In DEFENSE of Alperen Sengun - Analysis on why Sengun may already be an above average defender

You can feel free to ignore the fact that he gets more rebounds per 36 minutes than Embiid, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen, Myles Turner, Bam Adebayo.

You can try to use condescending words, but that doesn't change that fact.

 

Can someone tell me what the path to being not terrible for him is? Like how does he even get to average and avoid being forced into every single half court action the way he is now ?

Like I said imo the whole "drop" coverage thing seems like a concession to Sengun since he sucks in space

If f the answer to him not being totally unplayable on defense is some version of "sign 2 Kevin Durants and 2 mikal bridges to play alongside him" that's not going to happen obv.

I actually think Christian Wood - as a deep threat who is also an ok weak side shotblocker, isn't too far off wrt to what you could realistically pair Sengun with in terms of actually available players. And.. yeah.

 

So then your argument against Alpi makes no sense. The best super stars in the leagues can't be stopped by a single player. Who cares how good at defense they are. Which is why most posters on here think we need a better scheme. You should never leave Alpi one on one vs best isolation players in the game. Just like you shouldnt leave embid or anyone 1 on 1 against them. So even if Alpi completely sucked on defense we still need a better scheme to stop the best players.

If you like numbers soo much why does Alpi have the highest defensive rating on our team.....

 

DRB% - which measures available rebounds, and eliminates scheme differences.

Embiid - 28.5% and that is a down year, Philly top 11 defensive rebounding team in the NBA
Mobley - 22.5% - Obviously going to be low because he shares the court with Allen and they will compete with one another.
Allen - 23.5% - Obviously going to be low because he shares the court with Mobley and they will compete with one another.
Bam - 24.8% - Miami is second best defensive rebounding team in the NBA
Turner - 23.7% - Indiana is the worst defensive rebounding team in the NBA. Rebounding rate is a known shortfall for Turner.
Sengun - 21.4% - As expected the worst of the bunch, Houston 18th in rebounding rate.

Facts are facts.

 

Equivalent of picking out the prettiest stripper out of the 5pm Wednesday crew.

 

Defense is mostly effort. So, he can get better by just trying harder.

Outside of that, he should be looking to gain significant strength. He naturally carries a little baby fat - it's time to turn those excess calories into muscle and strength. There's really no reason why a 58 year old AL Horford is a better defender.

The difference is just effort and strength.

The other option would be getting leaner and try to be more of a Kevon Looney type defensively but I see that as less of a path to success.

 

Part of the OP's point is that that's a load of bullsh!t. Defense is one of the worst things fans and the "eye test" are at judging. Granted, it's also very difficult to measure statistically, but as with all things in life, numbers have far less bias than humans.

I still remember how great of a defender people thought Kobe was... He's probably the greatest (or worst) example of human biases in defensive judgment.

 

I said all along they shouldn't have traded Wood until we got a legitimate Head Coach. Trading him definitely took away from our 3pt shooting.

 

He is a below average defender rn however he had a terrific january and looked much better on defense. Considering that he's airballing free throws, missing easy layups it's pretty obvious that he's in his head and Silas isn't helping him either. He'll get better. No way or shape he ends up being a worse defender than Sabonis imo. He'll never have fast feet or vertical but he'll not get pushed around when he gets thicker so i'm pretty optimistic about his future.

 

nice i really like horford comparison

but you forgot one 1 THING

PLAYING TIME AND GETTING EXPERIENCE UNDER THE BELT

ALPEREN SENGUN only ever played 12 full nba games(35 minutes) in his career!!
( and we all know why!)

HE IS BASICALLY STILL IN HIS ROOKIE SEASON

https://www.espn.in/nba/player/gamelog/_/id/4871144/type/nba/year/2023



we all know how much is rhythm and flow is important in all things defense!

so much of the troubles will evaporate with getting experience under the belt

plus he is playing in a hostile environment with selfish teammates on the worst team

and we all know how much cooperation , chemistry and motivation, are important for defense!


PLUS A VERY IMPORTANT POINT!

if your coach is disrespecting you how come you can expect the refs to make your life easier?

and you cant be a good defender in this league if the refs are against you...you just cant!

 

timeo danaos et donna ferentes

 

because his name is not jalen green
if jalen green were doing all this athletic stuff hed be called baby micheal jordan lolololol

alperen sengun is indeed a micheal jordan for jalen green...

 

generally centers fight vs opposing teams center for defensive rebounds
but sengun fights vs jabari - jalen - kpj etc.
sengun doesnt have lots of def. reb because of statpadding maniacs

 

This thread reconfirms my opinion that defensive metrics are very limited in measuring good individual defense. Individual defensive stats fail at a number of things:

1) stat padding
2) if the team is very bad
3) does not measure what you give up to score a positive stat
4) does not measure what you prevented from happening (like Sengun
5) cannot distinguish what comes with defensive scheme vs individual
6) how much of your mistake is a result of somebody else’s

Non of the stats arguments are convincing and we are just finding stats that support our narrative.

 

Atw has like the most simplistic surface level taws on ball.

As soon as I saw him saying Sengun has a higher rebounding rate than all those guys I already knew it was exaggerated by our high amount of missed shots creating more rebounding opportunities

 

What?

Dear Lord is nothing Sengun's fault?

 

It’s his fault he pisses excellence.

 

he is slow
his shooting getting worse
bla bla..
he must fix them in summer

but about defensive rebounds
if you watch carefully you'll see he usually doesn't chase defensive rebounds, he leaves the rebound to her friends by keeping the space and trying to prevent opponents

 

I have noticed this. KPJ and Jabari are especially keen to get these uncontested ones.

 

When are you gonna accept that Sengun is perfect in every aspect of the game? Only his teammates and coaches can make him anything less than perfect