Y’all dumb or just playing dumb? Yes, there are Sengun-Only-Fans. (Sengun first, only care about Sengun, what’s best for Sengun, I hope Sengun is traded, etc.) There are also ROCKETS fans (first) who like Sengun. Red94 is a Rockets fan. @CXbby is a Rockets fan. @AroundTheWorld is a Rockets fan. Y’all did the same thing to @Asian Sensation , calling him a Lin-only fan. Yes, a guy who joined the site 20 years ago is a Lin-only fan. So besides the hardcore SOFs, the problem many have is the selective accountability. It’s Sengun. It’s Josh Christopher. It’s a KJ Martin being glued to the bench in the past. He’s not getting back, he’s not closing out, he’s not playing defense, he’s turning it over, fine, bench him. But we know that’s not happening. Jalen’s not being benched. Kevin’s not being benched. Jabari’s not being benched. Christian’s not being benched. Save it, I don’t care where they were drafted. “It wouldn’t be a good look benching your top 3 picks.” … Yeah, it’s also not a good look chucking and playing no defense. No, I don’t think the coach is racist but he’s never liked Sengun. (and/or doesn’t know how to utilize him) Him (and some of you) always had a reason. It’s his stamina. It’s his defense. It’s his lack of shooting. It’s his foul trouble. We need a lob threat. It’s this. It’s that. Still don’t get it. How can it be “a developmental year”, “winning doesn’t matter”, “we’re tanking”, and then we glue guys to the bench and pull them at the first mistake and point out how they don’t do this well and don’t do that. Again, with the selective accountability. Jalen, Jabari, Daishen, Kevin = they’re just 19/20/21 years old! Give them some time! Alperen, Usman, Josh, KJ, Tari (also kids) = they have glaring deficiencies! Why aren’t they finished products?! Go ride the pine until you improve!
it's kind of painful watching Al P in those high PnR. He is caught in a lot of strange positions where he's guarding nobody.
As are others. They are literally just standing around like traffic cones, guarding nobody. I have seen it from Jalen Green, KMJ, everyone. Whatever "system" 5 ppg college player Stephen Silas and 1.3 ppg, 29 % FG college player Rick Higgins think they have dreamed up - it's total ****. Neither Stone nor Fertitta can be that stupid. These guys may still get to finish the tank (although the additional damage keeping them around even until the end of the season to brand value, fan loyalty and, most importantly, player development is immense). But then they are the **** out of here.
The reason he was specifically asked about Sengun when he talked about bad defense was because he specifically had been talking about Sengun's bad defense for months now. You can see how he was annoyed by hearing the question and clearly exaggerated the forcefulness of his answer by saying "every single time." Even without watching the OP's video, you would know that it couldn't have been every single time. I don't think he intentionally lied. It's more like a reflexive reaction from a person who was hyper defensive about something he had to constantly give excuses.
Silas was asked many times about Jalen, KPJ, Jabari, and others too, but did he ever throw anyone of them under the bus for their equally atrocious defense? No. Besides, a decent coach does not throw any of his players under the bus in front of the media or in public. They usually have standard vague answers such as "we need to look into our schemes and help our team play better defense". What Silas has done to his own player is very unprofessional and, frankly, disgusting.
I’ll be honest I don’t know what I’m supposed to be gathering from those clips. There were only 2 plays where you can fault Sengun that I saw. Are you unhappy that he didn’t try to close out on Thybulle for two of those 3 pointers? He got blown by on the perimeter by Dame. What a crime…
He was asked specifically about Sengun because Sengun was the only one who got benched - singled out.
Sengun is a bad defensive player and would get benched on a lot of teams for good reasons. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that will destroy a working environment like selective accountability will. A lot of players on this team have been allowed to run wild or half ass without consequences... consistently. You can't let some guys "learn" through it but bench other guys for the same things. It's absolute bulls**t. Theres no bigger microcosm for what a f**ked up franchise this currently is. And make no mistake, these are front office marching orders, Silas will just be the scapegoat (not that I think he's any good either)
It's also pretty BS because Sengun does give 100% effort on defense, he's just slow footed a lot of times, and limited by his physical attributes. Then you have Green who sometimes just stops giving a shet on defense and gives no effort, you don't hear a peep from Silas. I get this feeling that Silas has this vision of how the game is played, and it hurts his ego when the fans and media say that Sengun should be used more. Silas is not only a terrible coach, he's a stubborn one too.
Case in point: Watching this, you can see that yes, Sengun gets beaten sometimes on defense (as does Jabari), but he tries, tries, tries really hard, almost all the time. Jalen, on the other hand...it's almost comical/sad. I cannot remember Silas and/or Higgins EVER scapegoating or even mildly criticizing Jalen for his lack of defensive effort, ever - while they keep doing it with Alpi. It really is BS.
This is one of the reasons Jalen Green shouldn't be a starter. If he happens to be having a hot shooting night, he can be a net positive, but most of the time he's an anchor around the neck of the team.
I don't disagree as of now, but I hope that this will improve under an actual coaching staff. Green definitely has much more potential than what he has been showing. He has never been held accountable in any way. The Silas clique really are a joke. The Rockets are crazy to allow this waste of valuable development time to happen for 2 years. We can only hope that the new coaching staff can fix the damage these clueless clowns have caused. Hopefully, the bad habits on and off the court can be addressed by an actual NBA coach, instead of a group of people who have never achieved anything and are only where they are due to nepotism, specifically Silas and Higgins.
This is not whataboutism. Just because somebody brings up another player doesn't make it "whataboutism." People just throw that word around and have no idea what it means, it drives me nuts.
Man, GARM these days is simultaneously making me anxious and angry. I think I'll head over to the peace and quiet of D&D.
That is the LITERAL definition of "whataboutism". What·a·bout·ism: noun - the technique or practice of responding to an accusation or difficult question by making a counteraccusation or raising a different issue.
Maybe you are doing it youself. GARM: "Silas is singling out Sengus as scapegoat." You: "What about you guys using whataboutism?" You couldn't answer the accusation of Silas's scapegoating. Instead, you make a counteraccusation of whataboutism. Irony.
No, the key thing that makes it whataboutism is the deflection and changing the subject. For example... If someone makes a claim like "James Harden can never win a championship because you can't win with a star guard who sucks at defense", and then I respond, "What about Steph Curry?" - that is not whataboutism. I am not deflecting, I am not changing the subject, I am staying on topic and giving an example that disproves the point. This is an on-topic example that is totally relevant to the current conversation. This is fine, this is good discussion, this is not whataboutism. It is possible, as you can see in my example, to say "Well what about ..." while staying on topic, and without deflecting. That's the difference. An example of whataboutism would be something like... "Stephen Silas is a terrible coach, I hate that his teams play no defense." And then someone says "What about Mike Dantoni? His teams didn't play defense either!" Okay? What does Dantoni have to do with the topic at hand? It's deflection, it's changing the subject, it's almost a non sequitur. THAT is whataboutism. To bring this full circle...when someone says "Siilas was right to bench Sengun for his defense, his defense sucks!" and then I say "what about Jalen Greens defense?", that is not whataboutism. The topic at hand is that Silas is not treating his players equally and fairly, and it is totally on topic to compare the treatment of Sengun to Jalen. Again, just because it starts off with "well what about..." does not make it whataboutism.
Nah, I just posted a tweet that captured the essence of the situation. Another poster took exception by virtue of his misunderstanding a word in that tweet. Try to keep up.
