RADIO
Jabari Smith Jr. is worth considering as a fantasy basketball waiver wire pickup heading into Week 23 of the 2022-23 NBA season.
BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues
ROSTERED IN: 45% of leagues
ANALYSIS: When it comes to rookies, trust is always going to be a problem. Will they deliver? Will they bust? Will they excel, then hit a monster wall midway through the season? When it comes to top-3 selections, though, life is much simpler. You just can (nearly) always trust the process, grab some shares, and let them perform. Enter Jabari Smith Jr.
See, Smith had a rough start to his rookie year. There is no denying that. Now, for the second half of the season, he's been more than nice and certainly good considering 1) he's a member of the Rockets and 2) he's a very particular freshman with a rare skillset trying to find his place among pros.
Smith has scored 16+ points in all three games he's played this week, and he's hit 11+ points in 11 of his last 12 matchups (he finished the other one with eight points). He's averaging nearly 17 PPG in that span, he's scoring 2+ 3PM per game, and he's grabbing more boards than he's done before at an average of 7+ RPG.
In March alone, hell, in three consecutive games this month alone, from Mar. 9th to Mar. 13rd, Smith stringed double-doubles of 30-12, 20-10, and 24-11 points and rebounds. He let three games pass and then kicked off this week with a 17-11 one, his sixth dub-dub since the start of the 2023 calendar year.
Although the shooting usually comes and goes without rhyme or reason, Smith Jr. is currently navigating one of his better stretches as he's hit 50.6% of all of his shots in the last 12 games going 76-of-150 from the floor, that's including three-ball shots.
Smith is your typical big man in that he basically boils the game down to scoring and rebounding, but the addition of the three-point stroke is a very welcomed one that you should have taken advantage of much earlier this season. There is still some time left for you to grab some shares until the regular season ends.
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