He's supposed to be, yeah....but even if not, that's why the team has 3 centers under contract. Again, it's the deepest and arguably the best position group on the roster. Adding another bench center with a premium pick just seems wasteful given that they'll likely never have a starting job while with the team. Now factor in the actual team needs when it comes to shooting and G/F depth, it makes even less sense.
lol ok, watch him play or look at the data, both say the same. You can disagree with basic facts i suppose
Sengun is more athletic than the best center in the NBA, Nikola Jokic. He is also more athletic than Vucevic, Lopez, Poeltl, Valanciunas, Kessler, Nurkic, Zach Collins, Zubac, Ayton, Looney, Myles Turner, Rudy Gobert, to name a few.
2018 Rockets would absolutely smoke this playoffs while essentially benching Clint Capela. Warriors too, Nash Suns too... It is much more complicated than small vs big.
The posters who claim that Jokic wins because he is big are the same posters who claimed Jokic would never win a championship because of his archetype. Very different team constructions can win championships. It is never something is right and the others are wrong. It all depends on the level you can execute your plan based on your roster, coach and luck.
This is how Jokic defends and why Denver is as good as they are. No, he doesn't block shots ala Gobert but like I said, he has such long arms and it causes him to deflect a lot of passes and he is extremely smart. When players get to the rim, alot of times he just stands straight and block their view of the basket.
Generally to win, you need an all time great player. Of course there are exceptions, but that's usually what you need to win. It doesn't matter how that player plays, you can build around anyone who's a top 20ish all time player (or can get there as his apex, like a dirk/kawhi). The only type a less player who followed an archetype actually won that i can think of is kobe, who was just a crappy jordan. Every poor mans curry has completely failed (dame, trae, whoever). If Jokic was the 8th best player in the nba instead of the 1st best, denver would be a completely irrelevant team. They are good because he's an all time great.
A few things, Jokic is a generational player and unique in NBA history. So I wouldn't use him as an example of you don't need an athletic center, as he's an outlier and he's the guy we're competing against and need said center to help against defensively. The issue isn't that we should just get another Jokic or don't need an athletic defensive center, (although hopefully, Sengun maximizes his talent), the issue is we have to find someone to help guard Jokic in a playoff run to win in this conference. Also, besides Embiid and how you look at Giannis, there aren't as many dominant centers or bigs in the East. Bam Adebayo and Julius Randle who are East all-stars this year at PF/C, aren't the same as Joker, Minnesota, Zion, Wemby etc. in our conference. So Boston can steamroll competition this year, as they didn't have to face true dominant centers or PFs so far in the postseason. And they'll face the Pacers next round who don't have one. Also, this isn't a threat to Sengun at the position, who is a future all-star imo, it's to complement him so we can win as a team.
Sengun is one of the best Jokic defenders in the league (I believe 5th best or so), and one of the ones who makes Jokic work the most on the defensive end.
That's what I am saying basically. 1) That player comes in different forms, curry, duncan, giannis, jokic. there is no common denominator there except doing their thing at a level almost no one has done before and having a winner mentality, which also shows up in different ways. 2) The players of the same type has a lot of differences and that makes the difference between success and failure. 3) The 'this archetype cannot win' crowd always focuses on what the player is missing compared to Jokic or Steph. But that player might have other things that might make him a great player. You don't need to be, nor you can be, exactly the same player. 4) When one formulates things too generally like in the form 'middle range is dead, it is a 3pt game now', or similarly 'post up is dead', players like Kawhi, SGA (or Sengun) come along and show you that there are other ways to win with a different combination of skills. It just depends on the level you can execute things. And that's exactly why, this type has never won, will not win is a very dumb argument, because the next player with that type will surpass the one before and will unlock a lot of things that were not available to the previous one. Also coaches will know better how to use the player.
Sengun has done great and we were 3-1 against Denver this year. Joker had lower percentages absolutely, but still had about 33 pts 16 rebounds and ten assists a game against Sengun this season. Jamal Murray was missing from two of those games this season as well so more team defensive attention could be focused on him. Joker splits 2024 I'm a big Sengun fan, but it's not just Joker it's also Minnesota who blew us out 3-0 in the regular season, Wemby in years to come, and other teams that having extra big help will benefit the team in the postseason.
I don't disagree; I was referring to a specific stat someone posted that showed Jokic did worse (relatively speaking) against Sengun than against most others. Can't find it right now.
I like that and it's great, he'll likely just get better. I really don't want to go there as this isn't about Sengun who is awesome, but the Rockets as a team defensively against other teams' bigs. But we could pull up Sengun's stats/games against Minnesota who has a deep front line and we'll see come playoff time or seeding battles. I think we agree on many things, but focusing on winning as a team is how a big like that can help, beyond just a star player who has done a great job. If a player is so good he won't be threatened, so he'll welcome good teammates to win IMO.
I agree with you - I think Steven Adams will be enormously valuable. The ideal 3rd string center, in my opinion, would be someone like Lively from Dallas (just the type - tall, bouncy, quick for a center).
Just pointing out that, Jokic is not the type of center Sengun struggles against, not about whether we should add an athletic center, which I think is a good idea by the way. https://www.nba.com/stats/player/1630578/head-to-head?SeasonType=Regular+Season https://www.nba.com/stats/player/203999/head-to-head?SeasonType=Regular+Season Looks like rockets were +9 in the 40 minutes when the two played against each other. This is pretty impressive considering Jokic is about +10 per 40 minutes overall in the season.
