I'll be honest, I love Sengun as much as anyone, but I've always had a few concerns ratting about in the back of my noggin'. The center-hub approach is great in theory but works best when that hub is a Joker-level player or close, which seemed like unfair expectations. And, even when you land that type of center, he can be difficult to build around. My concerns were compounded when Amen developed into our other best prospect as, like Sengun, he's a unique prospect with incredible upside, but some limitations that make building around him more challenging. This version of Sengun, though? The Sengun who can create from the perimeter, hit 3s, and switch onto guards? That is incredibly easy to build around, especially when you consider our two other prospects that will start this year - a high-ceiling unicorn point-forward who has already made All Defensive first team, and a high-level 3-D wing who can defend 1 - 5. Those three fit like a dream going forward.
Jabari's D has been way overrated, at least for now he has not been elite......he is versatile for sure. Tari and Amen's defensive tenacity blows his out of the water.
I totally disagree that Bari's defense is "overrated." If anything, I think it's underrated because he's not a very "flashy" defender, though his versatility wreaks havoc for offenses.
This is correct. Jabari’s defense in integral to our team defense. Tari is a very disruptive defender and we are lucky to have both when they can stay on the court. It used to drive me crazy when people were so blown away by Pat Beverly’s defense who may be the most overrated defensive player of all-time. Dillon was also overrated on this board, although he was a critical cog to changing the mindset of this team. Fans often confuse effort with effectiveness. All 3 of Jabari, Dillon, and Tari are plus defenders and all 3 exhibit tremendous effort on that side of the ball, but both Tari and Dillon had an exorbitant amount of brain farts in crucial situations and both were total sh*t in the playoffs. When Jabari went down the defense took a nose dive for a while. This year’s team is going to be even better defensively given health. Having Amen, Durant, and Jabari on the court at the same time will be a nightmare for other teams with their length, especially with Amen’s ability to guard virtually every position on the court and to always be lurking as an incredible help defender. Even with his aging body, Durant was an excellent defensive player last year when healthy. And then there is Ime, who may be the best defensive mind in basketball. Just hoping his offensive acumen can take a jump.
I don't understand the Jabari disrespect. He is a great role player. I guess those who expected at least star status are disappointed but nothing wrong with being a starter roleplayer.
Sengun dominated world's best player. Amen etc other players are great, but Sengun after Eurobasket 2025 put his bar to future NBA MVP. As the top 4 players in NBA are Europeans, as Jokic is without a doubt World's greatest player at the moment, Sengun right now is in his own tier, above Amen etc.all others. He is not just a player, he is a force. I find funny about the doubts on Sengun, Sengun with his status on the eyes of global basketball experts, in 2 years he will be in NBA MVp conversations...
Important to remember it was just one game. I did love what I saw though. If that 3P shot comes around this season, league better watch out.
JSJ going down coincided with Amen going to starting lineup. The defense was horrible not because JSJ was a better defender than Amen, but because (1) Jalen Green was absolutely horrible guarding bigger players, (2) Jalen Green ended up as the low man a lot(usually JSJ when he's in there), (3) Ime refused to bench Green when it was clear Amen could handle more on-ball load. It got better. The Rockets were able to hide Green a lot on Podz, Hield, or Moody against GSW. I think JSJ is an above-average defender, but he seems to be on his man a lot, but isn't very disruptive (whether getting a strong contest, block, or steal). For whatever reason, the double big lineup worked great last season. JSJ was a big part of that, such that I don't think it would have worked as nearly as well without JSJ. JSJ's ground coverage really shined with this lineup more than I'd seen with other lineups. His error-free defense was much more important than Tari's disruption in the double big. On Brooks, I think he really worked very well with JSJ. His biggest problem at the end of the year was the FVV-Green-Amen lineup. The FVV-Amen-Brooks-JSJ-Sengun lineup was amazing defensively the few times the Rockets deployed it. Tari had a bad playoffs. His defense is probably under-rated here as the positives way outweighed the negatives for most of the season. For whatever reason, JSJ and Tari just didn't work often unless FVV and Amen were the guards. I think a lot of Tari's problems defensively were that he's best as a 4, but JSJ is also. With Tari, JSJ, Durant, and DFS all being better 4s than 3s, it will be interesting to see who plays well with Durant.
First off, calling Jabari “great“ is an exaggeration IMO. I don’t hate him at all, but at best, you could call him a good role player. Maybe he becomes a great one this season. We’ll see.
It's just semantics. What you call "great role player" may be called borderline stars by other people. Let's take OKC as an example, do you consider Jalen Williams a great role player or star? What about Chet? Or Lu Dort? Jabari is clearly below JWill's and Chet's level. I'd put Jabari at Dort's tier. Nobody consider either of them star, but most people would agree that they are very valuable role players. Whether you call them "great" is kind of a choice of words.
Good point. However, Dort is someone I consider a great role player. I know there are folks here who hate him, but defensively he's on higher level than Jabari and also shoots 3s better. For the most part, he knows what his role is and doesn't try to be something he isn't. He also gets in the heads of opponents in a way that helps his team (without being an all-out idiot like DB or Draymond). All I'm asking from Jabari is: Hit at least 40% from long range since a very high percentage of his 3s are uncontested. Turn up his motor and be a consistent force on the glass. His game to game effort level is too unpredictable. Develop some mental toughness. I'm sick of him getting down on himself after mistakes and missed shots. Keep your chin up and get 15 rebounds if the shot isn't falling. Get better at staying in front of smaller guys on PnRs. Stop dribbling.
40% on high attempts would be great but being in the 38-40% range would be acceptable The Rockets led the league in team rebounding last year and Jabari averaged 7 rebounds per game. With Amen and Sengun in the lineup there is not that many to go around and Smith will also be tasked as a spot up shooter even more I don’t think asking a lot more boards out of him is realistic. Agree on the mental toughness, but he is still one of the youngest players on the team. He showed some “clutchness” in the playoffs. Don’t know about the PnR stuff. I didn’t see a big problem there and very few tall lanky guys have the ability to stay in front of really quick guards (Amen is an outlier) Agree on the dribbling. His dribble is too high to be effective and will probably stay that well. I think people set expectations for players based on draft position and sometimes find themselves disappointed in a player prematurely and unjustifiably so if there role on the team is not as a dominant scorer.
