Prediction: Sengun’s defense is going to improve magically

This team should worry about not being worst team ever first before talking championship rosters. It is laughable and dellusional right now to talk about championship ambitions

 

Seriously this out of ass talking needs to stop. Same thing with our guards… somebody needs to tell them they need to focus on not being the worst backcourt of alltime right now and talk like they allstars later

 

It is ridiculous to be rebuilding a team without benchmarking against standard components of championship teams. That doesn't mean we're there yet, but you study the lessons they learned along the way in order to try to implement them sooner.

 

standards components is a delusional talk... show me where you predicted in 2012 gsw will take the league by the storm...
they made it huge by not following the standards

lol at the standard components.. thats not how basketball works... thats not how life works....worshiping formulas and old ideas is what made us one of the worst teams ever

btw
only recently rockets gave public statement, i think it was a year ago, that from now on they allow midrange shot to be taken.... what a circus!

 

I hope Jabari will improve a lot still as well.

But yeah, a frontline of Sengun, Wemby, an improved Bari, Tari (and Garuba, plus some big bruiser who can give some fouls, Fernando might be adequate for that) would be pretty amazing.

 

There is no rule but there is no championship precedent. The closest I can think is the Warriors, but that works because of Curry. I'm sure if we tailored every single thing to Sengun, it would work best for Sengun. As I said, new things can happen. I'm just discussing what has been the most likely thing especially in this 3PT generation of basketball.

For a recent example, what you're suggesting here is being attempted by the Wolves and it's not going well. Personally I don't think that would ever be the most optimal solution for a team tailored around multiple stars rather than one star, but I'd love to see someone change that history. It happens once in a while, but I don't think a team should ever be built based on an exception unless the exception is exceptional like a multiple-MVP type player.

 

There was no team winning by three point shots only neither and you were advocating for this nonsense no-midrange ball too. And then we got burried by KD shooting midrange, Kawhi won, Giannis won, AD and Bron won…..

 

You are just deflecting here. Are you talking about a future version of Sengun? Because this version shoots 31% on 0.7 attempts, so he is either clogging the lane or his man is sagging off him to double someone else. That's the problem. Also, the point of the Wolves is that even if you have a DPOY at C, it's not making up for KAT being a 0 on defense. No example is a perfect match, we try to draw parallels. If we waive off every example because one thing is not similar, then no examples are valid thus there's no discussion.

On the historical precedence, that's not what strawman means. There are no titles won without a big man who can anchor a defense (no matter how "dumb" you think they are) and that has to be either Sengun or someone else. Top defensive anchors do not need to be high bball IQ guys.

When (and I guess if) Sengun develops into an exceptional offensive player, some of your ideas can come into play. Jokic is arguably the best offensive C in NBA history so to expect Sengun to 100% match that is a reach. Personally I see Sengun developing into a lesser offensive and better defensive C than Jokic with slightly lesser passing. That's a star player, but it's not clear if that will break a historically consistent standard.

There are no all time great C's without great defense prior to Jokic. There are no titles without a great defensive anchor. Sengun and the Rockets have to take that into consideration in a non-fan-like way.

 

Just when you thought the 'Gun Gang couldn't get any more Lin-like...

 

Sengun hater do not derail this thread, speak on topic or keep quiet.

 

I'm trying not to think of Wemby or Scoot yet in the equation because we just never know how anything will turn out, but yes I think there's no reason to believe this team as currently constructed (and we all know it won't be constructed this way for forever if even another year) will be this historically terrible on D that much longer. Too many good athletes on this team, and size to be that bad that long. Jabari gets left out of this equation a bit, and I honestly cannot wait to see what he's able to do physically to improve over the Summer. He's got the ability to be incredible defensively, and has great instincts. He's just got a boys body right now, and just simply has to grow up a bit.

So I'm not really worried about Sengun's liability long term if it stays that way. We'll continue to put enough around him for it not to be an issue in the long run.

Now if we sign guards like Harden that can't defend a lick on the perimeter then yeah and we keep hiring garbage coaches like Silas and McHale... yeah.... next year will be rough and Sengun will probably be the one thing Stone can change out to put a band aid on the D. In that case it is what it is, and it will suck to have to lose Sengun if they trade him for a rim runner, and shot blocker. Right now though it's all about guys like Jabari, and CERTAINLY our perimeter players getting better in the offseason to be able to use their athleticism to our advantage next year on D.

 

You are only as strong as your weakest link. The playoffs are brutal precisely because teams have time to develop highly specific game plans around exposing weaknesses of specific players. That's why you will see some players who become "unplayable" in a particular series but you rarely see that in regular season games.

Maybe Wemby helps a bit but a weak link is still a weak link and teams can and will be able to exploit Sengun's biggest defensive deficiencies - and oh by the way, all the bball IQ in the world won't necessarily help you beat another player to a spot if your body just doesn't move as quickly as another and you don't have the length or response time to necessarily compensate for being a little slower with foot speed. Sengun's foot speed isn't terrible necessarily - but against playoff teams with fewer weak links and a collection of the best of the best athletes in the world, it's going to be way more of a problem than you think. Jokic isn't particularly fast in space either but I think he is still quicker than Sengun AND he has significantly more length and strength which allows him to compensate. If you look at those shot quality charts, it really is a game of inches.

I'm not saying we need to give up on Sengun, but I think the question marks are significant enough for us to have legit questions around trying to build a system around a player who at this point doesn't project to be a guy who gives you enough defensively to not be a complete liability in the playoffs. Screw how he does against the Lakers - show me how he does against the Bucks or the Grizz.

 

You are essentially saying that we can run the offense through Sengun for somewhere between 32 and 48 minutes and that's not realistic to me, I don't even believe that's a good formula for a Jokic or a Chris Paul or a Luka Doncic. I believe those types of offenses can be successful with all time greats only, otherwise we should have another player on the roster who deserves to run the offense a good chunk of the time.

You clearly have a far more optimistic opinion of Sengun than even his most ardent fans and I wish you well with that (and hope you're right) but it doesn't make for interesting discussion. It's obvious on every point you're just going to argue that Sengun is capable of doing everything, so consider your opinion noted.

 

That is simply not true - Sengun would be targeted WAY more than Jalen. You are crazy to think other wise. Like - do you watch games anymore because that’s such a bad take.