Rockets being 3-2 despite Sengun playing well below average on offense is a pretty good sign. Granted, a lot of heroics from a few players, namely Green. However, if Sengun can score at a similar level as last season, the Rockets should be able to keep or even grow their leads in the future. In games against SAS and DAL, it was clear the Rockets needed a stabilising presence during those droughts, and Sengun at his best would be just that.
@rocketchamp I’ve been following you since 2013... You really know how to push people out of their comfort zones and help them see the truth. Awesome job, man...keep it up! But seriously, did we give up our valuable first-round picks for Sengun?
Please don't come for the poster that stayed consistent about things and was RIGHT, unlike guys like you. Sengun still our best player?
Some early on/off stats, I believe this is one of @Clutch's favourite stats. Even though Sengun has apparently been playing injured and despite his uncharacteristically ice cold shooting to start the season, he still has the third best on/off stat behind the clearly hot Dillon and Jalen. Once everyone's shooting and other performance were to return to last year's, Sengun should look better than he does there. There is no way Alpi will keep shooting 37 % from the field - he will be above 50 %, so eventually expect some games where he won't miss much. Note that Alpi seems to have the second-most positive impact on our team's defense behind Dillon. 93 percentile in terms of points per possession allowed while he is on the court. But this also seems to confirm the eye test that Fred has been having a pretty awful start to the season. Alpi hasn't really gotten any easy buckets from Fred, like he did last year. Also, while Amen did well on defense in the last game against the Mavs, overall, his start to the season has been bad. Also, Bari very meh...
Net rating stats (another favourite of no. 1) paint a similar picture. Remember, this is although Alpi has been playing injured and has been shooting like crap, which he will not continue to do over the season.
This is the main reason why we have to trust our EYES and not rely on stats. There is no way in the world Alpi has been that effective on defense thus far. Even SOFs have to agree. He's been sat down because of lack of defense. People trust your EYES
Sengun has great BBIQ. He is adjusting to new defensive schemes and is missing a lot of bunnies. Guys like RocketChamp are just trolls trying to get revenge on anyone that ever criticized their favorite player. It’s just the sign of an insecure and immature person that have no patience with our group of 22 and under players. Sengun, Jalen, Amen, and Jabari are our core unless we get Giannis. Sengun will start making those bunnies and bundling that with his much improved Free throw shooting and growing confidence in his 3 point shooting will be even better than last year. Sengun adds something new to his arsenal every year. We don’t have access to these guys when they are not playing games. The FO, coaches and players know what they see and thus why Sengun and Green got their extensions. RocketChamp will become more and more irrational in his hate for our other players when they start playing better and from time to time take some of the spotlight away from his hero.
I like Net Rating for context. Overall, I expect Net Rating will show Sengun is a good player this season and a great player later because it is a good stat, but not perfect. I also prefer it in larger samples, but overall one can see that the starters all have positive Net Ratings which is to be expected. I expect Adams's off rating will take a nose dive, but I expect he'll be one of the better defenders if he can get more mobile. I expect Amen's will jump higher when Adams stops sucking at defense. I expect Sengun and FVV will have their Net Ratings rise relative to other Rockets starters as I expect both to play better. For context, the Rockets have played well more often than not with all 5 starters on the court. Brooks has been great on defense. Green has been great on offense. I think Brooks has been making the defensive ratings for the other 4 starters better, and Green has done that for the offense so far. The bench...I still expect the Rockets bench to outplay other benches. This is mostly from expecting FVV running the offense with bench players, but FVV has sucked so far. Adams and Landale have sucked on defense so far. I don't expect that to continue, but so far, the general trend is that the more a player plays with them, the worse their defensive rating is. Eason and Amen's defense ratings are being dragged down by Adams and Landale. Sengun, not so much. When Tari and Amen play with mostly starters, the defense is great.
Before long, if we make the playoffs this season, Ime will likely reduce his minutes to around 15-20, which is the sweet spot.
I think fans are really enjoying watching the Rockets this season, and Ime has successfully turned Sengun into the role player he was meant to be.
Nice post. I also looked at lineups and the one that is off the charts in +/- but obviously in extremely limited minutes (17 minutes) is Jalen - Brooks - Amen - Tari - Alpi +92.4 lol
I don't think this is true, I think he's getting benched because he's not one of the five best defenders on the team. That's what Udoka is doing. He's a very singularly focused coach, he can really only see one way to close out games, and that's to sub in the all-defense team. Obviously Sengun isn't on that team. That doesn't mean he's getting benched for being bad. It just means he's not in the top-5 switch everything all-defense lineup.
