It's becoming painfully clear to me now what the previous coaching staff's issue was with Alperen Sengun the entire time. He needed a center to cover for the guards defensive and offensive deficiencies. The team was always going to look bad if there wasn't a giant magic eraser protecting the rim at all times. KPj and Jalen were terrible and lazy defenders and Sengun was the scapegoat for that. I thought they needed a rim runner for KPj offensively when in reality Alperen was a terrible fit with KPj on both ends of the floor. He wasn't athletic enough to rim run or rebound KPjs terrible shot selection. And wasn't supreme defensively either to make up for KPj/Jalen consistently giving up on screens or losing their man on cuts. Now that Brooks/FVV *and* Jalen are all fighting on the perimeter, the Rockets are winning and Sengun looks like a fringe MVP candidate. I've been through a lot of coaches in this city. A lot. I hate Stephen Silas the most. By a country mile. More than Milk Hair. More than Dana. More than Levine. More than Lovie or Kubiak. More than Wade. I don't remember ever having a coach that actively tried to extinguish a talent like Sengun because he made another player he liked look bad. His nice guy schtick is fake. I've seen his type before in business. Toxic nice guy. **** that guy. I never want to see him or his stupid little woman abusing pet ever again.
See, there is the problem. You are absolutely convinced that is true but disagree on virtually ever point you made. PLUS too many people conveniently forget the circumstances under which Silas was working. Do you really think winning has been a priority for this franchise over the last three years? Do you honestly think the guy who presided over one of the most potent offenses in league history then signed up to coach Harden and Westbrook would then turn around and choose KPJ as his point guard? Furthermore, far too many of you have jumped the gun on Sengun's talent which leads you to believe he was somehow being oppressed. There were games when Sengun was visibly gassed on the floor and people complained about him being taken out. As a rookie he was notoriously foul prone and some of you still blamed Silas for that. There were even those who refused to acknowledge the established fact that defensive presence is far more crucial at the center spot than any other position on the floor and faulted Silas for demanding more of him on the floor. Some of you will forever see Sengun as a victim of an oppressive situation rather than a teenage rookie struggling to find his way in the toughest basketball league on the planet.
What Silas did as the Rockets head coach was criminal to the basketball mind. Can’t forget, but it’s time to move on.
You havent seen the FlamingoShot's full potential yet. It will be a great weapon. He is in triple threat position until the very last second so he keeps his driving and passing options to himself until the ball leaves his fingers. Wait for people to try contesting that shot and witness it unfold.
Can’t let Stone and Fertitta off the hook either. What’s happening now is not because of them it’s in spite of their actions and poor leadership. If it was up to the two of them we’d probably have a Harden, KPJ, and Jalen back court and I can almost guarantee that Sengun would be traded to bring in a carousel of rim running bigs that never play because the only lineup that works is PJ Trucker as the small ball 5 (because you know PJ would be back if Harden was here.)
Sorry, you’re seeing through a defensive bias for anything critical regarding Silas. You are clearly in the minority in this regard. Silas undoubtedly gave a longer leash to Green and Jabari, while holding Alp to much higher standards. If the same standards were applied with all young players, minute discrepancies and timely “benching” would be much more favorable to Alp the previous two seasons. Virtually every metric available favors Sengun, yet he was the scapegoat for other’s deficiencies, mainly Silas. I’m sorry that hurts your delicate sensibilities, but thems the facts. And, without a doubt, you will take this as a slight towards Green and Jabari. It’s not. I am a Rocket fan for over 40 years, I want all of our young core to reach their potential. But for any objective mind, there was a clear bias towards Sengun by the Silas staff. Also, it’s in poor taste to make excuses for Silas and his “circumstances”. He failed and continued to dig his own narrow minded grave, because he can’t adapt to players strengths.
Do you really think you can argue winning was not a priority and benching Sengun was okay because Bruno was better and this was the natural move, while not benching anyone else?
I hate abstract explanations generally but I truly believe his FT is mental, he has been historically better. He is giving 100% effort all the time and I believe he will get used to it physically and mentally very soon and improve FT back.
Everything is mental Hopefully, else he should change it up. His current 'talking to the ball' isn't working, and that involves both a physical routine and a mental (talking to self) routine. Maybe remove the mental aspect and try a different routine. Free throw shooting is one of those things where relying on physical repetitive patterns (muscle memory and all) is preferable over the mental state of your mind.
No offense but it's funny seeing you argue objectivity from a wholly subjective viewpoint. Even more hilarious is that you buttress your position by openly ignoring facts that don't serve your narrative. Like I said earlier, "Logic to an audience determined to be immune to it." I'm sure you'll disagree, and I'm totally cool with it.
Alperen is our franchise player. I'm not sure what else you guys on the edge or deniers need to see, but Alperen is clearly our best player. His game has grown so much in the last 3 years. It's a blessing that Ime has recognized the type of player he has and not try to force the issue with other top draft picks. Alperen is someone that is so easy to root for because he just wants to be part of a team, he doesn't care to be the system, but he just wants to be part of the team. He will do whatever it takes. That's why all the "he is a bad defender" talks the last couple of years was BS to me. Sure looking at his advanced stats, it looked like he was a terrible defender, but the eye test told us that he was always trying to hustle and keep. He never mailed it. He always was trying to be a good defender, but our idiotic coaching staff did not have a system in place to help this team be better. Alperen is the franchise. Hopefully Ime has a good look around the league for other complimentary pieces.
