Rockets rookie Jabari Smith Jr. is his toughest critic during shooting slump

HOUSTON — Being a top-five overall selection in the annual NBA draft comes with a lot of pressure. Most times, those players are selected by a team in a rebuilding phase that happens to be coming off a terrible season, which it was landed them in the lottery.

Fans of the team hope that adding a player of top-five quality and magnitude can immediately be ready to compete against the types of teams who made deep runs in the playoffs the previous season.

Unfortunately, it often doesn’t work that way, as it takes time to adapt to the playing style of the NBA. You cannot rush the process. If a player tries to do that, he will be adding stress onto himself, which will also hinder his developmental process.

That is what 19-year-old Houston Rockets rookie Jabari Smith Jr. is going through right now, as he tries to figure out his role on a team with four starters under age 23.

Houston selected him with the third overall pick in the first round of the 2022 NBA draft after witnessing his stellar one-year performance at Auburn University. His offensive skills included a very lethal jump shot for a player of his height (6-foot-11), while his ability to guard any position on the defensive end stood out to many.

“It’s hard because I’m my toughest critic,” said Rockets rookie Jabari Smith Jr. about his shooting slump. #LightTheFuse #Sarge @TheRocketsWire pic.twitter.com/icsLa8ioUV

— #SARGE (@BigSargeSportz) January 31, 2023

Yet, like his teammate Jalen Green — whom the Rockets selected one year earlier with the second overall pick in the 2021 NBA draft — Smith has struggled to find where he belongs through the first 50 games of his professional career.

“You are not going to make every shot,” Rockets assistant coach John Lucas said of his advice to Smith. “He is shooting every shot like he’s got the weight of the world on him.”

Smith is averaging 11.9 points and 7.0 rebounds per game, which are fair numbers for a rookie still getting acclimated to the NBA, but they are different from where he wants or expects to be.

One thing that has constantly been on his mind is his inability to consistently make shots from 3-point range. That was one of his strengths in one season at Auburn, where Smith shot 42% from deep.

In 12 games played in January, Smith is shooting 17.0% (9-for-53) from beyond the arc and is 1-for-16 over his last five starts.

“I would say (I’m feeling) just pressure, knowing that I’m a shooter and they’re not going in right now,” Smith said after taking extra shots with Rockets assistant coach Rick Higgins. “It’s kind of frustrating, but you know, trying to keep that pressure off. It’s hard, because I’m my toughest critic. So, it’s just hard sometimes.”

One lesson that the Rockets coaching staff has been teaching Smith is to use his other abilities as he works on getting his shooting touch back. On Saturday, Smith’s hustle and lockdown ability on defense helped Houston secure a victory over the Detroit Pistons.

Smith finished with 12 rebounds, three blocked shots, and two steals, and his defensive stop on Pistons guard Alec Burks caused a jump ball with 20.6 seconds left in the game and the Rockets leading by one point. That play prompted his teammates to erupt off the bench.

“The shot wasn’t falling, but just trying to cover for my teammates,” said Smith. “Do the little things like defense, rebound, and defend. “Just trying to help to impact the game in other ways.”