Jabari Smith Jr. (PF, HOU) - Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 8

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues

ROSTERED IN: 39% of leagues

ANALYSIS: Not even one month into the season there were already passionate folks out there trying to set Houston on fire and bury the career of Jabari Smith Jr... Again, not even a month into the season, and all of that related to the slight underperformance of a third-overall draftee playing basketball for the Houston Rockets of all teams.

Of course, nobody is touching Paolo Banchero when it comes to freshmen producing gaudy numbers. That said, Jabari Smith took a bit to find his rhythm but he's clearly getting there these days, silencing critics left and right.

Smith has scored 119 points in his last eight games for an average of nearly 15 PPG. That's just a little more than two weeks of play from Nov. 16 through Friday games. I'm also not making this up: Smith has hit at least three 3-point shots in six consecutive games, at least two such shots in nine, and he already has reached five triples made once.

The rookie started the season shooting 31% from the field (first 16 games) but in the last six games he's shooting 48% while attempting more field goals (12 FGA per game now to 10 earlier) while also grabbing a good bunch of boards (almost 7 RPG on the year, nearly 7.5 in the second half of November).

The shooting is getting there, turnovers are barely in his stat lines, and rebounds fall his way because he mans the PF/C positions, but other than that don't lose your head about grabbing Smith Jr. shares. The rest of the cats are not very impactful with the exception of the 1.0+ BPG.

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