Wrong again. Every metric there is says he was middle of the pack on one of the worst defensive teams in the league (because of guard defense)
Deflections, steals and contesting on the move. He does average to above average on the perimeter. He has to get stronger to defend in the post
Data doesn't support your propaganda. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/nba-player-ratings/ Alpi and Tari are the best defenders on the team who played close to starter minutes (otherwise, Garuba might be up there).
My god, you’re delusional. I’ll give him the deflections thing, but it’s bc he has to gamble a lot. He’s awful on the perimeter and in the paint
I just posted them (and have done so several times), but the haters keep pretending the numbers don't prove them wrong already now.
Other source: Stathead, team sorted by defensive win shares. Same two players at the top. "but but...he is a terrible defender...the other players have to help him..." The other players: Those are the players who, according to haters @maj21 and @rocketchamp have to "help Sengun". The reality is, it's the other way around. They are TERRIBLE defenders, or at least, they were last season, under Silas. I have hope for Jabari and Green that this will improve under Ime.
Deflections (already said) and he is pretty good about going straight up and not putting his arms forward for the easy foul call. He needs to get better with his positioning and stronger. And he does tend to keep guys in front of him on the perimeter. He gives them space but still attempts a close out. I’d be interested to see advanced stats on the percentage of three pointers made on a Sengun close out. It’s not the best — he’s slow — but it seems to be decent. He’s not a plus on defense, but he’s not the negative you constantly paint him as. He has flaws. Most of those flaws are fixable with good coaching and player focus/determination. He’s not SO undersized (he grew!) that guys can easily shoot over him (ala Chuck Hayes). He hasn’t decent strength already, evidenced by his offensive game in the post. He just needs to learn to position that weight correctly to correct for his lack of elite lateral speed and vertical.
Can you break it down for the types of defense he’s playing? Like on ball vs rotational defender? Curious if he’s being hurt by poor perimeter defense more than getting beasted in the paint. That could also be partly his fault, if he’s not properly rotating on time, but also an issue with the perimeter players’ defense too.
He’s horrible at keeping his arms straight up, that’s why he gets called for so many fouls. I will say he improved there a lot compared to his rookie season
Unfortunately, I cannot provide more detail than that. But I watched almost all games, and our perimeter defense was basically non-existent. Teams would regularly kill us from the 3-point line. That and the fact that we were the worst 3-point shooting team in the league was clearly a bigger problem for us than paint defense. And if you barely have any perimeter defense, even a Rudy Gobert would not be able to do much in the paint - left on an island.
You're making great points in this thread, and I don't hear you at all saying Sengun is some great defender, but statistically he bumps slightly above average and on this horrible defensive squad, he and Tari were the least to blame.
