Well this was a very boring win. Portugal head coach had a meltdown in the 4th and got ejected while Türkiye lead was 40 PTS. I guess I underestimated the Turkish NT a bit. The guard situation is a bit wonky but it's still a very good team led by a young NBA all star. The EuroBasket schedule is brutal btw. Poor Portugal had to play against Serbia and Türkiye in b2b games. Next game for Alpi is on Monday against Estonia.
Last year's rox were not man city. Maybe everton. Also any team can beat anyone it's a ball game. Ataman has multiple Euroleague titles he is not someone who craves for attention. Don't dwell on it move on. İt's not like he told that he'll beat your mama.
What I am impressed is Sengun is going for dunks and not just layups on these plays. It shows he is more athletic than people let on. He isnt the "turkish scola" at all lol. Yes they are both crafty with low post moves but Sengun is closer to Hakeem than Scola when it comes to agility, fluidity and athleticism.
That Scola comparison was always ridiculous. Like Alpi hasn't been dunking (and then flexing) on star players since his rookie season. I love Scola but they're just nothing at all alike.
Much better comps. I even think the Sabonis comp isn't bad on the playmaking side, but he scores much more like Pau than Sabonis, and is a superior defender now after his improvements last season. I really do think we need to give him some significant play at the 4 spot and see if it unlocks him even further.
Gasol + someone but don’t know who. I don’t see any Webber. I remember him as a soft player without much of a drive in him with good shooting.
The Webber comp is from the passing actually, he's one of the best passing big men of his era. And a hall of famer, so probably better than you remember him. He's technically still more accomplished than any of our young kids by a huge margin, several all-NBA selections including a first team, rookie of the year. He was hardly some slouch.
Best comp is Ol Dirty b*stard. There is no father to his style. The Drunken master too. If he ends up with Pau's career, I'd love that. Hakeem, Scola and Sengun have the best footwork I've seen since I began watching in 92. But Pau couldn't initiate from the three pt line like a guard where the opposing coach had to send Caruso his way and still sidestep Caruso. ` ` As for his crooked midrange, keep shooting it. It took Webber to the age of 26 to get some consistency with his 'automatic' shot, 42% from middie. So many posters think it's easy like CP3 or Derozan to roll out of bed and shoot it at an 48% clip. Some guards are born with it. Usually It takes years. Garnett, Timmy. All of them had to enter their mid 20s to be o.k at the consistent middie by today's move the goal post standards. Yao and Jokic born with the soft touch. *Yao's middie hovered around 44% throughout his career. It just felt automatic because there weren't other factions of the fanbase wanting to see him fail. I think Sengun spending time at the 4 is more in the tradition of the Spurs bringing Fabricio and Tiago. Really curious as to how the offense looks with franchise playa Durant.
Webber was a 20-point double-double for almost his entire career and an elite passer from his position. He averaged around 10 rebs for his career and that's including his later years after injuries killed his game. At one point, he was among the best passing big men in the game. He could dribble/bring the ball up the court, pass, score, rebound, etc. He was a really good player. I think he was more fluid in the open court than Alpi, but not as physical as Alpi can be. Alpi is more of a center than Webber was for most of his career. Webber was more of a PF until maybe later in his career after a knee injury turned him from being an elite player to just a "pretty good" one. He was more finesse than power, but I wouldn't call him soft by any means. They both had high basketball IQ's (despite Webber's college timeout screw-up). Webber's game also took him out a bit more than Alpi's been able to show, but it wasn't as if Webber was an elite shooter or anything. Definitely for his size and that era, he was very good in that regard, though. On a team with Peja, Bibby, etc. - he was the "franchise player". If Alpi could become that type of player, and put up those numbers over several years, minus the career-damaging injuries, I'd be really happy.
Kenny T, Yummy Bear, Othella, and Chuck Wagon had decent footwork also. They just couldn’t put it in the hole like the Michael Jordan of Turkey.
I forgot that his passing was that good and I wasn’t aware of the rebound numbers. But the physicality is still missing as far as comps go.
There's never going to be a perfect comp to be fair, because he's a star level player (as Webber was) so he's his own archetype. But I definitely think there's a lot of playmaking similarities for sure. I actually think most star level players outside of Kobe (who is a self admitted clone) have to be "make do" comps from a variety of players. Generally the comps fit better with lesser players because you can say they're a lesser version of the same archetype defined by said star - we saw this in Sengun's rookie season with the Baby Jokic tag, which as he grew and emerged as a starter no longer fit because it came clear Alpi doesn't fit that archetype (or the Sabonis one, or the Pau Gasol one etc etc) because he has completely different strengths. I can see similarities to all the aforementioned players in Alpi's game, which is a huge compliment tbh. Hell, I can even see a little Westbrook in his game with the way he's always tried to put people in bodybag posters and flex in their face, and again, that's a compliment haha.
