Apparently there is no comparison he could make because nothing applies. Sheeesh Austin and Harden comparison. I have freaking seen it all now.
Bulls just signed (two-ways contract) OnurALP Bitim, ALPeren's teammate from Turkish National Team. OnurALP, MIP of the TBL last season is a 24 years old Rudy Fernandez look-a-like. Similar height, gingerish beard, over 40% behind the arc and as a Virginia studied guy should be fluent in English. Bulls will pay less than $ 0.6M/year to Bitim. What a miss for Rockets.
Thats age 25 Harden. Reaves will be 25 next season. FWIW, I dont think Sengun will be near as good as Jokic. But using Reaves as a constrast doesnt work either. Sengun at least did some minor records relative to his age.
While I agree the comparison would be more accurate if using both player's sophomore year's stats, you can't just ignore that Reaves was 3 years older than Harden in that season. In addition, IIRC - when Harden came off the bench, he essentially ran the team, and this is corroborated by their usage numbers. In fact, you might want to look over the advanced stats to see that Harden was a significantly more valuable player during his second season and at a much younger age. Of course, this is not to mention the eye test, which clearly showed that Harden projected to be much more impactful than Reaves. Reaves is a nice player, and would be a nice complementary piece to any winning team, but would you really draft him over Jalen, Jabari, Amen or Sengun? I'm giving these talking heads, and you, the benefit of the doubt, but I just don't see it, and like others have said, don't think there is any GM that values their job who would make that choice either.
I actually can't believe people debate over 25 yo Austin Reaves' potential. Dude has no potential anymore, he's f*cking 25. He is what he is at this point.
They are nothing more than a bunch of idiots who evaluate the potential of young players by the win percentage of the team that has by far the youngest starting lineup in the league, and that has no serious NBA players in the bench other than Tari. Both Jalen and Sengun would easily go top14 in last 3 years drafts.
Something I've been thinking about with Sengun is that I do believe he is more athletic and his game is more focused on dribble drives than Jokic, and he takes up less space, although that gap has probably closed somewhat if he really did grow another inch. Maybe it's just the modern game, but Sengun almost plays more like a point forward sometimes on offense. I also do not think he currently has Jokic's near-supernatural court vision. Sengun's is good, especially for his age, but he doesn't currently have that ability to virtually always make the right pass. Seems to kind of have a specific plan in mind and tunnelvision on that plan sometimes. Sometimes he almost reminds me more of a young Julius Randle than Jokic. Hard to put my finger on what the comp should be. He's such a unique player.
I think Joker with his natural feel and his experience has become a tactician with pin point accurate passes. Ofc Alpe is not there yet, his game is still different.
Big men take time to develop passing ability. I wouldn't look at him as anything near a finished product yet especially with passing. Jokic and Draymond didn't hit 7 assists mark till their 4th season. Sabonis got close in his 5th season. They were all in the 2-4 assists range their first couple of seasons. Sengun is in the same range for his first two seasons (almost 4 assists in his second season). He definitely doesn't have the ability right now to run an entire offense but he's perfectly on track to get there if you ask me. I like the Randle comparison but I see a better rebounder and shot blocker in Sengun. Maybe a more willing defender.
Rockets swiss cheese perimeter defense on full display. Fvv and Dillon Brooks are a godsend for Sengun.
So far, I think Sengun has been fairly comparable to Randle's rebounding (which is actually very good for a 6'8", 6'9" guy). However, I agree Sengun has more upside in that area, especially if it's true that he's now 7 foot in shoes.
