You can argue whether or not they were actually contenders yet, but Shaq carried Orlando to the playoffs as the 4th seed in his second season at age 21, while averaging 29 and 13 off 60% shooting. But it doesn't really matter that much. Some guys are generational talents who are great right away, but some guys evolve into superstars. It's clear Sengun would have to be the latter if he does. What's important is that Sengun so far looks like he's taking another significant step forward. I don't know whether that will continue, he still needs to get better than this to actually become a superstar type of player. But it doesn't look like he's stalled as of yet so I'm happy.
Alp has played good defense, extending his range and making plays. Still needs to show more consistency and willingness to hit the 3 and get his FT% back up closer to 75/80% like he’s had in the past.
Lol @ this logic, sure Sengun is currently not the best player on a contender, the rest of our young prospects are about 5 light years away from being that as well. By that logic every team should trade all of their 21 year olds that aren't Lebrons
Sengun is separating himself from the pack. Fred and Dillon are giving us what we needed. But Sengun is the man. I don't know why this bothers people so much. The heck with the grudges against this kid or the SOF's. He's earning it on both ends. Maybe it's time to just be honest about it and support him.
I’m not sure what a SOF is supposed to be, but I do know that every true Rockets fan is a Sengun fan. A 21 year old phenom carrying your team to wins (went to him down the stretch in the Spurs game too and also would have won if Jabari hit 1 freethrow), if you call yourself a fan of the team you would have to be suffering some kind of deep psychological trauma to not be a fan of the kid. Although to be fair, people do love the smell of their own farts, maybe enough to even spite their own team and fandom. It’s an uniquely human condition - hubris.
The arguments against Alpi keep shifting more and more towards Absurdistan. It went all the way from "He is worse than Kanter, let's start Bruno" to "But he isn't Lebron". Only a testament to Alpi's improvement, though. A little timeline... "I don't want us to draft this guy" Alpi shows amazing passing and flashes of brilliance in his first few games where he actually gets the ball, even under the awful Silas/KPJ regime. "But can he defend?" "His ceiling is Luis Scola, they are the same type of player" "Christian Wood is much better" "The Rockets' core is Jalen Green. Everyone else just needs to fit in and prove that they belong." Alpi is like Honey Badger and don't care. He does this in his first season: Second season starts. Before the first game of the second season: "Bruno should start over him" "We need a lob threat and rim runner" "aRcHEtyPe!!!" "I hear the Rockets' front office thinks he has bad work ethic" "But he can only do well against weak competition" Sengun does this against Lebron: Sengun's stat line against Lebron's Lakers: 33 pts, 15 rebs, 6 asts, 4 blks Reaction of the anti-Alperen folks on RocketsWatch: "Ugh why does he have to have such a good game against Lebron, now it will be harder to hide him" Sengun becomes the youngest center in NBA history to record a triple double (despite his coach not trusting him): Doesn't stop the haters: "I hear that internal data shows he is the worst pick and roll defender in the league" "You either have to totally build around him or he is useless" Sengun, as if he were a honey badger, doesn't care and puts up another triple double, notching 21 pts, 11 rebs, 10 asts, 3 stls, 2 blks. And of course still this: "Sengun is just like Scola." Have you ever seen Scola do this? On the season, Sengun is one of three players in the entire NBA to record at least 70 blocks and 70 steals. Doesn't matter to the haters. "He doesn't play defense" "Jabari at 5, this is the way."
And of course, there is one poster who keeps repeating "Sengun is just like Scola". Here is a video for that poster: 2nd season ends. Sengun is tracking statistically to have a career somewhere between Nikola Jokic and Domantas Sabonis. Some fans make predictions that he will be shopped in the off-season. They say he is gifted offensively... ..."bUt hIs dEFensE" They don't care that he has the best defensive (and overall) rating on the Rockets, according to RAPTOR: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/nba-player-ratings/ They also don't care that he has the highest defensive (and overall) win shares on the team, despite having had a coach who marginalized him at every opportunity, and who prioritized freaking KPJ: https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/HOU/2023.html Facts don't matter to those who don't like him. His haters hoped that the Rockets would sign 92-year old Brook Lopez, and that that will mean their dream of banning Sengun to the bench will finally come true. Didn't happen. They also question whether a new coach would "put up with Sengun". To their disappointment, Ime seems to trust Sengun with the ball. And it seems that Udoka actually likes Sengun, in contrast to the "I lIkE sEngUn BUT..." crowd who have been wanting to trade him for the likes of Ivey, AJ Griffin, a bag of chips, etc. New season starts. A group of people forms who cherry pick 5 minute increments of games where a different 5-person lineup (without Sengun) did well. "wiLl uDokA lEaN iNtO tHiS lInEup wItHoUt sEngUn?!" "cUrrY kEePs tArGeTInG sEnGuN oN tHe sWitCh" (yeah, like he has never scored on anyone else before, and as if he really cares who defends him) "lEt's dO a pOdCaSt wHeRe wE SaY 5 tImEs tHaT SeNgUn iS a nEgATiVe dEfENdEr, mAyBe tHaT wIlL coNvINcE eVerYoNe" Sengun, like honey badger, and like Ime Udoka who actually knows ball, doesn't care. This is what he has done through four games, while being a team player, playing within himself and not forcing anything. And a bonus one for our "Sengun is just like Scola" poster: Zach Collins wishes that were true.
I think Sengun could start racking up triple doubles if our players start shooting like actual human beings and not like the first 3 games of the season
He’ll need to improve his defensive rebounding (and for that to happen, the entire team - Alpi included - will need to learn to box out) because there will not be the potential for 6-7 offensive rebounds in many games. Otherwise, the potential is there.
It’s funny and the height of irony that the same fans who (rightfully) drag the organization over coals over it’s obsession over the KPJ experiment at the same time eat up every narrative the organization spews about Sengun hook, line and sinker. The same people in charge who made KPJ head honcho are the ones saying Sengun has bad work ethic, can’t play defense, isn’t the right archetype etc. Meanwhile the first order of business for Ime Udoka was to bench/replace KPJ, and it took him a whole two games to make Sengun the unquestioned goto player of the team. Which horse are you latching your wagon to? Who knows more about basketball?
Yikes, these persecution complex narratives are still growing. Feel free to share direct quotes. I'm particularly interested in where "the people in charge" have said these things in 2023. I haven't paid a lot of attention, so I can definitely be persuaded.
He averaged 9 rebounds last year playing only 28 mins while averaging 3.2 offensive rebounds per game. He's averaged 32 mins per game this season so far. I don't think defensive rebounds will be an issue for him to get a triple double.
https://www.nba.com/stats/players/box-outs?TeamID=0&dir=D&sort=BOX_OUTS https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/box-outs?dir=D&sort=BOX_OUTS So I saw people mention this stat recently, and it is 100% "broken" IMO (it said Jabari had 0 box outs in a game, and I have a screenshot of him doing at least 1 obvious boxout), but I assume however this stat is counted, it *probably* correlates somewhat to the *real* box outs in a game. And seems like Sengun is doing OK there. Even the team overall is doing OK, though maybe Sengun heavily influences that with his numbers (as the team numbers are low overall across the board). Definitely think Jabari and a few others need to work on boxing out. (I'm mostly speaking to boxing out in general and not necessarily Sengun's ability to get triple doubles or whatever...especially since this stat caught my attention)
Silas and Stone are the ones who made KPJ head honcho, and at the same time relegated Sengun as a disposable screen setter that you bench at the end of games. Have you noticed a difference in the way he is being used now or is that just “persecution complex”?
“Persecution complex” is rich. Clutch himself can tell you through what he has heard that the Rockets organization do not/did not believe in Sengun. Or you could have paid attention yourself and seen how they tried six ways to Sunday to marginalize his usage and displace, replace him from the lineup. Where Clutch didn’t connect the dots was that these same geniuses were the ones responsible for the head honcho experiment. The utter lack of basketball expertise in the organization before Ime Udoka’s arrival is astounding.
