There is no formula that guarantees success and the lower you go on the talent scale the harder to make the correct analysis. But in Sengun's case the signs were much more obvious. A kid dominating Turkish league at 18 years old, without using athleticism or any physical gifts in particular. That will almost always translate, especially when you draft at 19 years old and can start nba body training at a very early age.
People said the same about Garuba - the year before he came over there were people saying he was the best defensive player in a tough league that year and his young age and pudgy physique pointed to room for real growth.
Nah, give the man some respect, he might not be on the bandwagon from the very start, almost no one was. However I never stopped following him and Jackson has been the most fair to Alperen outside of fanbois and as you stated, the first one from media to start riding the bandwagon, earlier than you think.
That's right. I was also hyped about him. But his offense was almost non-existent. His hoped trajectory was a good back-up/role player and i think it was possible if he fell into the right hands. The nba is merciless to the lower draft picks and one needs to get lucky.
I've never observed Jackson to be actively looking to blame almost every single defensive mistake the team makes on Sengun though (even when it's Bari that gets bullied under the basket, Sengun tries to come and help, the other team's guy ends up scoring or when KD blows by the entire Rockets team on the floor - depending on what your pre-existing bias is, you'll only blame Sengun. Like 10 times a game.).
Ironically him being such a good post player was one of the reasons why he slipped in the draft. Even people who acknowledged his skill compared him to players like Greg Monroe or Jahlil Okafor and thought he has no place in today's NBA. But they completely ignored his other skills and underrated his athleticism. He is actually a very modern player and much more than a post specialist. Also NBA teams love to draft some raw Euros who barely get playtime in Europe but often they regard players like Alpi as early matured without much room for improvement. Combined with his lacking English, the bad workouts, questions about his size and athleticism made Alpi too risky for a lot of teams when he in fact was one of the safest picks in the draft.
Agreed. I listen to locked on Rockets every day and he has been very fair to him. I have been a huge alpi fan but I never got the impression Jackson was unfair. He has been asking for Shenhub for a long time.
I think we are finding out quite a bit about Sengun this year and I think he certainly can be our starting 5 and be the focal point of the offense. However I think he desperately needs shooting around him and the team would take a huge leap if they were about to upgrade by adding a scoring wing in the offseason as well as a defensive big you can play in a 3 man rotation with Bari and Sengun. Jabari getting stronger will help a lot too but we also need that 3rd big in the rotation. One things for certainly is you are doing yourself no favors by having an offense centered around Sengun when you are pairing him with freaking Tate and Jalen Green. I don’t think we need to trade either guy asap (well maybe Tate who stinks imo) but it’s obvious that both are horrible fits in a Sengun centric offense.
If you cannot even trade for guys that would come in if the starters got injured, I am not sure what to say. It is natural that players break down during a long season and now with the IST..... They already had luck with Fox not playing and Morant missing 3 Memphis games. (5 relatively easier games)
I mean you could but I’d prefer to retain as much assets as we can moving forward and use free agency in the offseason to make big additions. I don’t think this team is good enough to be trading picks. Especially for mid season trades in a season where you might not even make the play in because you’re competing with the like a Durant and Booker led team for a play in spot or one of the greatest teams of all time in the Warriors. Right now with Injuries happening I think it’s a good idea to see what you have with some of these prospects like Cam, Amen, and maybe even Jeenathan, Hinton, etc. I wish we had a young big though to experiment with a bit as a future piece in a 3 big rotation, but Stone for whatever reason sort of duplicated his efforts with wings this summer. So yeah I’d prefer Stone actually not make trades this deadline unless it doesn’t require sending out any picks and maybe it’s just a situation where maybe you can leverage salary to help a team out financially and get a rental back who can help.
I already complained, I know, I should not have......yada.... FVV and Brooks overachieved in the first 20 games, it was very clear..... I just thought it was unwise to get carried away by the record and stand pat....while the roster is actually not that deep. The gripe with that is that has been the doing of the GMs here in Houston for a while now......not rentals but acquisitions that just stayed for 1-2 years and moved on.
With the way things are going I think anybody we pick with the Brooklyn 2024 first rounder is highly unlikely to make the rotation given that it's a weak draft class. Worried that pick is just going to lose all its value after we make it. That's why I would seriously consider trading out of this year's draft even though it's generally not a great idea to force things.
Weak at the top but it might be a draft of serviceable role players though. After all that Cade and Green Draft Class was not that great either.
He was a first round pick (23) actually. Not so low, close to Sengun (16). So basically Rafael Stone failed in more than half of his first round picks imo. Probably Failed (according to draft order): Green (2), Garuba (23), Josh (24), Thompson (4 - wrong twin imo, not top 10 in any of the rookie rankings) Succeeded: Alperen (16), Jabari (3), Whitmore (20), Tari (maybe) no major trades, signed two role players for double their market price, and he still has a GM job...
