I think they like it there. That said, what would you pay for him? Jabari, Tari, Reedband a lot of picks
To make salaries work, it would have to be something like Sengun + Reed + Tari + Nate Williams (and presumably multiple draft picks). I think that's the only way to get it done and I'm not 100% sure it even works because we're hard capped at the first apron IIRC. At the trade deadline more possibilities open up. Would I do it? I don't know. If we win a championship in the next three years it's worth it. If not we've possibly closed the window on ourselves when we didn't have to.
You don't make 3-4 kids in one place that you hate and establish your big charity and fundraiser thing......and make it the Center of your life. That is common sense. But yes, she can be moved because the Center is Giannis but Giannis knows the baby needed stability in its first 1-2 years so yeah...... All the memories are there, and the place where Yannis proposed......
Hard cap hurts and I'm not sure either. I'm with you on the championship. I'd do that for a fing. Celtics blue print. I'm not sure what will be available at the deadline. You can't really get much more than KD an Giannis
I had to think maybe you don't have that kind of lifestyle but yeah those dudes that are not like Harden, they need to balance their hard work life with kids and families and a stable environment....... SGA would also kind of fall into this category ....and Joker I can see him returning to Serbia because of his horses. Durant is single.
Did you not know that we put Alpie on the weakest offensive player and players not likely to be involved in pick and roll? It's not like I'm revealing a secret, it's well known. Here's a Ringer article from early last season where they interview Udoka about our defense and mention this very thing: https://www.theringer.com/2024/11/25/nba/houston-rockets-defense-ime-udoka From the article: The stout defenders in his rotation make that possible. Here’s Brooks, who’s 6-foot-6, battling the 7-foot Karl-Anthony Towns in the post. Houston doesn’t even think about putting two on the ball: “That’s the beauty of Dillon,” Udoka says. “We don’t look at Karl-Anthony Towns or [Victor] Wembanyama and the 5s that we put him on as a mismatch. Him and some of our big wings, you know, whether it’s Amen, Tari, Jabari, we don’t look at those as mismatches.” Houston’s on-court brainpower, versatility, and willingness to make multiple efforts is huge. But Udoka’s scheme would fall like a house of cards if everyone on the court who isn’t known for standing their ground can’t, in fact, stand their ground. The Rockets address this issue in a few ways. First, they deploy non-traditional matchups, with Brooks, Eason, Thompson, and Smith each able to start on a center and then switch freely onto primary ball handlers without any real concession. It’s a luxury that reduces the number of pick-and-rolls Alperen Sengun is engaged in. Instead, he’s able to spend more time roaming off the ball and helping at the rim, where opponents are only shooting 54.9 percent when he’s nearby contesting the attempt. From last season to this season, no one in the NBA has seen his percentage of minutes guarding a center drop more than Sengun’s—down 17.5 percent—per Bball-Index. Here's a Udoka quote from the article “For us, I think one thing that’s helped is moving Alperen off ball some,” Udoka says. “Alperen kind of being a roamer, coming across to help has helped him as well, not just being a traditional two-on-one situation in a pick-and-roll. … He’s been so much better from last year, and he showed steps last year.” You don't believe a quote from an article? Ok, here's link where you can watch Udoka actually say it. "I like our versatility as well, where we can hide Alpie on some guys and take away some actions by having some of our big wings on their bigs" "where we can hide Alpie on some guys..." . As I said previously, you don't hide good defenders. I'll ask you the same question, "do you watch the games?". If so, are you under the impression that Sengun is routinely guarding really good offensive players? We cross match a ton to get him off of good offensive players or players who are going to participate in a lot of pick and rolls. That's why 6'6" Dylan Brooks was our primary defender on KAT, Wemby and Porzingis. Who do you think Sengun was guarding in the playoffs? He started off the series with Moses Moody as his defensive assignment. GS started using Moody in the pick and roll and then we moved Sengun over to Brandin Podziemski who's shot had been off and isn't going to set screens in a pick and roll. Why would you think that our center guarded Brandin Podziemski more than anyone else in the first round series? The answer is because they didn't want him guarding Draymond because they'd keep putting him in the pick and roll with Curry.
Ok, let's review. I posted ZERO lineup stats. I stated a well known fact about how we scheme the defense. Go look at my last post and you can watch Udoka say the same thing. Regardless, certainly not a lineup based stat. I stated the percentage of time that Sengun guarded the opposing centers. Again NOT a lineup based stat. It's an individual stat captured by the camera system in all NBA arenas and published by the NBA. I stated that Sengun didn't guard good offensive players. Also not a lineup based stat. It is information recorded by the camera in every NBA arena and also published by the NBA. So, what exactly did I post that you took to be a lineup based stat? BTW in case you are wondering, here's the 20 players who Sengun spent the most time guarding last regular season and their FG% when guarded by Sengun. This is an individual stat, not a lineup stat. As you can see, it's a bunch of offensively challenged guys. Why do you thnk that he's primarily guarding bad offensive players? Do you think Udoka said "Hey, we need to take Kris Dunn out of the game tonight...let's put Alpie on him" ? Walker Kessler 66.7% Rudy Gobert 80.0% Nick Richards 37.5% Isaiah Hartenstein 78.6% DeAndre Jordan 62.5% Yves Missi 80.9% Brook Lopez 56.3% Jonas Valanciunas 69.2% Zach Edey 50.0% Jarrett Allen 75.0% Toumani Camara 21.1% Kevon Looney 37.5% Luke Kornet 85.7% Ivica Zubac 57.1% Jaden McDaniels 41.7% Kris Dunn 52.6% Alex Sarr 10.0% Jeremy Sochan 71.4% Daniel Gafford 37.5% Draymond Green 71.4% Last season, here's the distribution of who Sengun guarded in the regular season: Centers 35.8% of the time Forwards 40.1% of the time Guards 24.0% of the time In the playoffs, it was even more severe: Centers 9.1% of the time Forwards 40.3% of the time Guards 50.3% of the time We weren't really particular. Any bad offensive player would do, regardless of position. These numbers are an individual stat, not a lineup stat. They are captured by the camera which track player movements in every game in every arena.
I don't get why people get so offended when someone says we hide Sengun on defense. Not only do we hide him but our POA and wing defenders position themselves far more aggressively against penetration whereas other teams sometimes funnel penetration towards a rim protector. It's not a diss, it's just smart basketball.
Being one of the worst defenders in the starting lineup on an elite defense is not really disrespecting Sengun anyway. Both things can be true, he can be a two-way player now (I think he is basically is) and still not be as good as Amen, Tari, Jabari, etc.
This right here. Sengun is a good defender, he was holding his own frequently having to stop quick guards at the perimeter and still having successs, also underrated at the rim where he frequently stopped shots by altering them or straight up blocking them, great at jumping up and down straight. That being said, he is good at defense, not amazing like the rest of the team as his lateral quickness is average, limited by his physicaltraits. He is smart with his positioning and sneaky athletic but most people will look weak on defense compared to Amen, Tari, and Bari.
He's not a good defender though. He was the weakest defensive player in our lineup. He's the guy that we scheme our defense to hide. Yes, he shares the floor with Amen but Jalen Green was out there too. While Greens defense has greatly improved over the last two years, he's not a plus defender. He's average at best. If they're hiding you rather than Green, then you're not a good defender. BTW, I agree with you that Sengun's physical limitations are a huge reason that he's a poor defender. Unfortunately, it also makes it hard for him to overcome. The NBA has an interesting stat called Diff%. They track all the shots that a player guarded and they calculated the percentages which were actually shot vs that players normal percentage from those same areas. The difference is the Diff%. Dillon Brooks has a Diff% of -0.1%, which means that players shot a very slight bit (1 tenth of a percentage point) worse when guarded by Brooks as compared to what they normally shoot on the same shots. Overall, Brooks numbers look like he's league average but Brooks numbers are greatly effected by the fact that he's spending so much time guarding guys 6 inches taller than he is. Brooks was having to guard those guys because Sengun can't. Sengun is a very good player but he isn't a good defender. Otherwise, we wouldn't have to skew our defense so much to hide him.
While individual defense is important, those guys were all great team defenders therefore the Defense was great throughout the year sans 1 month...... Of course you relied on the Terror Twins and lengthier players to guide the Defense more. Sengün's Defensive Plus Minus were at least by 1.5 better than Jalen Green's who was still slightly negative. Tari and Amen's defensive stats are unmatched by any other Rocket and probably most NBA players.... They passed the eye test and the stats every fan could see that they were the Defense. Dillon's Defense efficiency was very overrated, it was pretty mediocre in the NBA sense but he did defend physical Bigs.....so yeah he helped.
+/- is a lineup based stat and not a good indicator. The fact is that we didn't hide Green on defense. We did hide Sengun. What does that tell you? Do you know who has one of the best diff% in the league? None other than KD. On the shots he defended, the opponent only shot 41.1% on shots where they normally shoot 46.8% for a whopping -5.7% diff%. Admittedly, he wasn't getting difficult defensive assignments.
Wah, Wah, Wah. Jalen Only Fans still out dissing on Sengun. Here is a litmus test for you. Name all the starting centers in the NBA you’d rather have than Sengun? Jokic, Embid (when healthy which is close to never), AD (when healthy which is close to never), Wemby (when healthy 46 games last season). That’s it.
The Rockets did hide Green. The Rockets did their best to keep smaller players on him and big players off him. Putting Sengun on non-player makers and keeping him out of actions just was better for the defense than hiding Green as Sengun is a better defensive rebounder and a better help defender than Green (this is not to mean that Sengun was a good help defender...just comparative to Green, height matters at the rim). With Green off the court, it was so much easier for the Rockets to hide Sengun (i.e., more people that could guard up). With Sengun off the court, it really didn't help the Rockets as much to cover Green. Edit: I'd say +/- by itself is not a good indicator especially in small samples. I think it can be used for the extremes in large sample sizes. With other stats, it is useful to create better metrics. For Green, the on/off defensive data is extreme.
I don't think that Green or Sengun are good defenders. I think that Green improved as a defender over time, but he still had some very real limitations and when he was on the court it forced the point guard to guard shooting guards. Sengun has some serious defensive limitations as well, that the Rockets try to hide by putting the right players next to him. His defensive shortcomings and lack of perimeter shooting makes him difficult to construct a team around. Green is gone - Amen Thompson defensively is a MASSIVE upgrade. As for Sengun, he is a very productive and good player - but his flaws are what could lead him to being moved.
Amen Thompson was here last year and averaged 36 minutes a night once he moved into the starting lineup - the most on the team. He's not replacing or upgrading anybody. Putting a faster perimeter player on Smith or Durant or whoever is nominally replacing Green in most lineups is unlikely to be a massive upgrade, particularly if it's a quicker guard, and may even be a downgrade.
I think this is a good thing to watch over the first quarter of the season. With Durant, Amen, and Jabari Smith Jr. in the starting lineup, how do the starters compare to last season with Dillon & Jalen. I think the team defense will probably be better and I would be surprised if it is worse. Similarly with the offense - I expect it to be significantly better and would be surprised if it is the same. Our bench may be slightly worse as we are putting Amen & Jabari in the starting lineup and giving Reed Sheppard more rotation minutes. DFS will help the bench or the starting lineup.
