A stat from the podcast. Of the guys drafted in the top 5 in the last 10 years who played college basketball Jabari Smith landed DEAD LAST by a significant margin in 2pt FG%. He shot 43.5% from 2. No other player shot below 45% and only 6 or 7 guys shot below 50% from 2pt range and most of those guys below 50% were PGs like Khris Dunn, Trae Young, Deangelo Russell, Cade Cunningham to name a few. Forwards just don't typically shoot this low a FG% around the basket.
The 2pt FG% correlates to an ease of scoring for a player and leads to easy assist. Even guys who weren't known as scorers in college like Scottie Barnes or Franz Wagner, or even Evan Mobley all shot exceptionally well (56.1, 56.3, & 61.5 respectively) from 2pt range. For comparison in this year's draft Chet Holmgren shot 73.7% and Paolo shot 52.5% from 2pt range. Mind you, my criticism of Jabari is mostly about his struggles as a shot/playmaker (ie the best player on the team) and whether these struggles are too much for him to be the considered for the top pick in the draft. Now Jabari's skillset as a deep shooter and defender definitely mean that he'll excel in the right role, but I have trouble seeing him as the best player in this year's draft because of this particular flaw. Go back and watch Auburn's loss to MIami. Now Auburns guards are admittedly trash, but Jabari absolutely refused to attack his defender off the dribble. The best player in a given year's draft needs to have the potential to be an offensive hub as a player and I don't see it in Jabari.