I think you may be arguing with a bot or computer program. Looks at it's posting history, it's non-stop for 18 hours a day, EVERY day.
Along with replies that don't match with the context of the discussion. Like a bad machine learning model.
I wish you guys would be as critical of Sengun's defense. Jalen Green has to score and be Gary Payton on defense, but he wasn't guarding Jonas last game either
The problem is that Jalen has never been a great defender…though I LOVED how he played last game on the defensive end. So if you’re not gonna be solid at defense, you better be a mother falcon scorer….and especially if you were drafted #2..you better be consistently great at something. He’s been inconsistent, and I don’t think that’s remotely arguable. But I’ve turned the corner a bit on Jalen, so please don’t take this as me being a HaTeR the way people do every time you criticize anything at this point. Even awful players can win me over if I see that they care. The way Jalen has responded…the reckless abandon on defense that we’ve never seen before tells me… 1. We have the right ****ing coach. And 2. Jalen just might have a dog in there somewhere…and that’s awesome! Sengun is a dog. He’s not a great defender, but he cares a lot about being great and he’s coming.
Sengun's has been even worse on defense No he's not. He's slow footed with poor lateral movement. Teams aren't targeting Jalen on defense it's Sengun they're isolating. The thing is Sengun's always been the worst defender on the roster. Dog?
He's not a great defender because he's slow footed. Sengun is skilled af and he cares a ton about being better. I have zero doubt that Sengun will improve, and the floor is already enough for me to damn well be sure you aren't moving on from Sengun anytime soon. Look I got about a 3 game sample size on Jalen that made me turn the corner...I was ready to ship his ass just about anywhere, because I didn't think he was an Udoka cat. I want to believe he is, and I was literally voted Most Optimistic in high school. So I'm in for now. ALSO OPPONENTS ABSOLUTELY HAVE BEEN SWITCHING OFF TO JALEN OVER AND OVER AGAIN. Happens all the time. He guards the worst offensive backcourt threat on the floor every single night. And then they work to switch to him. If they have a real post player, they'll try that on Sengun. They both have to be better defenders, but Jalen is still a below average defender, my optimism notwithstanding...and he's not consistent enough on offense (YET) for that to be acceptable.
Both players have had stretches this year, where they play pretty well defensively and both players have had stretches where they seem like they are tired and not putting in the physical or mental effort to be good enough. it’s very hard for us because they have been here the entire rebuild essentially and so they are veterans in our minds. the impending reality of having to decide on paying them is absolutely there….but at the end of the day age wise, there is still so much growth to be done. something I am seeing from Jalen Green leads me to believe that may be a light has come on but at the end of the day he has played inefficiently for way too long for me to really believe that. Im looking for 25 ppg and increased efficiency to really buy back in.
Finishing at a high % in the paint during this stretch is the biggest piece of hope. He’s always been good at getting free throws but he’s never been good enough at finishing. Career high FT% this season 81%. Good omen for his shot mechanics. I saw a clip that was analyzing some plays and they noted that his eyes are on the rim protector rather than on his defender (who he’s blowing by). This is exactly what I said earlier was plaguing him - that he can beat his man but he wouldn’t even bother to first check if the paint was packed or not. Then he’d make acrobatic decisions on the fly which was resulting in free throws but really poor FG%. He seems to have figured out to base his whole plan around whether there is an opening in the paint (his defender being an easy obstacle to clear with a first step most of the time anyway). If not then check for an open 3 (or a FT line jumper where he’s making 49%). If not then move the ball to the open man. The other thing that has changed is getting back to being a ferocious transition player. There’s a little bit of coaching up to do in this department (not a great passer in transition) but he’s mostly using effort and lightning speed to overwhelm his opponents off rebounds. This is his elite athleticism at play. Once defenders respect him as a guy who can repeatedly knife you in the paint, they will give him more space on his 3pters. That’s when his 3pt shot will stabilize and his game will take off.
Congratulations, not only do you not understand what you're watching on the court. You also apparently cannot read what the actual stats tell you. Because literally none of what you said is true. I see there's still some who try to talk this utter garbage into existence. Thankfully though there's literally hours of evidence and people much smarter than you or I doing the work to prove what you posted is utter nonsense.
Yeah I already know the SOF playbook. Keep throwing in cherrypicked metrics and just keep telling lie after lie. If you watch games you'd see teams targeting Sengun almost every possession on pick & roll. You'd see guys like Jonas looking like Wilt Chamberlain. You'd see Sengun getting benched. He's always been terrible on defense, but guys like you (and others) tend to be delusional or just point fingers elsewhere on defense. Sengun's the worst defensive player on the roster
Fans with their amateur interpretations and attribute slides thinking it’s just that easy for players to be great on both ends of the court. Elite on one end with serviceable on the other is quite literally how most “stars” are built. The few who are elite on both ends wind up in Springfield.
He definitely has until now and next season to convince Tilman/Udoka... This recent stretch is more impressive because they are playing games where everyone is play-in position as opposed to trying to secure top 3 picks There should be no pressure from Green being he was the 2nd overall pick so he should want to reach apex level And if it takes those you mentioned to push him to meet that apex, then pressure either makes diamonds or bust pipes After next season, everything will be clear as day on rather to trade or don't match RFA offer But if he stays on this small sample path going forward and let his off nights be like this past game then they will have to give him a Barrett type deal, or at least Vassay type deal would be starting point TBD
Jalen Green being able to consistently finish like he has in the past couple of weeks will allow him to avoid those 2-11 type games where his shot isn't falling and he's getting stuffed at the rim. Now if his shot isn't falling, at least he has something to go fall back to so his bad nights are just going 7-14 where his outside shot isn't falling but at least he's a major threat going to the rim.
No doubt, its hard to be elite on both sides for years, you can do it in spurts or what they call crunch/clutch winning time All one has to do is look at Kawhi who was super elite in early career, then as he became a number 1 option his defense went to being good and he could do it elite in spurts but his offense load increase diminished his ability on other end Including injuries, which hasn't affected his Offensive production much The only time elite players give effort on defense is based on certain player (all nba/star) they face that game and crunch time effort, especially in playoffs Mostly those who speak of wanting 2 way players are just repeating what they heard in repetitive media sports outlets and they probably have never even played a game of horse Its super hard to be elite both ways, Wilt/Dream and maybe a handful others are very rare breeds
Fa sho that helps with his rim/paint finish % being high during this stretch, which is why I mentioned if his said '' bad night'' can be making half his shots (7/14 etc) then he will be producing way more 25-29ppg along with the other improvements Udoka is instilling in him and the team His speed and maneuver agility - dexterity is Wade/AI3 like, you can't teach those things, that element is what makes Rockets dangerous in transition with Cam/Amen And now the Sengun laser to a backdoor Green is coming around to being highly effective Hopefully he stays locked in and keeps bad habit/shot missing Jalen in the basement
Most great two way player with high usage on offense eventually are propped up through reputation as those type of players often will take long breaks of playing high level defense and only will pick it up during important high leverage parts of a game. Guys like Kobe eventually just played defense in bursts but the media often just made assumptions based on reputation.
Yup I mentioned something similar to this from my lens, Jordan and others got by on rep after time, but they could turn it on in small spurts or depending on the caliber of opponent If Jordan was facing a Drexler he was going next level attack mode, if Kobe was going against say AI3/Bron, he was going that mode as well But Dream/Wilt off top are elite two way players
