Look at the dejected face. This is the face of a man who knows he just played against someone who is younger than he is and whose level of skill he will never reach. (P.S.: He's 7'1, but he didn't look or play "bigger" than Alpi.)
The tweet said Sengun held Chet to 4 points. Sengun held Chet to precisely zero points! Chet went straight at Jabari the second he was matched up with him and scored easily both times. Thankfully Jabari wasn't on Chet for much.
That's not true. #28 didn't help Jabari on the perimeter when Chet scored those 4... Jabari was also making eye contact with Chet so that he wouldn't be able to score. In a 1v1 situation, how can we expect a PF to defend a C?
I'll just state the obvious... A casual 21-9-6 through 18 games at 21 years old is not normal. Starting C on a top 5 ranked defense at 21 years old is NOT NORMAL. The kid is a prodigy, and there are still a lot of realistic improvements that he can make. If he ever makes a significant jump on these shooting splits, watch the F out. (It's crazy that we have to rely on the national media and ex-hoopers to shout out our own guy who is flat-out hooping. The trenches are dug too deep for backtracking, I suppose.)
The strategy was for him to clog the paint (and leave the player he was guarding open on the perimeter). That’s using him effectively in a defensive scheme. Good job by the coaching staff. Hiding him, or using his strength - up to each of you. They won with that strategy.
Chet was not efficient last night but he is a likeable player/person. Alp was another C to control Giddey. When Josh-machine not working Chet's play becomes poorer. Alp should be praised for containing Giddey rather than destroying Chet.
Even though the counting stats weren't as impressive as some of his other games I liked what I saw from Alpi last night. He was being very decisive and aggressive punishing them out of the pick-and-roll, on dribble-drives, and on fast, decisive post moves. If he had just made his damn FTs it would've been a crazy-efficient game from him. He's gotta get back to knocking those down at a better rate.
Exactly. If your preconceived notion is a bias against him, you will keep looking almost every game for examples of "the Rockets hiding him on defense" or you will point out every perceived defensive lapse of the team saying "there you go again, they are targeting Sengun". If you haven't dug in that deep and you don't have that preconceived bias, you will not see things that way, and you will look at the objective stats, where he has the best net rating among starters, and the second best defensive rating behind FVV, and the best box plus/minus, including a very positive defensive box plus/minus (and the highest defensive win shares on the team). https://www.nba.com/stats/players/advanced?CF=MIN*G*20&TeamID=1610612745&dir=A&sort=NET_RATING https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/s/sengual01.html
it does seem like Al-P is getting a bit winded. You can tell on the free throws. We really need to bring in a sufficient back-up to help give him a breather. Honestly wouldn't mind if he lost a few pounds next year to help reduce strain on his body. He's already built like a tree. He played great defense at times last night, but I think the posters giving him all the credit for Holmgren shutdown is a bit much. It was clearly a team effort there and Al-p was matched up against Giddey from the get-go.
I disagree on the weight. I think he needs to gain muscle mass to stand better against the Jokic, Embiid, AD likes...
one advantage ALP has over those guys is his speed. In fact that is one of Sengun's sneakiest attributes is his ability to take guys off the dribble. You add another 10-15lbs to that frame it takes that away. Those guys aren't getting any younger and will only get slower. Embiid is 30 in March. AD is 31 in March. Jokic is 29 in Feb. We already mentioned ALP is struggling with endurance. Adding more weight to that frame is only going to make that worse. The new NBA is all about stick-figure big men. Guys who can pop and spread the floor from 3. Making Sengun even slower to switch out on those guys is a recipe for disaster, not to mention the inherit injury risk. It worked last night because the Thunder have Giddey starting, but when we faced (and lost) to the Spurs, Wemby forced Sengun to step out of the paint. Lastly, Yao gaining tons of weight to "battle" Shaq was one of the worst decisions that could have happened. It legitimately keeps me up at night thinking what if Yao wasn't forced to bulk up. He could have been the first "Wemby".
His free throw percentage is mostly mental and temporary l believe. Because he was shooting FT with a 80-85 % when he was MVP in Europe. l like our young core, Jabari shows some improvements, but Jalen still 0 basketball iq.. Just imagine if these three come at the same level, our team will be unstoppable.
I am not talking about gaining fat. I am talking about 20 lbs muscle. Both Sengun and Jabari. Muscle doesn't slow anybody. Matter of fact, pretty much the opposite is true. Muscle is an active tissue that will allow you to contract harder and produce more force while performing any movement.
