They DID get the ball into Sengun in the post most of the first 5ish games and he was shooting career low efficiency levels because he wasn't passing the ball and was trying to finish over multiple paint defenders. Those losses are because we tried to get Sengun more touches and he used them to be a scorer....and I think we can both agree that Sengun's super elite skill is his passing, not his scoring.
He is elite at both. Didn't do well scoring in the first 5 games, I think he was rusty. But it also seemed that he was purely being used for post-up plays in the first few games, in the last two, he seemed to be creating more from the elbow. Whether that was the coach or him or a mix of both, I don't know. We can all agree that the passing is probably the even more unusual skill for a center. Anyway, good "problems" to have. I'm just a happy Rockets fan right now - I am happy when I see the Rockets have a game on any given day. Gotten my children into the habit of watching a bit of the game with me at bedtime on my phone, and they are starting to recognize the players, and starting to understand the rules.
Yes I agree. He was forcing shots rather than finding open teammates in the first 5-6 games. He was forcing his way to become an allstar. Alpi has always been a team first player. Who got into his brain this summer costed us 4 games.
I clarified my position on Sengun, Jalen and others. I'm glad they are looking good. However, it's not about their play, it's about your affinity for Alpi....ITS WEIRD School girls and kids are infatuated with players, other people in that manner but not grown men.
I'll continue to do it, just to piss you off more lol. Also, what does "I clarified my position" mean...you have been flat out wrong.
Hahaha Dude, you not pissing me off, I'm telling you how you look! Grown men don't sit outside for hours waiting on autographs, grown men don't lose our minds in the presence of another man....we don't do that!
I’m sorry, but what you’re are saying makes no sense whatsoever. Are we trying to do “well,” or are we trying to wind a championship? Anyone with eyes should see that, when we run an offense centered around the SenHub concept, we play more effectively and efficiently. A large reason why our scoring has been so inefficient is because we got away from that concept IMO. The analytics support this notion, too, hence why Sengun is sixth in the league in PIE and seventh in Net RTG. Just because we are winning does not mean there isn’t room for improvement.
Yeah that's a cool story. So Adams is "still trying to play his way back into game shape for sure..." Meanwhile, all of our losses are b/c Sengun played terribly and selfishly. He doesn't get the scrub pass Adams gets to "play his way back.." eh? Adams' role is to set screens and box out. Alpi's role is to have the offense run through him. Maybe you want to extend that grace period to a guy who might be a decade long cornerstone for us instead of the one passing by in the wind.
This isn't a Harden thread so I'm not going to say too much. It had been my beef during the Harden era. We were too one-dimensional. The one year exception was when CP3 was here but Harden apparently did not like playing with CP3. Anyway, MDA seemed to have hinted that the "system" was at least partly coming from Harden, i.e. Harden preferred to play that way. And what could you do as the coach if your franchise player felt that it was how the offense was supposed to be maximized? I don't think we will have this issue here. Our players aren't as egocentric as Harden and Udoka is a more assertive coach.
What is the optimum way to use a player is a perfectly legitimate question, whether you argue one way or the other. In Sengun's case it becomes more important because it shapes the whole offense. It is not the same as asking this question for Jabari. And apart from that, there have been a range of opinions on what type of center we should have, suggesting we should just have a rim rummer and run offense mainly through KPJ and Green. So the current discussion is quite natural imo.
Sengun struggled to start the season but is playing like an all-star at the moment. In his past five games he's averaging 21/12/6 on 55/38/82 splits with 2 blocks and only 1.6 turnovers. And that's in only 30mpg, his per minute production is insane. His feel for the game has improved every season so far and he's only 22 years old. He used to be a bit reckless with his passes despite having good vision, but his AST/TO ratio this season is 2.57 which is better than the career bests of renowned passing big men like Pau, Webber, and Divac. I love that we are allowing him to pass from the top of the key rather than limiting him to passing out of the low post. With his improved rebounding, defense, and FT% he's already a complete player. If he gets a reliable three pointer it's lights out for the league and I truly believe he'll get there.
All good - I got a similar thing going on with my kids. We have hit a few games and they are starting to understand how the game works a bit and get into it...and it feels nice to be able to see the young ones see how cool the game is. ....regarding Sengun's skill - I think the playmaking/passing is FAR more important to this team than the scoring. If Sengun were shooting 3s consistently as well I would consider emphasis to both but there are times when we can't trade 3s for 2s and there will ALWAYS be a need for Sengun to help others get easy shots because we have a roster of guys who aren't able to consistently create for themselves.
I literally don't know what you are talking about. I never blamed Sengun for the losses - just pointing out that when we forced a lot of touches to him earlier in the year, HE used them to try to score and not pass and it didn't work out as well for him or the team. My point being that when the team shares the ball, they are a better team. Calling for more touches for Sengun opposes that ethos. There are just going to be those games where Sengun has more touches and those games where the ball doesn't find itself to him as much. That's how we are better team when everyone is a weapon and not just constructing a team to weaponize one guy. I'm not even sure why you are bringing up Adams - I haven't mentioned him in weeks and YES, Adams is a role player - does nothing like what Sengun does. No idea what you are referencing here but "cool story".
100% agree - I think we just need to be open to the conversation that Sengun can be the best player on the team and still doesn't necessarily have an offensive system that revolves solely around him. We have a lot of guys with offensive skills but very few playmakers so it's important that our best playmaker leans heavily on how he gets others shots and that we encourage the Freds and Jalens to also find teammates with their more limited playmaking skills. Outside of those 3, the rest of the roster struggles to do anything on their own at this stage in their career....but if the offense is let Sengun cook for 2pters then this team won't be as good and it's not because Sengun isn't a great offensive players, it's because we also need a steady diet of 3s and it's because Sengun needs others guys to have a rhythm so when we need a bucket, everyone is a potential weapon, not just the guy we built an offense around.
...other people are picking up what I'm putting down. I'm not going to waste more time explaining it if you don't get it. That's more of a "you problem" than me.
It is important to remember that net rating is not an individual stat. It is a (weighted) average of net ratings of the 5s Sengun is a part of. So increasing Sengun’s minutes can decrease his net rating, if those extra minutes come with the less favorable 5s. Or his net rating can increase or decrease without increasing minutes, just by reallocating minutes to other players. in my opinion 28-30 minutes is a healthy diet for both the team and Sengun himself, other than keeping his stats a little bit less than his max potential. Of course, if the team needs him to play more, that could be exercised, otherwise I would keep it off the table until the playoffs. as for playing through him more, there is all the time in the world to play around with it. But my guess is that his usage will increase as his capacity to read defenses increase and he will keep doing the right move, something jokic excels at and I am quite hopeful he can get there because he is so good at learning stuff.