Ime Udoka on Rockets OT loss to Warriors, Alperen Sengun's struggles

This is sad lol

 

This is the crux of it for me. Sengun being benched is fine and doesn't require all the crying and b****ing from his fans. The actual "crime" is FVV being allowed to do whatever he wants with impunity and play utter trash without being benched, though that's exactly what @harold bingo thinks should happen because he's our highest paid player and apparently that means that coaching doesn't apply.

 

I wish you were the warriors coach in 2019 so you could've benched Curry in game 6. We could've won that game if he didn't play in the second half!

 

Start listening at the 2:13 mark....Alpi left the bench early and went to the locker room

 

You literally used stats to say Sengun is bad now when I use stats to say he is good data isnt useful?

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/s/sengual01.html

If you look at the advanced stats all his BPM and VORP are all positive. He is far from his 2023 form but he isnt stinking up the court either. His efficiency is terrabad but he is making it up on defense and effort.

FVV is the one making a mess. All advanced stats either negative or close to zero lol. We lost all our games cuz the worst player plays the most minutes.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/v/vanvlfr01.html

I dont even blame FVV this is all the fault of Ime Udoka overplaying the worst guy and not playing the best guys enough. If Udoka thinks Sengun is not good enough then fine but then why play FVV 40 mins? Just sends the wrong message no wonder the guys get frustrated.

 

Dude should have taken accountability instead of talking so much bullcrap. He keeps blaming the players for not paying attention to detail when he isnt even paying attention who deserves to play who needs to sit. He is the one at fault here playing the worst performer 40 mins says it all.

The problem here is it didnt seem like he learned anything just keep blaming the players. I hate to say jt but looks like he might be more Mark Jackson than Steve Kerr.

 

19 possessions of lineup data is not useful. That’s about 4 minutes of game time. You can’t draw conclusions from 4 minutes.

The stat I gave was an on/off. That covers 300 minutes of game time so far.

Who said “Sengun is bad”? Not me. I said Sengun has been bad at driving halfcourt offense this year, which is just obviously true. Data and eye test. And when that’s the case Ime doesn’t want to close with him.

Sengun will get back to driving solid halfcourt offense sometime soon, because he’s a very good player.

And glad you agree on FVV. I said FVV has been bad anll around and I wouldn’t have brought him back in.

 

Why would the coach have benched him for winning the game? That's the difference. No player in any sport on any team is excused from being coached just because of their contract. Could you imagine how ridiculous that would be? "Ok guys, listen to coach, but not the guys who earn over 30mil, you guys do whatever the **** you like, coach doesn't apply to you!" Does that not sound ridiculous to you? Let's put it another way. These are the Rockets salaries this year, let's say coaching doesn't apply to the top 4 which aligns with your beliefs on the subject:
FVV - 45 mil - he doesn't have to do what coach says or listen to coach
Dillon Brooks 22 Mil - Doesn't have to do what coach says
Adams 12 mil - no coaching
Jalen Green 12 Mil - no coaching
Reed Sheppard 10 mil - first person who has to listen to coach, but just barely, he's top 5, duh!
Bari 9 mil - needs to be coached
Amen 9 mil - coached
Uncle Jeff 8 mil - coached
Jock 8 mil - coached
Tate 7 mil - coached
Alpi 5 mil - coach's actual b**** at this point, considering we judge it only by salary, right?

Do you not see how ridiculous this starts to get? Everybody should be coached, the issue isn't that Alpi and Jalen are being coached, the real issue is that FVV ISN'T being coached - but that's what you're advocating for, the people who've been extended to not be coached also, rather than FVV being actually coached. And you don't think that's ridiculous? It's a choice I guess.

 

Coach always loving those shortcuts.

 

That is not what I’m advocating for. I was gonna write a long response to this but I decided to just keep it short and simple. Your interpretation of what I think is backwards. You think I’m saying “your contract is X, so here’s how you should be treated.” That’s not what I think. I think you shouldn’t hand out big contracts to players who will play so poorly that they need to be benched. So my takeaway on Fred is that he should be benched for his play, and that indicates that he is currently not playing up to his contract.

 

You've argued yourself into a corner there though, because the players we're mostly discussing this about are Jalen and Alpi, who are still young developing players - they're not getting those contracts based on their history or performance, they're getting them based on their POTENTIAL which requires COACHING for them to actually achieve. We're not paying for the finished product yet, we're paying for the right to be the team that takes advantage of that finished product in the future, so that some other team doesn't take them away...

 

We struggled without FVV last year and so he has been apprehensive about taking him out - especially with Reed being raw.

The Rockets have an odd accumulation of talent that doesn’t really fit together great and I am sure that is part of it.

I think they will be fine. Sengun will play better than he has has, Udoka will find his stride and if the spacing ever improves, Green will be efficient.

 

Your logic is flawed in that you are assuming that Sheppard is the pg to take FVV’s place. Amen is who will take his place and sooner than folks think.

 

Reed is a shooter - which is what the Rockets need right now.

 

He is an off-guard on offense in my opinion and still not ready for NBA speed. When he gets ready he will get a shot with the second unit, but as I predicted from the start that will happen in the latter part of this year if at all this year. He has potential to be a plus bench player if Ime plays to his strength. If he plays him as a facilitator, he will be meh.

 

All signs seem to point to this. Though Reed will eventually become co-PG along with Amen.

 

A starting backcourt of Amen and Jalen scares me. That’s a backcourt of guys who aren’t above average shooters.

 

I agree this could happen. A year or so ago both Stone and Ime were talking about having a 3 or 4 headed monster that could facilitate the offense. I still think that would be ideal. At some point, Jalen, Amen, Sengun and FVV(while he is still here) and Sheppard when FVV is gone, can play the role, but Ime will have to be a much better offensive coach to take advantage or he will have to hire an OC. He is experimenting a bit with Jalen and Amen, but he seems to have abandoned the idea of Sengun as a facilitator for now. Maybe there is a grand scheme here, but he needs to abandon his vet security blankets sooner rather than later.

 

It's clear there's a different direction this year. Amen is running more point. There is less Sengun post play. Alpy is young enough to not fall entirely into the Sabonis/Jokic archetype. I think they want him as more of a hybrid. Almost like he's being rebuilt like Jalen was last year. Amen is taking more 3s. He's at 25% on the year. If I had to guess they're going to tell him (and Sengun) to take those shots that they're giving him. It's clunky right now but it does seem like there's a blueprint they're trying to follow.