I agree with you except I think Alpi will be a legit superstar. He is already an all star at 23 hasnt even reached his prime. Injuries are the only thing that can derail Sengun, and he seems 100% from seeing him play RN. Dude is moving like a forward out there. I actually think it would be good if he moved to PF full time he plays really well in the double big lineup and Rox prob beat GSW if JG didnt **** the bed.
I'm with you on trying him at the 4, with him moving that well I think he'll be a tough cover for the majority of the 3's they play as 4's in the modern game. I really hope they focus on Alpi attacking the basket or working on the block this coming season and less 20ft grounded shots that never go in. That adjustment alone will shoot his efficiency back up to where it's supposed to be.
I guess it would depend on how you define "superstar". My hope has really faded that he can be a guy heavily in MVP conversations, like a top 5 player type of guy. I've kind of pulled back on the Jokic comparison after his offense didn't show any significant improvements last season. Can he be a top 10 player at his peak? Maybe. Again, my reference point (not a direct 1:1 comp but just kinda-sorta close) has started to be more Pau Gasol. Was he a "superstar", or just a "star"? I would personally say the latter, though he did make All-NBA 2nd team twice.
this …I wasn’t gonna take the time to reply to that, but this is the perfect response and is accurate.
I think a lot of the change was defenses trying to take away Sengun going to the basket, and defenses focusing more on making Sengun score through contact when he gets to the basket. I think the Rockets will work on him finishing better, but also on adding range. It is easier to stop Sengun around the basket when one doesn't have to worry about him away from the basket.
I get that, but in the same stroke, if he's going to be a superstar or even a star then he needs to be able to win that war without them taking it away. You don't take away prime Lebron driving to the basket, you just hope you can disrupt him enough that he misses a few. You can't stop prime Curry from hitting all his 3's, he wins that battle more than he loses it. Settling for a crappy mid-range shot means the defense beat him, it's the Jalen Green problem or what I'm now calling "Invisible Boy" syndrome. There was this stupid ass superhero movie and the kid could only turn invisible if nobody else looked at him at all. Superstar skills are pointless if they're taken away at the slightest bit of pressure, the real star players are the ones where you can't take their abilities away, just hope you can throw enough at them to lessen them enough for you to win.
Gasol was never exactly a clear cut superstar, in my view, and the main reason is that he just wasn’t dominant enough offensively to be a reliable number one option. If you look at the top ten players in the league today, most of them have the talent to shoulder the offensive load for their teams and thrive in 1vs1 situations. Personally, I think Sengun has already shown more promising qualities than Gasol did at the same age, especially when it comes to being the primary offensive force. Sengun’s passing ability sets him apart; you can truly build an entire offense around him, which is something I never really felt you could do with Gasol. That kind of playmaking is a real superstar trait, and only a handful of guys in the league have it. Sengun has his clear weaknesses, but I’m optimistic because he’s self-aware and seems to understand what he needs to do to take the next step. The question is how talented Sengun is. Does his passion for improvement exceed his potential? If you caught his long interview from Turkey, he talked about how last year’s injury was a big setback, but he didn’t use it as an excuse. This season, he’s healthy and has the absolute chance to recapture his touch, hopefully extending his range outside the paint. IMO, his development in mid-range shots will play a huge role in determining how far he can go in his career. Next season, it’s important for him to consistently dominate in about 90% of his games, significantly improve his efficiency, and show that he can handle tough matchups in the paint even when brute strength alone isn’t enough. We'll see.
Superstars tend to have counters (i.e., they tend to be more than one-trick ponies). The obvious counter for Sengun is to force teams to respect his shot. I don't think Sengun should abandon taking it to the basket, but teams are basically giving him free points with how they defend him sometimes. I expect Sengun will have a big bounce back in efficiency this year. I don't expect Sengun to be prime Curry or prime Lebron even if he learns to shoot., but odds are better if he can. Though on the invisble boy movie, I think he ended up in a situation that involved lasers with noone looking at him such that he basically became Jordan vs. Russell with the NBA Finals in the balance.
Whether those midrange shots are "crappy" depends on whether you can make them. If Jalen Green could hit those midrange shots, he would be much more effective and efficient. A shot is useless unless you can make them with consistency. So it's a matter of whether Sengun can hit middies consistently. You can't assume that it will be crappy without seeing him trying to develop it. If he can make those shots, then it will open up a lot of things. If he can't then he'll have to settle for going into a crowded paint. It's not about settling for the midrange. It's the other way around. If he can't hit the midrange, then he'll have to settle for going to the basket only.
Nah the Invisible Boy is hardly Jordan, he showed up ONCE. Literally one time his powers were useful, that mother****er's Jalen Green.
Developing a solid mid-range game defenses must respect is necessary for Alpi to become a "superstar". Not only will it open up the lane for he and his teammates, it will make the game easier for him because he won't have to spin and weave and bump to generate every shot. Alpi just needs to shoot jumpers like Joel Embiid without the 3-pointer (which is not necessary for him).
Kobe is one of the most overrated players in the history of the league. His early career defense is the only thing that kept him from being outright bad a lot of the time. Classic flash over substance.
I agree that Kobe is one of the most overrated players of all time. We can also debate what really defines a player as “the best” on his team, but it’s pretty rare for someone like Gasol, with his raw scoring numbers, to ever be seen as a clear-cut superstar. It feels like there’s this unwritten rule: if you don’t hit a certain PPG mark, you have to be almost perfect for other aspects of the game if you want to be in the superstar conversation. The same thing applies to Sengun, he needs to raise his scoring (hopefully while becoming more efficient too) if he wants to be talked about as a true superstar. Whether we like it or not, the flashy highlights and tough shots in clutch moments tend to carry more weight when people judge a player’s peak ability, more than just the box score itself. Another big factor, at least for me, is how much defensive attention a player demands from the opponent. I need to dig deeper into the numbers, but my gut says Gasol wasn’t guarded with nearly the same level of pressure as Kobe when they shared the court. I should also mention that before Gasol joined the Lakers, he had just one All-Star appearance and a 0–12 record in the playoffs.
He had that bad Memphis team as high as 4th seed. While Kobe's teams were barely making playoffs and he was quitting on them in first round..
