Murray may have had a "down" year, but he's shown to be more than a capable defender throughout his career while working through a major injury. Jalen is nowhere close to Murray as a defender. Whichever team plays the 3&D game better in the finals will win - most every single team shooting metric points to Denver in this regard.
Using archetype as copycat as in "you need to build around certain type of player" is BS. What you need to build around is a GREAT PLAYER, not a type of player. Using archetype to debunk "you can't win with certain type of player" is not BS. It is the disproof of the above misuse of archetype.
Better defender than Jalen Green at this point for sure (who isn't), but his DBPM isn't great. I'd say his strength is certainly more on offense.
I think your assessment is off. 1) the bar was not a very low bar for the rockets. It was a low bar for the league. For the rockets team, the starting point was that low bar minus the guy who had dominated the ball most before(the other guys had no experience of playing without him), who also happens to be taking a lot of shots and scoring a lot just to be replaced by Nix. 2) He wowed me actually, to some extent. The way the offense ran was much better despite the lack of practice, experience, the top scorer. The increase in the assist numbers was definitely not a coincidence and his assist numbers were better than kpj's season averages, without having to dominate the ball as much as kpj. 3) I agree you can't keep greatness down. And that is exactly the story of Sengun vs Silas. We'll see how things go under Ime.
Trajectory is not linear but it is better to be aligned in the trajectory at some point than being behind. And that's what we mean when we talk about the trajectory match.
I am on the other side of this. I can imagine to construct a team where sengun is an integral part of the team is easier than doing it with Jokic. He is shorter, more mobile and does not play pg on offense/center in defense. Jokic is a true anomaly.
i mean i like sengun , but the "evidence" is us going 1-4 and the game we won was the one where he played the least amount of minutes
You could hope Sengün does a little of everything, and the PG that plays will become more of a passing guard than Jamal Murray who does a good job facilitating too.
You can see the +/- on the right. evidence is that the team did not lose because of the fives he played with. Also, it is really unfair to judge a player/system in its first 5-10 games, with no prep and a coach that is not willing to run that system, with the top scorer out/replaced by nix. His fives did quite well nevertheless.
Ok so would it make you feel better if I said Denver needed to surround Jokic with all + defenders MINUS Murray? Or maybe the #1 defense in the NBA was because of Jokic and not in spite of? Is it surprising that this team didnt push further during the b2b MVP seasons from Jokic? It shouldnt be they have the formula to win today = 3&D.
They better come out with hot shooting and hope that BAM can offer some resistance. I'd say MIA has the coaching advantage. Will Himmy Butler put the team on his shoulders one more time? Im hoping for a long series, but I wouldnt be surprised to see Denver sweep.
Yes, I am hoping that the height and bully you way inside advantages of Jokic over Sengun will be balanced by using the mobility of Sengun to create a more effective two-three player game with the guards. This I believe will lead to a more flexible game structure. I think Denver has still room to improve. Jokic is crazy good and they can be so much better than the rest of the league. Playing a game where you get playmaking from the center position is such a huge advantage over the others that even a lesser version of Jokic will put you ahead of anyone else.
