Alpy is a 6-9 guy playing like a 7-1 guy. He needs to play like a 6-9 but he cant shoot. His post up game should be an accent to his shooting but he has no shooting. If he cant shoot he has no place in the league at that height because he's going to get stuffed by great defenders. Maybe a 6th man. Its been 5 years of this it hasnt gotten better.
More like he can’t be the first option on a contender than he has no place in the league. this is the same guy who put 45 against wemby. He is generally skilled and smart enough to overcome his deficiencies mostly but developeing a shot would be the most consistent way of doing that. He is already a top player with the current skill set. Statements like if he can’t shoot at 40% 3pts than he doesn’t have a place in the team are just ridiculous.
He is. The 5 needs to be an anchor. Soneone who can slide and cover for guys because believe it or not its hard to keep nba players out of the paint. Not just for Reed, but for other guys too. But on this play I feel like Sengun needs to be able to slide and help Anen here. I also feel like Amen shouldve played him to the middle since thats where his help was. But why is Ime just going at Sengun? If this were Reed getting beat to the rim like that he'd be benched.
Sengun needs a team fully tailored to his strengths and weaknesses, and I simply don't think he's good enough to justify something like that. I've been willing to overlook his flaws because he kept improving his game in some way. Now that he seems to have plateaued offensively and regressed defensively. I'm off the boat on him. I would rather take my chances on a better fit lower ceiling player this offseason. Of our young players he's clearly the one hardest to fit in.
This is hilarious. Is Amen a goat perimeter defender? Why is he getting beat so easy? Sengun isn't even in position to be the help defender. Holiday is in prime position to let his player drift and step up to cut off the dribble. Of course Ime abuses Sengun. Literal zero defensive IQ shown from the head coach of an NBA team on this very play (and countless others). The fact people are blaming Sengun on this play with zero commentary on Amen and Holiday is just criminal negligence. Don't let a narrative get in the way of facts though.
Exactly who is Sengun guarding there? He was clearly behind Amen when the play started and he just kind of hung around the perimeter even though there was no man to defend there. The fact that he isn't even in help position is the problem.
Yea, if you look historically, there aren't many teams that win championships without a good defensive big. And, it becomes difficult to find that fit when your center is a poor defender. You basically need to find an elite 3andD center which are in high demand and hard to come by. I think people looked at Jokic as an analog without the context of how much of a 1of1 he is. Sure, Sengun doesn't have to be a good defender if he becomes the best offensive player in the world and one of the best ever. Even then it only really works with a versatile guy like Aaron Gordon there to help. Also, Jokic isn't usually out of position, he just gets beat because he lacks athleticism. Big difference from Sengun who is significantly more athletic. Exactly. There are 3 Twolves players back on that play. It would be bad for Holiday to leave one of them to defend the drive not even taking into account how ineffective it would be at his size. The helper on this play is clearly intended to be Sengun with Jabari left to defend the perimeter. Sure, Amen got beat there but even as a universally recognized all nba defender he may get beat by the likes of Anthony Edwards, one of if not the best SG in the world, from time to time. It's the job of the big defending no one to get back to help AND to talk and shout out where the help is coming from. How does Amen know where the help is coming from? He's not watching the game from a tv like you. He's watching AE. That's what he sees plus what is in his immediate peripheral vision.
He was waiting for the opponent's big man coming late. (You can see him getting into the picture after Ant beat Amen to the basket.) Sengun should have dropped down sooner though, when Amen forced Ant to the outside. My guess is that he expected Amen to slow down Ant. I was also surprised that Amen was so easily beaten in that play. It didn't look like the normal Amen.
I do find it hilarious that haters on this thread are blaming this loss on Sengun. Typical . Last night Sengun had 22 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists on 10/13 shooting (79.3% TS) with the highest plus/minus (7) on the team with a 4 point loss. Literally, the team shot 21% from 3 while allowing the Wolves to shoot 50% from three. When he was off the court the Wolves were driving to the basket at will. I mean, come on, I know you guys have it out for Sengun, but I remember being up and within a couple of minutes of Sengun going to the bench, suddenly we're down 6 and Ime is calling a timeout. Ya'll haters need to start looking at Ime's coaching because the entire perimeter defense was Swiss cheese last night. It's not just the offense he can't coach anymore it seems. Okogie and Tari didn't help either, but they are what they are at this point.
This is such bad coaching to me. Why is he yelling at Sengun. This is 100% on Amen for not forcing him into the middle. How can you help baseline. He wasn't anywhere near in position to do that.
I think he might have to change the way he plays somewhat if he doesn't add a jump shot that's efficient on decent volume though. I don't think he'd have to be a sixth man, but he would have to be something like Draymond Green with the sliders moved around a bit. Just really focused on creating for his teammates, playing hard on defense, and scoring opportunistically instead of what he's been doing, which is kind of forcing the action a lot of the time. I think I said this before in a different thread, but I see two realistic paths for him to be one of the top two players on a championship team: One is that he adds the jump shot and basically just lives up to the "Baby Jokic" nickname. He'll never be quite MVP level but I could see perennial all-star, top 10 player. Two is that he adjusts and allows himself to be more of a second fiddle and puts his energy into more team-oriented things as opposed to scoring. The third option is that he just stays who he is right now and never meaningfully improves or adjusts, and then you've got a guy who isn't good enough but plays like he thinks he is. *Shrug*.
Sengun's man isn't even on the screen. What do you want him to do? I don't mean that in a snarky way, what is the actual correct thing to do when a big man is waiting for his man, but his man has barely crossed half court? He has to be ready to pick up his man, right? Or does that just make it easier for him to help here?
If that was Reed, people would say Reed's a traffic cone on defense. But that's Amen, so it must be Sengun's fault.
The center should always prioritize protecting the basket unless he is specifically pulled away by the person he's defending. He should have kept dropping until he was forced back to the perimeter. Jabari was there to cover the area if the ball was passed out. I really have no idea what in the hell Minny's 5th man was doing, but we were basically playing 3 v 5 and gave up an easy basket. Make no mistake it was absolutely a lazy effort by Amen too. You can't just give up baseline like that without even properly stopping the ball. He should have heard it also.
