If your PoA defender can't recover when the PnR ball handler is 5 ft away from the rim, and there's no help defense to tag the big from weak side, it's either wide open 5 footers or alley oop dunks.
He is still prone to occasionally have a bad defensive game where he looks like a liability, but anyone who doesn't recognize that he's at least average now defensively overall just isn't paying attention. I'd argue that when engaged, he's noticeably more switchable than the average NBA center, gets a roughly average number of blocks, and above-average steals with his active hands. His defensive rebounding is also very good. He will never be a guy who makes opposing players terrified of shooting around the rim, but you don't need to be that traditional archetype to be a good defensive center these days--there's a lot more that goes into today's game than in the 90s. See also: Bam Adebayo. @hlmbasketball is just stuck in the past here.
It is fascinating how some posters honestly + truly believe their knowledge of defense is on par or even better than Ime Udoka's.
Ime system avoids putting Sengun in pick and roll defense. Same thing Udoka did with Rob Williams with Celtics.
I totally agree with you that being bad at some cherry picked defensive stat doesn't make Sengun bad overall but I want to return the persistent question around Sengun that if Houston is trying to win multiple titles - can we do that a guy who has such a fatal flaw of being unable to play anything but drop coverage on the PnR and thus succumbing a lot of points to teams who can exploit it. That doesn't happen in the regular season - true, but it ABSOLUTELY happens in the playoffs - Dallas got blown out of the Finals because the Celtics went play after play of pulling Lively out to play onball defense to guard a shooter and forcing another Dallas help defender to step up as a weak side helper and Luka and PJ Washington were very poor in that role. And the Celtics did it A LOT. In Lively's case it made it really difficult to keep him on the court because if he isn't filling that role defensively, his offense wasn't good enough to justify him being on the court. Dallas ultimately lost that series and sadly other teams didn't exploit the same weakness earlier in the playoffs. In Segun's case, the cat is already out of the bag - teams know if you can catch Houston out of their off ball peel screens and get Sengun in a PnR coverage they are going to see success scoring. That's not the end of the world for Sengun because he still can be an amazing offensive player but when you look at February's stats - he has been closer to average than great on the offensive side. 18pts/11 reb/ 3.8 assists/0.6 Stl/0.7 Blk/2.7 TOV and a 14.3 game score average with 40% FG/ 16% 3pt / 66% FT. He's leaving entirely too many points on the table to overcoming the inertia of his defensive limitations - at least on a playoff contender he is. BTW, regarding the stat you pulled that opponents shoot 39% when Sengun guards the PnR and that being a "good" number - if that team is mostly shooting 3s, then it's actually a bad number and jives with my stats diving that teams score more points per possession when Sengun is involved with the PnR - in fact 80% of the league guards that action better in terms of points allowed per possession. I don't know where you got that stat, but maybe check it again to make sure there is more context know to where those percentages come from - both 2pt and 3pt?
Rockets defensive rating with and without Alperen Sengun this season: With: 110.1 Without: 121.6 https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/rockets-defensive-rating-with-and-without-sengun-this-season Alp also has a +/- of +256 in 2025. Compare to other Rockets in 2025: Fred +201 Dillon +135 Jabari +127 Amen +121 Tari +106 Jalen +67 Cam +51 Stevo +50 Aaron +38 Tate +19 Reed +3 Jock -25 Jeff -31
When Sengun was out at the end of last year, the Rockets looked very good, Jalen played his best ball - not saying they can't coexist but without Sengun clogging the middle we drove in with a lot more success. For me, until Sengun gets a steady consistent 3pt shot he is Luis Scola level. DD
Idk how accurate statmuse is. Bball reference for example has sengun 110.1 on and 111.3 off. That 121.6 number is almost certainly wrong.
Statmuse is wrong, almost always wrong, just a total garbage website. It just makes up stats constantly. Nobody should use it and nobody should ever trust it as a reference.
In a pick and roll if the guy shoots a 3 it should be our guard going thru the pick chasing him. Sengun would be dropping back to prevent the roller.
Blaming Sengun for almost all the flaws of the Rockets is weird. Well, for starters, the OP has been a consistent anti-Sengun since he joined the Rockets. There is no denying this despite some crumbs thrown sometimes, but always with a caveat. So, the observations regarding Sengun at the start of the thread had no validity. Secondly, as much as Sengun has defensive flaws, one can also blame the other defensive players on the perimeter for allowing their opponents to easily go past them and exposing Sengun to commit fouls that are detrimental overall to the team. There is an overall deterioration in the defense of the whole team and it is not only one player that is at fault. The most glaring flaw of the team is the lack of shooters and that is affecting everybody's game. I was just watching clips shown on Space City network about Jabari's shooting which has improved quite a bit. What was pointed out by the analyst was the focus of the defense on Sengun where three to four players would swarm him when he tried to make a move to the paint but his outlet passes resulted in missed shots from the outside by his teammates. I agree that Sengun needs to make outlet passes quicker but he draws so much attention that waiting for a split second before the outlet pass would free up the shooters. The problem is if they can shoot. I would really like to see a Sengun and Reed scheme just to test if that would work. As it is, even when Reed is playing, there is no play to free him up and I rarely saw Sengun pass the ball to him when he is free. Furthermore, Ime has a tendency to pair Reed with Cam so he hardly gets any chance to shoot. Maybe, the defense will suffer from this, but as it is, the defense that was so lethal at the start of the season is hardly there anymore. The terror twins seem to have run out of gas. My point is as flawed as Sengun is, he is getting more exposed because of the perplexing lessening defensive effort from everyone on the team. If, indeed, the Rockets will improve greatly by trading Sengun as the die-hard anti-Sengun posters here proposing, then so be it. I wish he would be traded though to either the Heat or the Warriors. Those teams would be fun to watch with proven hall of fame caliber coaches taking advantage of Sengun's unique skills. Whatever happens, the show must go on. If only the Rockets had consistent shooters, the show would be much more fun.
the modern nba is on the cusp of rule changes that will bend the game to a balance between perimeter 3 balls and interior offense sengun needs to be here for that he will become a perennial mvp candidate if healthy as great of a stride as amen has made this season he is still inferior at one important aspect that is setting up and running half court offense for us to be great and unleash alpis full potential either amen or reed need to develop into that perimeter guy or we need to acquire that guy jalen isn't it and won't ever be it amen and reed have the greatest potential to be this whether they become this is the question the kids are still super young and their development curve is not complete although jalen is starting to top out and unless alpi starts working on using a serious 3 he is going to top out the shooting mechanics are there for apli on the 3 it's a matter of him finding the balance between working off the dribble and actually shooting it and him becoming efficient at shooting it off the dribble penetration he goes to all the time he needs to add the decision to shoot the 3 into his repertoire and not only go to the 3 when he's physically tired of taking on three defenders down low and he's forcing himself to take a wide open 3 the 3 ball has to become a consistent threat for alpi and either amen or reed need to develop into a great offensive perimeter player or we need to acquire that guy
assist to turnover ratio are important to me so it will be Amen and Alpi https://www.nba.com/stats/players/t...nch=Starters&TeamID=1610612745&dir=A&sort=TOV
Here's a defensive stat: Prior to the all star break, the Rockets opponenents shot 63% from within 5 feet of the rim. That was 12th best in the league. Post all star break, teams are shooting 69.1% from within 5 ft. That's 25th in the league. Draw your own conclusion as to the reasons but we are getting killed inside right now.
BAM!! I thought I had l lost you, I see you're coming back to REALITY....Now if I can get you on the Jalen Green train. Lol Seriously, this is what I've been saying since last yr. I'm not hating on any Rockets player BUT Ive said it since the start, Sengun has limits that will get you killed in the playoffs. I compared him to Sabonis since the start. He is not and he will never be Jokic. Additionally, there is a reason why Indy traded Sabonis.....because he is only good offensively and he is a tweener; center - PF. And by making him a HUB, you are playing for 2's, while the current NBA, everybody else is playing for 3's. FINALLY, WHAT DID LAST NIGHT SHOW YOU?? Sure, the Rockets lost but the OFFENSE was flowing, players were MOVING. You don't get that with Sengun as your HUB.
You don't get that luxury against good shooters and good screeners - the kinds of shooters on true title contending teams. That's the whole point of the concern with him....also if teams are hitting 3s in your face at a nearly 40% clip, what's the value of stopping the roller?
the guys I have confidence in running point Player AST/36 TOV/36 AST to TOV Fred VanVleet 5.9 1.6 3.7 Alperen Sengun 5.6 2.9 1.9 Amen Thompson 3.9 2.3 1.7 Aaron Holiday 3.5 1.7 2.1 Reed Sheppard 3.5 1.9 1.8 Jalen Green 3.4 2.8 1.2 https://www.nba.com/stats/players/traditional?PerMode=Per36&TeamID=1610612745&dir=A&sort=AST
