The Udoka knows Sengun lack of defense is a major problem

I wouldn't worry about attempting to talk sense to him. Just a waste of time since he is looking to hopefully tell others "I told you so". Credit to him for attempting to legitimize his narrative even though he is completely wrong. At least he isn't waiting in the weeds until Sengun's next bad game.

 

Why do anti Sengun threads’ titles start with an incorrect the?
The udoka
The athletic Bruno Fernando

 

Just saw your signature.

Is @Another Brother banned? I can't @ him anymore.

 

I’m sorry, I still can’t believe anyone would criticize Sengun’s defense against Jokic. It seriously makes me wonder if some on this forum actually watch basketball or just read box scores.

Every team plays Jokic the same: The moment he gets the ball, help defenders crash. It makes sense. He’s the best player in the world. The Rockets, however, did something very different: They left Sengun on an island. That’s why Aaron Gordon only had 2 points. Against a poor defender, Jokic would explode for 50+ on great efficiency. Instead, Sengun kept him to well below his average efficiency despite getting way less help than most teams provide. It wasn’t a good defensive performance — it was a GREAT performance, and the primary reason we held one of the best offenses to 86 points.

 

Jokic is a lot bigger than Sengun - really Jokic is a lot larger than just about anyone.

Sengun guarded Jokic as well as anyone and made him take tough shots.

Sengun is more of a 4 than a 5 to me anyway.

Sengun is solid defensively when he has players around him on the same page and communicate.

Also - Sengun took it to Jokic a number of times too.

 

Ask him yourself

 

Jalen Green sucks when he takes 20+ shots to score 25, but Sengun sucks even tho they needed 31 shots against him to get 38.

 

You can't stop Jokic you can only slow him down. He took 31 shots. Even Embiid's season high is 26 this season so "He scored 39 pts sengun didn't do fine on defense guarding him" isn't a good argument. Jokic's fg% was .452 (2nd lowest this season). He did fine.

 

This is the thing so many don't seem to understand, just how massive Jokic is. They are like he's only an inch taller or maybe even the same height and I am always like "It's not about the height, Jokic is over 280 pounds with a good amount of it being muscle!" He regularly bumps people back with ease. There was this one possession where Sengun took it to Jokic and LITERALLY BOUNCED OFF HIM and folks still don't get it. Man is a massive meat slab.

 

This is a great detail. Thanks for posting. Seriously.

 

Jokic has a massive frame and a 7’3” wingspan. He isn’t a good athlete, but he has exceptional coordination and now (after years of work) an extremely strong core.

No one is going to bump a planted Jokic out of position and he seldom leaves his feet so you cannot really catch him off balance much.

Sengun is also strong but not like Jokic. He claims he is like 285 lbs but he has to be 300 lbs and so damn physically balanced and grounded.

 

Take into consideration that Jokic was really unfit when he joined the NBA. Lacked muscle and needed to lose some fat. Was way less flexible. He ended up building a lot of core strength and shedding a lot of fat to get to where he is today. That has made a huge difference in his defensive improvement. Similar story with Sabonis.

Sengun was almost as bad coming in so I expect his fitness to be catching up to NBA players for another 2-3 years even. Like Sabonis and Jokic, he has to take advantage of being at peak fitness. I think his strength and explosiveness are still going to improve (which is great for us).

 

Sengün did good coming to the NBA as a 18 year old instead of a 26 year old like Scola.

 

Just looking at points? Look deeper. Give any player 31 attempts, much less the MVP, they'll score some buckets. If you can hold them <50% shooting at that volume, you can win games.

Jokic FG% for last season = 63.2%
Against Seguin last game = 45.2%.

Looks good to me.

 

Jokic scored on Chet quite literally EVERY possession. If anyone thinks Alperen's defense on Jokic was terrible, just go ahead and watch the Nuggets vs OKC game that was played a month ago.

He completely annihilated socalled generational defensive player.

 

We will have to see how Holmgren physically holds up physically - but so far he has been exceptional.

He is scoring 19 points on 11 shots a game........ he is shooting 44% on three-point attempts and he is shooting 64% on two-point attempts and almost 90% from the free-throw line.... and he has a good balance on his shot distribution.

He also is rebounding, blocking shots, getting steals and he isn't fouling much at all....... he also has overall played extremely well at team defending, and from the weakside.

He does need to keep getting stronger in the post to hang with Jokic and Embiid and to slow down Sengun - but he CLEARLY worked very hard on his body and game after the injury last year. He REALLY wants to be great and if he stays healthy, will be a Hall of Famer type player.

 

I did not post a Chet Holmgren review on my post so i don't know why you posted whole recap of Chet's young career.

There are posters above who think Alpi did not do a good job against Jokic defensively, and I compared his defense against Jokic to Chet's defense against Jokic. Chet, at the same age as Alpi, got completely destroyed by Jokic in their first encounter. Jokic went 11/12 as Chet is his primary defender, and the only shot Jokic missed was half court (3pa) at the end of the shot clock.

 

Alpi did as good a job against Jokic as anyone else. He wasn't great, but he held his own and he scored against Jokic as well.

As for Holmgren - that game was a blowout. Jokic finished with 28/14/5 and had 4 turnovers ..... and Holmgren had 19/4.... that line is fine for the first time playing Jokic, especially as a rookie.

 

Yes. That game was a blowout because Jokic destroyed Chet inside.

And no, Alpi did not as good a job against Jokic as "anyone else".

He did a great job against Jokic. That's why the Rockets got 2 dubs against the reigning champs while OKC was blown out at the end of the 2nd quarter.

I'm not debating who's better or who's going to be better in the future. I specifically compared their defenses against Jokic.