sorry to be the curmudgeon: i would put zhaire in a trade for derrick rose with no hesitation. his performance in the gleague has been disappointing to me even after considering his good shooting. i dont see how he becomes better than avery bradley, and i dont see how he can play with a point guard other than ben simmons or someone similarly tall. i used to think he could be john starks, but he just hasnt shown the knack to create off the dribble, create for others, defend the point, or create turnovers with help defense. he can knock down open jumpers while he hunts alleyoops. thats it.
there's a reason he was a forward in highschool, college and is struggling as a guard in the gleague (2.39turnovers : 1.9assists). paint by numbers player, a la wade baldwin, mikal bridges. at least bridges has insane length, but his lack of other skills is what keeps him on the bench after 4 years training with jay wright. baldwin of course is out the league, and he was 5x the ballhandler zhaire is. timothe luwawu is another long athletic guy with very limited playmaking skills, and a middling career because of it. furkan korkmaz is still not all that adept at creating off the dribble for himself and others, and he had at age 20 probably 7x the dribble and court vision zhaire has.
the worst part is that defensively, there's been nothing to suggest that zhaire is a menace against opposing point guards. i know this is going too far, but the leader of the front office (david heller) when we acquired zhaire smith and jimmy butler was walked out the building this past summer. man, michael porter jr is looking good.
