True that! For a guy they complain about choking in the playoffs constantly, he sure got us further than anyone not named Hakeem. Anyone remember how many times we made it past the 1st round between Dream and Beard?
Adams does a lot of nice veteran stuff that Alpi can learn from. A lot to be benefitted from added strength from Sengun.
I hope he's just trying to say the footwork and smart reads of defenders in the post are very similar to Hakeem. Clearly they aren't anywhere in the same orbit as impactful players - Hakeems length and athleticism COMBINED with that footwork sets him well apart from Sengun but I DO see some parallels in that they both read defenders really well and have that rare ability to make good defenders looks bad with an awesome array of spins and fakes that leave defenders grasping at the air...
Sometimes it is forgotten that he is 21 years old, because when Green plays badly, there is an argument saying 'he is still 21', this also applies to Alperen, Hakeem is a legend, but at what age did he win his first championship? 31 years old, so if he were playing today he'd get a lot of criticism. When Alperen plays badly, everyone here criticizes him, but sometimes I think he is criticized too much.
Mostly passes the eye test for me - felt like although Brooks started hot, he has been pretty bad for most of the season. A little worried about that contract but on the positive side it decreases while the cap is increasing so provided he is at least a serviceable rotational player as a 30yr old, I hope he will still have somewhat of a market.
We are really going to go there, huh? Jesus... Goonatics are truly a different breed. Dream came into the league as a superstar. He averaged 20/12 with almost 3 blocks per game. He came in and instantly became a defensive anchor. All of this despite not playing basketball until he was 15 years old.
22 years old, rookie and instantly an offensive presence WHILE being the defensive anchor which is something Goon will never, ever be.
Truth. When you look even closer, some of the defensive maestros that some here expect Alpi to be at 21, give up the the same percentages, unless they're on a team with excellent team defense. For example Brook Lopez was a joke in these threads when he played for Brooklyn, "He's a traffic cone." Still remember that comment about Lopez from back in the day. And He is back to that with the lack of perimeter defense this season. It's not easy being a two way center in today's nba. https://www.nba.com/stats/players/d...als&PlayerPosition=C&dir=D&sort=NORMAL_FG_PCT You can cross reference those numbers with the individual defensive rating from any center/pf of choice and it paints a better picture. Then, one can access the % in the paint the Rockets are giving up while Sengun is on the floor and it's comparable to squads with the defensive maestros. https://www.nba.com/stats/players/opponent-shooting?DistanceRange=By Zone&dir=D&sort=Restricted Area FG PCT For Alpi he just has to keep putting in the juerk juerk juerk in the off season. I really wish he'd stop playing free safety with the 3 point line. But I've been saying that for 3 years now even with the national team.
Sometimes people forget that Hakeem averaged 25 pts/12 reb/3 blocks/2 steals in the NBA Finals as a 23 yr old(and that was his 2nd year of playoff experience).
Mentioning Hakeem on this board without riding his dick is considered heresy, so I dont recommend it to anyone.