Houston Rockets Season Player Review: Jabari Smith

Normally, having too much talent is a problem most teams would love to have. That means your team has the depth that you need when facing an 82-game regular season and the grueling playoffs for however long your team lasts.

The Rockets are one of those teams with quality depth, and for the coaching staff, that is a great situation, but for certain players, it could mean fewer minutes on the court. One of the players who dealt with that this season was Jabari Smith, who saw himself go from starting power forward to, at times, not even seeing 20 minutes on the court in some games.

Over his three seasons, Smith has been one of the most consistent Rockets. Even when the team was rebuilding, Smith was one player who could always be counted on to shoot a decent percentage from 3-point range and play solid defense, even though they weren't putting up star-level numbers.

Coming into the 2024-25 season, Smith was expected again to be the starting power forward, and the Rockets were expected to compete for their first playoff spot since 2020. That was the case for the first few months as Smith started every game up until Jan. 1.

After the Rockets' New Year's Day game, Smith suffered a broken hand in practice the next day and missed over a month of basketball as he recovered from the injury. With Smith on the injury list, Amen Thompson moved into the starting lineup and had such a great impact that he remained in the starting lineup for the rest of the season.

That meant once Smith came back from his hand injury, he spent most of the regular season coming off the bench. Despite losing his starting spot, Smith did not cause any issues or sulk about not starting. With the reduced minutes, Smith finished the regular season averaging a season low in points, minutes and rebounds.

Despite the drop in production, Smith still played great help defense and was one of the better 3-point shooters on the team, especially in the playoffs. During the Rockets ' seven-game series against the Golden State Warriors, Smith came off the bench again, only playing a little over 20 minutes a game, but shot an impressive 45.5% from beyond the arc in the Rockets ' first-round series loss.

The Rockets roster could look a lot different next season, as they have been mentioned in almost every blockbuster trade so far this offseason. Smith has been included in some of those trade scenarios, but one thing is for sure: whatever role Smith is given next season, you know he will play hard and do whatever is best for his team.