Ime Udoka on Rockets OT loss to Warriors, Alperen Sengun's struggles

I never said you couldn't build around him, of course you can. I just don’t see him as a center. He's to frail at this point

 

there's a good chance he will never play a minute his entire career at any position but center

 

It's neither, it's got to do with style and fit. Sure Silas was an offensive coach, but he only had one way to play. His style was guard centric with tons of high pick and roll. He wanted to have a Luka/Harden type to dominate the ball and run pnr 60 times per game, or isolate. That was it, that's all he ever wanted to do. So he wanted an athletic rim runner at center, because that's what fit the way he wanted to play. He wanted Clint Capela. Sengun cannot do that, as I think we all know.

Udoka is much different, he wants a defensive stud at center. A goalie of the defense. An athletic shot blocker, rim protector, and a guy that can get out and run. A versatile guy who can switch. Again...very clearly not Sengun.

So you asked "what else is there?" A coach that is creative and flexible would be nice. A coach that can design his system based on the strengths of his players, rather than having a rigid system, trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Or alternatively, a good one dimensional coach (like Ime, MDA, etc), but has an offensive system that fits all of our players. But I don't know if a guy like that is available, which is why I've been saying we should probably look to trade Sengun. I think he's got tremendous value to a team that actually wants to use him effectively, but Ime isn't that guy.

 

What's funny is we have very athletics players that can cut around him and get easy buckets Ime just isnt doing it. He doesnt know how and thats the problem. Im starting to think that Ime wasnt even responsible for Sengun doing so well last year. Its just that Ime loves Fred and Fred passes to Sengun.

 

Reading way too much into this I fear. Ime has obviously been quite happy to have Sengun playing crunch time when Ime believes Sengun is playing like his normal self, like last year.

Sengun’s “job” in this team is half court offense. The idea is that he can create offense for himself and others vs a set defense, via PnR, post-ups and DHO game, even in a tough ecosystem. It’s his value in the league, and we need it badly. We’re good to great at everything else.

Sengun treads water at the other stuff - transition, defense, rebounding etc.

This year Sengun has been really bad in the halfcourt. Eye test and stats. Our halfcourt pts/100 plays this year with Sengun on is 77.5, which would have been last in the league by a huge margin last year. He is shooting 40% at the rim instead of his usual 66-70%. 0th percentile EFG%. It’s not working right now.

In Ime’s mind (IMO), if Sengun is not driving even mediocre halfcourt offense for us, he’s not going to play in high leverage minutes. I assume Sengun will get back to his usual level soon, at which point he will play those minutes and we won’t be saying “fire Ime or trade Sengun”.

I don’t necessarily disagree with Ime on this. I probably would have kept FVV sitting too and rolled with Reed and Holiday longer myself.

 

This entire post is bullshit and made up. You can say what you want to say about Sengun in the half court. Others have been worse and still have not been sat. SO this is just another post that ignores the entire point. Might as well not have wrote all that bs. it's just excuses and gaslighting for Ime. Some of us have been here way too long to fall for the same ole excuses. its tired

 

That did not happen. I guess you didn't watch the game.

 

I thought Alpi was pretty bad in the first half but he was outstanding in the 3rd quarter. I had assumed they held him out due to small ball line up but no doubt they should have brought him back in during the close of the game when everyone else was totally gassed.

 

Where did you get the halfcourt pts/100 with Sengun on? I find this number hard to believe, considering his overall pts/100 is 113.5.

Other than this part, I agree mostly with what you're saying. The main difference though is that I never thought he was being maximized last year either. So even if he got back to last years form, or even if he exceeds it, I still don't think it's a good fit. I'm not reacting (or overreacting) to his poor performance through 6 games. This is my assessment through all of Ime's tenure.

 

Cleaningtheglass On/Offs -> play context.

Halfcourt pts/play Sengun is at a -21 on/off differential this year. 77.5 in absolute terms. As a team we’re only shooting 50% around the rim in those minutes, Sengun 40%. League average is 66%.

Those numbers have been “saved” by ORB% and second chance points. But I doubt the coaching staff thinks we lose any ORB% going to the the Tari/Amen/Jabari front line.

 

I find it ridiculous Alpi was "struggling" but nobody even asked Udoka why he keeps playing FVV 40 mins a night.

Its gotta to be frustrating to get benched for shooting 50% when the 13% FG guy doesnt get any rest.

 

There's the famous Rockets/Clippers Game 6 "Harden-less" comeback with Josh Smith & Corey Brewer leading the charge, Harden on the bench.

It depends on the situation, really. If they are stifling the #1, but not stopping the 12th guy and its making the entire unit better, common sense is roll with 12th guy for the W until they stop it.

All the stuff about who let who down, who wasnt adequately prepared, who's at fault, handle that off-court after the W.

 

IIRC the best 5 man lineup has included Sengun. FVV is the culprit this season.

 

No 5 man lineup other than the starters has logged more than 27 possessions. That data is not useful.

Agree FVV has been bad too. Keeping us afloat in halfcourt offense is his job also, along with Sengun. I would have had no problems keeping FVV benched vs the Warriors either fwiw.

The NBA is a game of runs, within games and within seasons. It’s normal to call out when players are playing bad. They will come around.

 

Depends on the mindset. Sampson hated playing PF lol, even if it fit him better. Hakeem's entire soul was for "the CENTER position". Itd be asinine suggesting him at PF, even if he woulda been great at it. By Hakeem gravity & will to be center, Sampson was never gonna be center as a Twin Tower.

Guys like Anthony Davis want to play the 4, though advance stats shows he much better at the 5. Metrics might decide some player positions, even if skills and desire dont necessarily fit

 

I agree 100% both coaches want/wanted a defensive, rim runner who can block shots.

I also think that Sengun needs to be traded but the question is to whom? Every team outside of Denver and Philly, and potentially San Antonio are playing through guards. Sacramento has a similar center but they are a MIDDLE of the West team at best, so do anybody wants to follow that model?

 

I dont have much issue with Ime's comments. Typical coach-speak, guiding it toward team effort, less individual personal callouts.

I think the Sengun "get in shape" comment isnt about pure physical conditioning. Its about game intensity timing. I think its to protect Sengun too. Better to say "Working himself back in". Instead of outright saying "Sengun has been sucking bad on offense. A $200 million player needs to be better regardless of the scheme. Jalen has gotten better in same situation, where's Sengun at?"

 

Well like I said before I don't think you have to make him your franchise player for him to be effective. He could be your second or even third highest scorer and still be incredibly effective, you just have to let him operate as a playmaker. But it also doesn't matter what I believe. The reports over the summer (I think it was from Feigen and/or Zach Lowe?) said that a ton of teams were interested, but he preferred staying in Houston. So unless we torpedo his value this season, I would think all those teams are still interested.

 

Guards had to make a choice, either try to cover for Sengun or let them shoot open 3s. If we had a rim protector then guards could do their job. And when Sengun sits, guards can't adjust to a rim protector easily. So they keep doing mistakes. You can see how it all boils down to Sengun. You thought you could fool people with a video with guard mistakes, you gotta try harder than that.