They almost always do, going back to the Durant/Westbrook/James Harden three-year run from ’07 to ’09. And the biggest trade they did make, sending George to the Clips, brought back Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, now a first-team all-NBA point guard. And they’ve kept excelling at the draft, adding Josh Giddey, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams the last three years, and developing undrafted two-way talent like wing Luguentz Dort. -via The Athletic / June 9, 2023

“Look, in the right situation, I think [James Harden] could be an important part of a team. He could contribute to a good team,” said an Eastern Conference exec told Heavy. “But is he ready to take that role and be paid what that role is worth? From our conversations, what James is looking for is someone to pay him at a rate that he thinks that he’s worth, which he’s not. “So James is in that unfortunate circumstance that we talk about all the time. Who’s the last person to know it’s over? The player. His status as a max, alpha player in this league, it’s over. He can’t produce wins.” -via Heavy.com / June 9, 2023

Harden does still have value, to be clear. “He can get numbers; he can help a team,” the exec said. “But he’s not a max player anymore. You can’t justify it. The unfortunate part is that more and more of us are going to metrics, and there’s nobody’s metric measurement that looks at him and his efficiency and what he gives up defensively and says, ‘Oh, yeah, this is a guy we should max out.’” -via Heavy.com / June 9, 2023

Do you feel like you should’ve made the All-Rookie 1st Team? Will you use it as fuel, extra motivation for the upcoming season? Jabari Smith: I definitely felt like that was a goal heading into the season, but I don’t think I did enough to make it. Everyone that was on the first team deserved to be on it. I don’t think there were any wrong selections. But yeah, I’ll definitely use it as motivation for next year. -via HoopsHype / June 11, 2023

What was your ‘welcome to the NBA’ moment this past season? Jabari Smith: It was around my second or third game of the season. We played the Bucks, and Giannis probably had like 40, missed two shots, and dominated us overall. That was my ‘welcome to the NBA’ moment. -via HoopsHype / June 11, 2023

Q: There was a defensive want to from last year’s rookies, Tari Eason and Jabari Smith Jr., and obviously some tools and even some successes. Do you have a sense of what they can be and what that could do for the group?” Ime Udoka: I think they’re only scratching the surface, what they did last year. You see some natural tendencies there, which is a great thing, especially for younger guys. They have that that dog mentality, and they want to guard and take on the challenge. And so, anytime you have that you can only go up from there. There’s some natural skillsets and things you can’t teach, obviously tremendous length and versatility to be able to guard multiple positions. So, those guys have a head start on that and that’s only going to be become better for the group. And that’s my thing, to challenge and push them in that area to become even better but they’ve already set the example of what they can be. -via Houston Chronicle / May 18, 2023