Oh yes, that was the additional rumour that was spread. I forgot that one. And there was one more: Claiming that the Rockets had internal data that would show he is the worst pick and roll defender in the league.
I don’t blame them really. Haters have to come up with some sort of bullcrap to convince people that their favorite players are better than him and some top secret internal datas or off-court “work ethics” type of stuff are the only type of things they can hold on to because we all know the difference is quite obvious on the court.
They are gonna do what they always do when they are wrong, pretend like they've always felt this way. Remember a lot of them hated Jalen and wanted Mobley and most are acting like they've always loved Jalen now lol Most of them wanted lob threat to start last year lol
Tired of the "baby Jokic" talk. He doesn't play at all like Jokic. Alpy is way more aggressive and saucy with his stuff. He likes to dunk and has a knack for some funky passes. He's also much more athletic and has better defensive instincts. The reason he's a "worse" defender is because he's smaller which he can make up for with his athleticism. You can't watch his dunk package and say the kid isn't athletic. Gasol, Horford, Duncan, Marc, Jokic and Sabonis were all pivot-first, operate out of the post, fundamental players. Sengun isn't really this at all. He's more like a true point forward in a centers body. I really hope Ime realizes this like D'antoni realized that Harden was basically a PG with an All Time SG scoring ability. Lesser coaches can't see this stuff. Kerr saw it with Curry. This team could theoretically run the Chris Paul/Harden staggered offense with Amen and Sengun. Start them together and then stagger them with Jabari/Jalen/Brooks/Tari/Whitmore.
There will be a lot of problems having those two as focal offensive points(Sengun and Amen) Both are poor shooters in different ways(Sengun is deathly afraid of taking any shot outside the paint) and Amen just has a absolutely horrible shooting form. That's a very poorly spaced team. All the guys you listed NBA defenses had to care about guarding at all three levels. This is where I might hurt some feelings but remember, out of the 6 young core pieces, we are probably going to end up with 3 and I think Amen and Sengun are either or choices and you can't have both. It's either going to be Amen or Sengun that gets the role of primary playmaker when this team is ready for contention. Both are poor players offensively without the ball in their hands. Both cause massive spacing issues. We can only choose one of these guys realistically. One of them is eventually going to be traded for a player or players that are more compatible.
Martin Heidegger once said "Everyone is other and no one is himself". Sengun is combination of many other players came before him. There's nothing unique about him once you pick apart his skillset and analyze them one by one.
Sengun still needs to show he can hit jumpshots outside the paint consistently before we can go beyond the Sabonis comp. Because the reason why Jokic is so deadly is because he's a threat from anywhere on the floor. Something Sengun can't say at this point in his career. Hopefully we see a consistent outside jumpshot this year and the baby Jokic comps become actually reasonable.
This is where i might hurt some feelings but if Sengun causes spacing issues, so does Jalen Green since there’s not even 1% of difference when it comes to 3 pt shooting last season. 34.2% vs 33.3%
Spacing isn't about percentages it's about how you get defended. Teams aren't going to leave Jalen open at the 3 point line, he's someone you have to guard out there, and Sengun isn't. Sengun's defenders camp the paint and leave him wide open at the 3 point line, and until he can change that, he isn't creating space.
Doesn't that depend on how bad Amen's shooting ability really is and the abilities of the supporting cast? Regardless it could work despite not being optimal. In Sacramento, Sabonis is a complete non-shooter and Fox is below average (32.1% career on low volume). On paper you'd think there would be spacing issues because both of those players live in the paint, but they were #1 in offensive rating last season. I don't know why it has to be an either/or situation already. It's wait and see at the worst.
These are the type of threes Green takes https://youtube.com/shorts/nTZKq4XhgS0?feature=share Scrub to 2:00 min mark Scrub to 5:56 mark When the shot clock is running out and the ball is in the hands of someone like Tari or KJ Martin they looking for Green to bail them out not Sengun.
Fox has never been seen as bad of a shooter as Amen is now mainly because Amen's form is just so... Broken. Fox isn't a spectacular shooter. He's competent. Competent enough that defenders have to guard him at all three levels. Sabonis is somewhat similar to Sengun in that he sometimes still hesitates on open shots.
At the University of Kansas, and the sport only became popular in Canada after spreading through the US. Nikola Tesla was Serbian, but his inventions were all done in America, funded by Americans, and spread by Americans. I don't pay the Kingdom of Serbia much heed.
Again, it's not about percentages. I get that his 3 point shooting is improving and I'm hopeful in that regard. But "spacing" is not a term that means "look up the percentage on the statpage", it literally means the space on the court. If Sengun doesn't pull his defender out to the 3 point line, he's not creating space. If his defender sags off him and aggressively helps in the paint on drives, he's not creating space. If they intentionally double the ball handler on a pick and pop, he's not creating space. Until other teams are forced to adjust and defend him out at the 3 point line, he is causing spacing issues. And that has not happened yet.
