To me Sengun is a Jamal Murray/Jrue Holiday level player. If your best player is Jokic/Giannis, then they work as the 2nd guy. If you don't have an MVP candidate, then he probably best work as your 3rd guy. If Amen takes another leap this year, then KD/Amen/Sengun works as a title contender as Sengun is #3. If Sengun positively regress his shooting back to his 3rd year level, and add a 35+% 3pt shot, then to me he's then a bonafide all-star and possible #2 on a title team. Whether he gets there, we will see.
Sengun and Reed Sheppard will always draw the ire of these fans. Especially since they were picked to stay on while their guy was deemed a failure not worth investing any more time to. Sengun was the single biggest reason why the team was the 2 seed in the West. Followed (closely) by Amen and then FVV.
Okay, so this season, for example, Sengun is very likely to remain the best player on the Rockets for a 5th consecutive season however this season, unlike all previous seasons he should have a lot of help and could have 2 teammates that are top 30 players in the NBA themselves. Are you concerned that the Rockets still don't have anyone better than Sengun, or does the supporting cast ease those concerns?
I'm only talking about level of player, not type. Because I found that whenever I compare types, people tell me how one player is different from another and therefore impossible to compare.To me, if Sengun is the second best player on the team, the best player has to be someone like last season SGA to compete for a title. So realistically he's a 3rd banana unless he improves his game. Quite possible, but he needs to shoot a lot better to be poor-man's Jokic.
My concern about this season is Durant not being healthy and the Rockets not having enough offensive firepower without him, so yes, if the goal is "championship this year" I would still say I'm "concerned" that Sengun is their best non-Durant player. (I'll leave the Durant v Sengun who is better argument out.)
I think KD mailed it in last season. I'm hoping that he comes out with something to prove this season. He's exactly what we need if so. We needed a closer. 2nd best record in the West means absolutely nothing if you can't finish a game. We were stuck with the Jalen Green experiment which thankfully is Phoenix's problem now On Sengun, he hasn't expanded his game. He needs to get defenses to at least respect him beyond 15 feet. He can't guard his shadow either. I'm a fan of his but if he's part of a Giannis package I won't complain.
I never knew Jrue Holiday got to the all star at 22 yrs old and was MVP in Euroleague at 18 yrs old. People keep saying Sengun is overrated I think he is underrated. First of all the fact that he signed for less than max already gives him the edge vs other max rookies, Sengun signed for 38M while Mobley is making 53.6M. That's a 15M diff what we are paying DFS. So any other max rookie Cade, Mobley, Chet, Banchero etc you need to add DFS to Sengun when you compare them. Secondly stats wise Sengun is right there with Banchero. Banchero 25/7/5, Sengun 19/10/5 , Banchero 55% TS, Sengun 54% TS. Basically around the same since Sengun plays in the harder conference. Nobody would say Banchero is a Jrue Holiday lots of people would say Banchero is an up and coming franchise player. I think Sengun is a perennial all star level player. He will be in the top 6-15 level at his peak IMO. Even without the 3 pt shot he is already very unique besides the passing he is very mobile and flexible, can blitz guards like Steph Curry and then still slide back to his guy in the paint. On offense he is a post master but he also has almost guard level handles can take ball off the dribble outside the 3 pt line and iso to the bucket.
Holiday was an all-star at age 22. Same as as when Sengun went to his first all-star game. Holiday unfortunately was born an American so no, he does not have any Euroleague accolades. But this is also the case with Sengun, who may have a Turkish League MVP, but never a Euroleague MVP.
