3 must-use Jabari Smith Jr. lineups for Rockets' Ime Udoka

Positional versatility, especially as a big, is one of the most sought after traits in today's NBA landscape. Bigs that can provide teams with multiple schemes defensively are a vital cog in landing an NBA championship.

The Houston Rockets may potentially have that in Jabari Smith Jr. but newly-hired coach Ime Udoka will need to put together the best possible lineups to get the most out of Smith Jr. I will be ranking the top three lineups that the Rockets had the most success with in 2022-23 and should utilize in 2023-24.

Things I will be taking into consideration for the lineups include number of possessions, point differential, and points per possession, both offensively and defensively, among other stats.

I will also be taking into consideration which lineups new head coach Ime Udoka will be more likely to utilize. It's important to note that I will only be using current players on the team, although it would be fun to do hypothetical lineups down the road.

As a side note, I will be using Cleaning The Glass to crunch some lineup numbers as well.

Lineup #1: Kevin Porter Jr./Jalen Green/Kenyon Martin Jr./Tari Eason/Jabari Smith Jr.

This lineup was almost a no-brainer to me. It was one of 3 lineups with a positive point differential this season (that qualified for rankings on Cleaning the glass leader-boards) and the only one with all players with the current Rockets roster.

With 119 total possessions on the floor, the Houston Rockets managed to squeeze out a +1.6 point differential and it's all thanks to an impressive 105.2 defensive points per 100 possession, which would put the Rockets in the 82nd percentile league wide.

This lineup allows the Houston Rockets to put five players on the court that can switch everything, be aggressive on the ball, get into passing lanes, and play varying schemes.

Posting an insane 19 percent turnover rate defensively (94th percentile league-wide), this lineup will turn teams over and use crazy athletes like Jalen Green, KJ Martin, and Tari Eason to get out in transition.

The lineup's bonkers turnover rate defensively leads to a very good 17.6 percent transition frequency, which would be in the 74th percentile in the league. They are getting alot of transition attempts, but are they converting?

When the Rockets trot this lineup out, they add 5.3 points per 100 possessions through transition plays, which would leave them with a mark in the 76th percentile. Young teams should be aggressive on defense, turn teams over, and get out in transition as often as possible in my opinion, and this was the lineup to do that.

Offensively it leads a lot to be desired, posting a very mediocre 106.7 points per 100 possessions (18th percentile), but there were bright spots that you could take away.

Offensive rebounding and rim attempts/finishing is one of the brightest spots about this lineup. With the constant cutting around and great athletes with size in KPJ, Jalen Green, Tari Eason, and Jabari Smith Jr, the Rockets get to the rim with a frequency that would rank in the 98th percentile (45.6 percent).

Tari and KJ Martin being monster offensive rebounders helped the team have an outstanding 41.5 percent offensive rebounding percentage. That would rank among the top-three in the league.

The team surprisingly takes care of the ball pretty well with these 5 guys out there on the court. posting an impressive 11.8 percent turnover percentage, ranking in the 73rd percentile.

A few areas of concern that could be pointed to with this lineup is shooting accuracy and corner 3 shot frequency. This lineup only ranked in the 42nd percentile in 3-point shot attempts.

If the Rockets want to have a modern offense, they'll almost assuredly need to up these numbers. The Rockets also shot a combined 25 percent from all spots beyond the 3-point line with these five on the floor.

This lineup also shot an abysmal 11 percent on corner 3s. That's a recipe for losing. There are good shooters in theory in the lineup, but they have to convert on these attempts.

Once the shooting comes along from the core guys, a lot of the deficiencies this lineup had will phase out and we'll start to see an actual, competent NBA offense with these five guys on the floor.

Lineup #2: Kevin Porter Jr./Jalen Green/Tari Eason/Jabari Smith Jr./Alperen Sengun

Considering that the Houston Rockets only won 22 games, a lot of the lineup data isn't too flattering.

The top lineup in this article was the only lineup that had a positive differential rating with the current players on the team (that included Jabari Smith Jr. in it). This next lineup was the closest to that with a differential rating of -3.1.

The first thing that stuck out with this lineup was that it was the best offensive rebounding unit in the league with an offensive rebounding percentage of 41.8 percent. Tari Eason and Alperen Sengun play huge roles in why the offensive rebounding is this good in multiple lineups.

They go after almost every shot attempt that gets put up and it puts a lot of pressure on the defense. This resulted in the team being the best "put-back" team in the league, averaging a bonkers 37.3 put-back plays per 100 misses (100th percentile!!!)

A promising outlook when viewing the stats from this lineup is the shooting that it can potentially provide. Even though the frequency which with the Rockets got 3-pointers up only ranked in the 29th percentile (31 percent frequency), the team in terms of accuracy hit a solid 50 percent on corner 3s (ranked 74th percentile) and 38.5 percent overall from 3.

It's not hard to imagine once Jabari Smith's jump-shooting bounces back to his pre-NBA efficiency, those numbers will rise significantly. Along with the improvements from KPJ, Jalen, Tari and hopefully improved jumper confidence from Sengun, this lineup could potentially be very good shooting-wise.

Taking into account the potential off-season growth from each of these guys, not including free agency pickups and draft acquisitions, this will probably be the most used lineup during the next season.

Lineup #3: Kevin Porter Jr./Joshua Christopher/Tari Eason/Jabari Smith Jr./Usman Garuba

At first glance this lineup looks a little wonky, and Stephen Silas hadn't thrown it out there enough possessions for cleaning the glass to rank the numbers, but I think this could be a lineup that new Rockets Head Coach Ime Udoka could really utilize this upcoming year.

The KPJ/Josh Christopher/Tari/Jabari/Garuba lineup only logged 35 total possessions, but somehow managed a positive differential rating of +14.3. That would rank as the Houston Rockets' third-best lineup with a minimum of 30 possessions this season!

While keeping in mind that with the minimal amount of possessions this lineup had and it not being ranked on leader boards, the first number that pops out at you is the bonkers 140 points per 100 possessions the Rockets scored.

A common theme among the winning lineups have been how low the turnover rates are, especially considering Kevin Porter Jr has been manning the point guard spot with most of the lineups (turnovers being the main issue his detractors point to). This lineup sported a great 11.4 percent turnover percentage.

The lineup really allows KPJ, Jabari, and Tari to get into their bags while Jalen and Sengun get breathers. Kevin Porter Jr and Jabari Smith Jr really started to gain synergy with each other in pick-and-roll actions/pick-and-pop, and Jabari's mid-post touches allow KPJ to play off-ball.

Tari being the energizer bunny that he is, always making something happen, pushes the lineup's free throw rate to 31.3 percent, which, if qualified for rankings, would be towards the top of the league.

Garuba's DHO potential, transition passing flashes, and corner 3-point shooting potential, just adds so much depth to this lineup and I'm very excited to see how Ime Udoka utilizes him this season.

Main issue for this lineup was just the sheer amount of possessions that we missed out on. Fans' biggest gripe with Silas was his unwillingness to experiment with lineups.

And, that costed the Rockets valuable lineup data in the process. This lineup in particular could be looked at as an example of one that should have gotten more burn.

With Ime Udoka manning the sidelines for the Houston Rockets for the foreseeable future, I am confident that these 3 lineups will be in his arsenal to help maximize and develop Jabari Smith Jr.

These 2 are a perfect fit together, and I really believe Ime will take Jabari and develop him into the great 2-way star the Rockets drafted him to be.