Alperen Sengun is the Rockets' franchise player (removed "confirmed" to remove the jinx @daywalker)

Jabari is supposed to be a floor spacing big. He's been shooting 38% from 3 this season. I think Jabari is very underused on offense.

 

I can stop the video at 0:19 and see that both feet are on the floor. And even it wasn't the case, as you said, the eye can't catch it. You should be inclined to think it is not a travel.

I think what makes it look like a travel is he weighs on his foot before taking the step making it slow motion and odd looking. He shifts his body forward toward the rim at that moment, which made me think he might have taken an extra step. and that's why it looks on, the body motion doesn't match the footwork. The amazing sengun

 

When that play happened during the game, they later showed a slow-motion shot from behind the goal and you can clearly see both feet off the ground during his stride after already gathering the ball. That said, NBA refs consistently let far more egregious walks go which is why I don't consider it travel regardless.

 

Then it is a travel and I can see why one wouldn't think it is a travel . Definitely not an obvious one though and not one that would normally be called.

 

Yup, which was why I said that while it could be called as an up and down walk, it would have been a super weak call.

 

We blew it with the bench rotation to end the third, it was a mess defense and offense and we couldn't climb outta that hole. Without either Green or Sengun on the floor we generate zero consistent offense

 

He will get better Jokic


Ok

 

Alpi isn't divisive because he is bad but precisely because he is very good. I am sure he would be loved by all fans, if he was a 14/8/5 type of roleplayer. Think of a better Spencer Hawes.

But he clearly is much more than that. He is so good, that the team and the fanbase has to make decisions. Either you accept him as the best player of the team or you trade him for some roleplayers and see how that goes. If someone thinks that this is the right way for the team, I respect that. Altough I obviously have a different opinion. But treating Alpi like a limited roleplayer is clearly the dumbest option.

 

Alpi has the second highest usage on the team as a big(which doesn't happen much due to the nature of how guards handle the ball usually) behind only the starting vet pg of the team. At a certain point you don't want Alpi merely being the best player on the team and just want a heliocentric Luka/Harden style offense but with Alpi.

 

I agree on this. I am not a fan of heliocentric offenses. But even with a lot of ball movement and sharing, you have a distinction between the best player, the second option, the third option and the role players and so on. We don't have that clear hierarchy and identity yet (which is not that surprising giving how young this team is).

 

Watching the highlights, Hollins called it the Brunson move. Sengun borrows and gives moves his own sauce. I like that. The lean back MJ/KOBe, the Smitty, The Brunson. These are moves done on some 'great' defenders that some clowns in this thread foam over.
I could only find video of Brunson doing it straight forward not laterally underneath the basket.

 

He did fine against Turner, locked down AD, earlier this season whopped Jonas' ass twice, cooked Claxton and Duren, completely outplayed Chet, ran through Mavs big, outplayed Sabonis twice i mean his one on one offense and defense is more than good enough imo. His slow feet and lack of vertical hurts him at times but if your perimeter players let 6'5-6'6 guards attack you on straight line they will cook you. That's unavoidable unless you have 7'6-7'7 wingspan. Even then more often than not they will score.

 

Really bad effort from Alpy yesterday defensively. He locked in on a few plays but Turner got whatever he wanted yesterday. My only concern with Alpy is that he does the "checks out defensively" thing if his offense isn't flowing. Gets disengaged. This absolutely cannot happen. He is our worst defender of the starting 5 and it isn't even a physical thing. It's an effort thing. The other 4 (even Jalen) give more effort on that side of the ball than he does and it showed yesterday.

If he can't correct this then he will likely not amount to much more than Sabonis. A little bit better offensively but a little worse defensively. He's still our best player (right now) but I'll be acutely cued in on his defensive sequences for the rest of the year.

 

Defensive rating is largely a team stat, not an individual one. Shots contested...hes a center. He should lead that. Defensive field goal percentage...ehh fine. Don't let the fandom cloud your judgement. He was bad yesterday. It's ok to admit that.

 

This reminds me of when people used to say Harden traveled when they didn't know the gather step rule could be abused by genius levl players. Truly an offensive genius move and demonstrates what Alpi is capable of.

 

You can't see it because of the way the video is cropped on the twitter post, but it was a travel because the left foot left the ground before the right foot landed on that big step albeit very briefly.

 

Once again, reminds me of the entire NBA fans and media complaining about Harden until the NBA refs actually had to come out and explain why it wasn't a travel. It's a move that pushes the edge of what's possible.