I think you are legitimately stupid if you think the team is better without Sengun. They are obviously better with him. Weird to post this after a night where the team was +10 with him, and -4 without him. That being said, it's also the wrong question to ask. The right question to ask is "would the rockets be better with a center of roughly similar value/salary that fits better with the team?" And as long as Ime is the coach I think that's a legitimate topic of conversation.
Sengun's 2nd half was not as good as his 1st half. However, Sengun had significantly more impact that his stats would show, because he drew a lot of fouls and helped put both Gafford and Lively (Mavs center rotation) in foul trouble. This basically made it difficult for the Mavs to play their standard pick and roll game, and also made it difficult for their centers to defend and rebound with the same level of aggression.
If Sengun would pick and pop or stop trying to drive into 3 people he would fit, but tonight they had a triangle in the paint to stop him and our 3pt shooters missed in the first half. And we got on a roll without him so he went with the hot hand. DD
That's pretty much my take on it too. Sengun is a hell of a player, idk if he is a long term fit here though. To be fair to him, we aren't doing him any favors with our offense. We're making him set a ton of screens really far away from the basket. I've never seen a many "pick and rolls" where the roller gets the ball above the free through line. He should have the ball around the elbows with Jalen, Tari, Amen, and Cam cutting off of him and Reed, Bari, and Fred slipping open for threes within the chaos.
Bari should be our go to pick and pop screener in the middle of the court and. Sengun should be running pick and rolls on the strong side with with an empty corner so that the ball handler doesn't drive into a ton of help.
NO, is the answer, but YES is the answer against certain teams. Sengun is a matchup nightmare some nights.......for the enemy and some nights for the Rockets. DD
We also got on a roll with him in the third quarter, and cut the lead down by 15 points, and then he never got to go back in the game, because Ime does Ime things.
I think the team shouldn't be better without Sengun. Doesn't have to be that way. But the results on the court seem to say there's no real difference between playing both Sengun and Green or one of them. That tells me we're not utilizing them properly together. Green is not attacking the PnR in the same way he does with Adams. Sengun is not setting a solid enough pick and keeping his man pinned on the pick. I feel like Steven Adams should coach them on how to run it. He really understands how important the details are to a PnR guard and big.
I sure love seeing the easy bucket after bucket after bucket in the paint down the stretch when horrible defensive stiff Sengun is parked on the bench. You're definitely making the right moves coach Udoka. Right coach? Right?
I've been saying it for years, 3's > 2's When big centers have to play drop coverage and teams can flood the perimeter with decent 3-point shooters......it's bringing a knife to a gunfight. More and more teams are equipping themselves with the 3&D wings that swarm everything defensively (like the Celtics do, Warriors this year have greatest efficiency). Take advantage of the slower Center in Pace and lack of coverage defending the perimeter. Drop Coverage defense will always leave a man open somewhere for the 3. Drop coverage works vs teams with only one or two decent 3-point shooters on the perimeter. But fails vs: Teams with 3, 4 or 5 decent shooters on the perimeter. Which is what the final four teams of each conference will be in the playoffs. Soon to be final 6 in each conference to then final 8 in each conference and so on, and so on. It's a numbers game. 3's > 2's AAU is prepping / promoting slim bigs to shooting 3's and running the court better at a younger age. Get use to the future of NBA basketball.
I'm not sure if this is the answer overall, but it definitely was the answer last night. The Warriors came out smoking hot from 3 and that opened up everything else for them. When we went to the switchable defense we were able to challenge them and of course their shooting came back to earth. That's how we got back into the game, a squad of switchable wings with Amen and Jabari actually sharing time at the 5. It's great for our defense to show this potential, but what about the offense? Our offense with that squad was basically Tari out hustling everyone and Amen bullying his way to some tough baskets (sprinkle in a few 3's from Jabari as well). Is that a dependable offensive plan? I'm not saying you're wrong I'm just thinking it through and asking questions.
I think if Jalen's hitting his shots then we could feasibly make that work situationally against high volume 3pt shooting teams. Reed/Jalen/Amen/Tari/Bari would be hyper athletic and very switchable, and we could also probably just run a lot of teams out of the building. It wouldn't be sustainable as a long-term strategy I don't think or as the "default" way to run the team, and the game threads would literally be "where's Alpi? Why is Udoka not playing Alpi? What is the conspiracy against Alpi" (see last night's come back for reference) every 2 posts, but I do think it's a valid strategy for us to use when we need to.
Exactly, the current Warriors model has been the model I've been pushing for years. It's always been a belief that going small runs the big centers off the court. Big centers get exposed on the perimeter in switch everything defense. So since the Warriors and Rockets performed well with switch everything defense since 2015-16. Teams have learned to play drop coverage with their big centers as a means of keeping them on the floor longer. But teams are getting wiser and learning to over flood the perimeter with good 3-point shooters to force the big to help provide coverage along the perimeter. There is just too much territory to cover for just 4 defenders. I wish I could find and post a Ringer article that came out around 2019 that put the numbers in footage to set the point. It used Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson sitting out there beyond the 3 point line by about 3 to 5 feet and how that puts so much strain on a defense to cover so much territory. It's almost impossible for 5 defenders to do so. Forget about 4 defenders. If I can find the article I will post it.
