Paulo Alves

The last few weeks, it's been one or the other, and that explains some of the volatility.

But in terms of the individuals, the two guys who are getting the most criticism are Jabari Smith Jr.

and Reed Shepard.

And I'm surprised that it's as close as it is between those two guys, because when you look at the macro rather than the micro, I think it's pretty clear that Reed is the bigger issue.

And that shouldn't come as a huge shock.

He's just 21 years old.

He's year two.

So there's going to be a learning curve.

And he was due to regress some after starting as hot as he did through that opening 17-game stretch.

But the outrage I'm seeing, at least on my social media feed directed at Jabari,

Look, you can say Jabari Smith's slump the last three games cost them wins in Dallas and Portland.

That's fair.

Both of those games, he had matching stat lines of 2 of 13 overall, 1 of 7 from 3.

Yeah, it's really disappointing.

We're talking about a three-game stretch.

And in the middle of that, by the way, the buzzer-beating win you had over the Suns, Jabari was your second-leading scorer, had 17 points, seven rebounds, shot 55% overall and 38% from three.

So we're literally talking about two bad games for Jabari.

Yes, bad games.

Yes, you can say if Jabari shoots anywhere near his averages...

They certainly win in Portland, and they probably win in Dallas.