Jabari Smith Jr. is a top-50 9-cat player on our board, and Houston's guard injuries are only part of it

The easy reading of Jabari Smith Jr.'s Saturday is that Houston was short of guards and somebody had to shoot. Fred VanVleet sat out for right knee injury management and Reed Sheppard missed his second straight game with lower back soreness, according to ESPN's recap, and in the Rockets' 119-98 win over Oklahoma City, Smith scored 30 points on 10-for-18 shooting, made 6 of 12 threes and added nine rebounds and five assists with a single turnover. Marcus Smart had 24 on 7-for-10 from three beside him.

The argument here is that the absences are the smaller part of the story for a 9-cat manager. Smith also scored 30 on opening night against Dallas, when the guards were healthy, and what has made him valuable across seven games is the shape of his line rather than the volume: efficient shooting, threes, rebounds and almost no turnovers, which is the profile a categories league rewards more than the points total suggests.

Every player in this story is on the fantasy basketball rankings and the 2026-27 projections, and the NBA depth charts show where each one stands in his team’s rotation tonight.