I agree that it is harder to build around a passing big man than a dominant ball handler. They have to be committed to using him as a hub. You can't just do "your turn, my turn" kind of system. (BTW, I think the high altitude thing is overblown.) I don't think Denver was committed to Jokic at the beginning. But they recognized his talent quickly and started building around him. What's infuriating about the Rockets brass was that Sengun has shown his talent early on. But they were still stubbornly committed to the head honcho thing. I can understand not fully convinced about Sengun. But they didn't even try to use him with his strength until late in the second season. And that I think was due to tremendous pressure in the social media.
The joker talk might be misleading in the sense that Jokic is a clear number 1 and above everyone in his team, or the whole league. I project Sengun, if he improves in the way we hope him to, to be an equal with other top players in the team, but a unique and much harder to replace piece. So in that context, it is okay that he is not viewed as a number one option, but it is not okay that he is not obviously being considered as a corner stone, and the team has not explored enough what he can do with him. At this moment, rockets should view all Green, Jabari, Sengun and possibly tari(which should be clear whether or not this season) as cornerstone pieces and act accordingly. The kpj head honcho/pg thing is something weird, hopefully will be history with udoka coming in.
There is no way they can develop Tari if those other 3s are featured more. Tari would not be more than a super role player, I like him very much but the Rockets have little ways to develop him as a threat offensively. His trade value would stay about the same, valuable to the Rockets but not to other teams. The knock on the Rockets was that not everyone has gotten the same chances for sure. And the later 1st round picks were not favored over Green and Bari.
that’s what I meant. Tari being developed into a super role player, not an equal with the other 3. Interestingly rockets have a number of these players that a can be developed into specialized roles in Tari, kmj, Garuba that would extremely valuable in a playoff run. Even kpj might fit into the bill but kmj and kpj seem to imagine much bigger roles for themselves.
There is no "the other 3" consept. There is "4+23' pick" consept, a quintet. Tari is equal to JGreen&Jabari. If you are forced to pick 3 players you should choose Alp first, Tari second and one of Js later on. But no one is forcing you.Thanks God. Boston has wonderful quartet: Tatum,Brown,Smart and White but no real C. Houston has wonderful quartet: JGreen,Alp,Bari and Tari but no real PG. Very similar. We will see more and more Tari PT rather than KMJ
not for me at least not yet. For me it is 3+tari+others. But I am looking forward to see tari join the 3 to make a quartet.
can you blame them? It’s a guards league and has been for over a decade. For as great as Jokic has been the last 3-4 years, they hadn’t made it to the Finals yet. We had to develop 2 top 3 picks, a clearly talented but immature KPJ, several high potential utility players, and Sengun — a big with questionable athleticism. And it’s not like Sengun has the size of Jokic. It’s not unreasonable for the Rockets, given all the context surrounding the team roster and future draft pick situation, to have opted to lean towards developing the perimeter players over a promising but slightly undersized big man. heck, they could have seen Sengun’s potential early on and STILL opted to focus development for first two years on the perimeter. Because ultimately that’s what has won rings in the recent past. Maybe they felt KPJ and Greens development would require more touches than Sengun, and that bringing them along was important to unlocking a more Sengun focused offense.
Not a single team, I am not saying a playoff team, just any team would play kpj at pg, let alone give him 35 minutes a game and let him hog the ball forever. Yet jokic has to win a ring for Sengun to get playing time. If you think he has questionable athleticism to the point that you want to start Bruno over him ,then don’t draft him. you are talking like developing Sengun would limit others’ development. It was actually the effort to develop kpj at pg that limited other players development. so yes. You can blame them.
Developing KPJ at PG for two full seasons while ignoring Sengun's talent is the dumbest thing a team could do. Yes, I can definitely blame them. If they really wanted to focus on developing a guard oriented team, get a competent PG. Everybody and their grandma in the league knew it wouldn't work with KPJ. And making Nix the backup PG was just dumb and dumber. If that's how they were trying to build a guard oriented team, that's what made the Rockets the laughing stock of the NBA. And as I pointed out, even if they didn't want to build a center oriented team, what's the excuse for them to not use Sengun the right way? Why didn't they just trade him?
You wouldn’t celebrate a Javaris Crittenton injury? How about that child abuser Miles Bridges? You are one of those guys that wouldn’t use your Time Machine to kill Hitler, aren’t you? Please God, give me some fatty Miles Bridges ankle rolls this season. F that douche bag. What up Lars?
I don’t understand people wanting to trade him before seeing his true potential with what he had to work with. I feel the same way about Green and Jabari. To trade any of your top draft picks when they’ve only had a trash coaching staff is mind boggling.
