You can be Rudy Gobert and still be pretty bad, last season's Timberwolves because they got no to bad chemistry and locker room altercations.
Yup. How big of a sample size do they want? Hear the sound of the goalposts moving? Clearly, we can build a high level defense in the coming years. (Now If we could only make some threes!)
Not sure what that has to do with being the best rated defender on the team so far. As a team, he is rated the best defender on the team.
Surprised we are 7th. Thought we aren't anywhere in the top ten given the last month. But I guess considering teams are regularly scoring 200 pts a game, it makes sense.
Well, maybe you are looking at something else. I'm looking at NBA defensive rating leaders from statmuse, where Sengun is currently ranked #12 in the entire NBA and the best rated Rocket, with the next Rockets player being Jabari at #17. https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/nba-defensive-rating-leaders-this-season Perhaps you can link your source so we can compare?
I'm guessing his source is NBA.com....https://www.nba.com/stats/team/1610...asonType=Regular Season&dir=D&sort=DEF_RATING I prefer EPM which has Sengun 4th, but not much difference between Holiday, Sengun, Smith, FVV, Amen, and Tate. I suspect Amen is mostly being held back because of a small sample.
Thank you for linking, this changes things some. I guess the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Either way, he is still part of the 7th best rated defense as a 21 year old starting center while having room to improve. All the bad defender takes are certainly wrong. He struggles in some spots such as lob defense, but overall he is a net positive.
Why are all the bad defender takes wrong? For EPM, he's the 24th rated defensive center. Even your list, he's 10th among centers. Sengun is fine guarding the opposing center most nights. I'd say he's probably in the top 10 at guarding centers. Sengun's weakness is when he gets switched onto a quicker player and that he's just not as good at protecting the rim as most centers (i.e., he typically has to guard the center, and most centers are better help defenders than him). If Sengun gets in foul trouble, the Rockets are up a creek as they don't have a good backup center regarding guarding starting centers. I personally value help defense/switching more for centers than I value being able to guard centers as most centers aren't as skill offensively (i.e., I don't think the difference is that much in man-to-man center defense and there is a big difference in help/switching).
At this point looking at various systems he is more likely in the middle than bad, excelling in some areas as you said and needing improvement in others. I think it becomes a matter of opinion and the eye of the beholder as to where he truly stands. Overall, Udoka keeps rolling him out as our defensive anchor on the 7th best rated defense in the NBA, so I truly believe he is at least overall a good defender, as Ime doesn’t tolerate when he slacks and benches him, which doesn't happen very often.
What matters is if he can be part of a top 10 defense or not. The answer is yes, even at 21 years old and playing with other young players. The relative ratings do not provide much info about personal defensive capability.
IMO the interior D was okay but what made the team dangerous was the Perimeter Defense and that was a tons better in the earlier stages. At least the Interior D did not look as stifling as what the Timberpups did or the Orlando Magic in their middle. I was not caught up too much with one guy's D.......bc never thought much of people's criticism .....D is not as hard as people thought it is....mostly effort, positioning and communication. That is also what Udoker preached every time. If only Sengün improved and everyone else was slacking, there would be no identity....En Iyisi.
Also Dillon Brooks is back to his antics and pushing players in mid air, smacking players' body parts......being in foul trouble, that is deeply troubling.
However, once the best player beats our meh perimeter D, they have to go through Sengun who is there a lot of the time. Yes, he’s not the rim protector we would like or dream about, but he’s steadily improving. If our guys outside could contest a little more, we’d see measurable improvements in our defensive ratings.
Whoever defensive presence at C you guys think off won't help much... Cuz he'll only play 16 mins max if at that. Rox should just sign the cheap yet serviceable option in Bismack Biyombo. He won't do anything on offense except dunk the ball but he does all you want on defense and rebounding. He even played Sengun pretty well and gave him a hard time. The other guy who can help the Rox is Kelly Olynyk who is a more perimeter oriented and lesser version of Sengun. However he is an upcoming FA I don't think it's good use of resources to trade him for half a season.
I like regular season but I love post season. I believe we need to see it in playoff action -several times no less- to make judgement as their (Alperen and Jalen specifically) weaknesses and strengths will be magnified in different matchups. I am 60% confident that they can be plus defenders on a contender. 95% confident for passable. However, can’t stress this enough, will never be sure before playoffs -This goes for every young gun in the roster. So please for love of basketball gods, stop saying this year is good enough with play-ins. No it is not. I’d like to see at least 3 preferably 4 play-off series for the next 2 post seasons. Should use our assets this deadline to get better AND make sure that new assets are rollable to the future.
