when d league starts? i want him down the valleye go get more PT theres no substitution for experience
You answered that question on your own .... Its the fact that he's not all that fast nor athletic nor is he quick laterally & those are all things that help on the defensive end. I don't think any of us thought he'd be so instinctive on that end of the court , that's unexpected from a rookie & quite honestly I can't think of a rookie in the last two decades who had as good a feel for the game on that end of the court as Sengun. He reminds me an awful lot of Chuck Hayes in that regard .... always in the right place playing the right leverage.
Alpi's defense will look much better when the team starts playing team defense better. I've seen more than a few times where he makes the right decision but the rotation doesn't come and he gets caught in no-man's land or his player gets an uncontested shot. I think his challenge throughout this year is to not let that stuff affect his mentality in a way that leads to bad habits in the future.
But Sengun has incredible hands and anticipation to generate disruptive plays. Cannot teach that instinct and IQ.
I agree that that is the reason we as fans did not see it. But after watching a couple of games we saw that he is actually a good defensive player. So why didn't scouts/pundits see this before he was drafted?
the same reason why they always fail and 90% of top picks are busts Spoiler and why vaccines dont work
A couple reasons I guess. 1) They did not watch him in the NBA. It becomes obvious once you see him on an nba court. And without that, they have trouble evaluating what will translate and what will not translate. One would think that is exactly where their strength is but unfortunately that is not the case. 2) It is rare that a player makes up for his physical liabilities by playing smart. Not only Alpi does that, he is also very unique in the sense that he has so many intangibles. The scouts, rather than trying to find a diamond in the rough (and making a rather risky evaluation based on less quantifiable observations), they probably go with the standard evaluations based on physical qualities. 3) Generally, athleticism of a player is overvalued especially in rookie evaluations, probably due to the fact that the ceiling is typically higher for these players and you don't see many ncaa players coming to the nba with a good understanding of the game. People will think you are an idiot when your unathletic euro big busts, but not so much so when the super athletic dumb player with no work ethic busts (because he had very high ceiling).
Best player on the team for me right now. From his iq and instincts, his footwork and passing, hell, even his shooting stroke looked smooth tonight. The other thing for me is his attitude/personality compared to other guys. He plays to win and it bothers him when he's not. He's obviously unhappy about refs but he doesn't do an EG and stand there grimacing with his hands in the air and stop playing. He has a quirky charisma too, we need to keep this guy and help him become the Rocket legend he said he'd be in his interviews. Put the machine behind him and let KP and Green prove themselves the way he has tbh.
I agree with your first point. It's a shame the team doesn't get him the ball in the post for him to do that. Really is dumbfounding.
Great post. It is glaringly obvious he has the highest IQ with regards to team defense. If the other players had the same people would begin to notice it a lot more. There was a sequence today where he ended out closing hard to the perimeter 3, after already snuffing out two other players. When do you ever see big men covering that ground, and on top of that all of them were the correct play. I hope like hell he is a Rocket his entire career because when the game slows down for him and he stops getting called for BS fouls, my goodness.
Those things are hard to quantify , particularly on the defensive end .... Athleticism , speed and strength are easier to envision translating. Most didn't watch more than highlights of Sengun prior to his playing here. The NBA is just a massive leap in talent in comparison to any other league - the best of the best. I'm thrilled with his defensive play so far , its actually outshined his offensive play which was what got him drafted to begin with .... It'll be fun to watch his growth as a player over the next couple years.
