His rebound #s are not impressive because he's busy boxing opponents out most of the time. In fact, as of this moment, he is #2 in the whole of NBA at box outs with 3.8/gm. (Mitchell Robinson is first overall with 4.1.)
I am not basing my opinion on his rebound numbers. Infact Sengun could easily increase his numbers by 1 or 2 being a little bit more assertive and not leaving the boards to teammates. But that wouldn’t change my opinion. Like the rim protection, there are the centers that both cover space on the floor and with their vertical reach it makes it very hard for others to contest the rebound. Sengun is not in that group. That’s why I don’t see him as a high level rebounder. but there are a lot of good news. He is boxing out really well. He will probably get stronger so that will help him defend the rebounding position. And he has good anticipation that helps him with offensive rebounds. I think he is a good offensive rebounder. It is less useful on defensive boards. I mean his effort level, iq and current skills for defense are very good for an offensively gifted center anyway. So he’ll be more than fine.
Honestly, I am interested to see how Sengun will perform against Embiid. For now, Sengun's limitations against bigger and stronger centers are real but hopefully he will work hard with good coaching that he will overcome those limitations in the next 3-5 years
The Rockets targeted Brook Lopez in free agency to replace Sengun, and he has looked very pedestrian, to put it lightly, this season. Another rumored name was Jakob Poeltl, who just got benched the entire second half tonight due to poor defense. The curse of Sengun strikes again.
I don't think they were trying to replace Sengun, I think they would have started him at the 4, but I see your point
Hopefully he grows taller or just gets stronger. I don't expect him to match up physically with some bigs but Sengun has been making the bigger bigs adjust to his game too. To me that's improvement granted Ime is doing better than Silas with how the offense runs through him consistently.
It is unlikely he will grow taller. People usually don't grow taller after their 21st birthday. However, he will definitely get stronger. Also, I should've made it clear that when I say Sengun's limitations, I was talking about it defensively. In my opinion, he is already a great offensive center. If he improves his 3-point shooting to 35% and FT to 80s%, he will be an elite center, which may happen next year, if not this year. To my understanding, most important factors for one-on-one defense are height, strength, active hands and positioning. He already have active hands. So, what I was trying to say that he will develop his strength and learn better positioning in 3-5 years. If he develops earlier...welll, Sengun doesn't surprise me anymore
It's not the execution of how he spoke to the media, it's the absolute disrespect and disdain displayed towards a young player on his own team that I have an issue with.
Sengun is polarizing for some players and coaches. Silas and his assistants (and GM) wanted to run an offense where the backcourt controlled the offense and the center was a rim runner and defender. Sengun did not fit that mold at all. So as a result they tended to focus on what his limitations were and didn’t give him an opportunity to do what he does well. Even this year - the first game of the year, when Udoka was asked about Sengun, he said he needs to improve defensively. Sengun doesn’t have great foot speed or insane length like a lot of coaches want defensively. However, Sengun has exceptional timing and plays angles really well, which allows him to disrupt plays no one thinks he will get to. The key with Sengun is letting him do what he does well and give him opportunities on defense and let him prove he can do it.
Sengün has good footspeed when he wants that chase down block.... I think he looks running like a baby giraffe but people pointed out sneaky athleticism. He is fairly athletic and definitely has some burst in speed. We have not seen him fatigued a lot.
He has done that a number of times, including with Jabari Smith. He is just awkward. Im not defending him - I have said Silas and his staff were garbage since the hire.
He has awesome timing and plays angles really well. Larry Bird and Magic Johnson did that too. Sengun has also really improved his conditioning since coming to the NBA. When Sengun entered the draft I said his feet were better than the scouting reports and that was and is true - but no one is going to confuse him for Embiid with his feet.
I might be wrong but I would like to bank on it every time though. You are right that he plays the angle very well but I do believe he is an average athlete at worst and at best someone you should respect.....he can still explode to some areas. It probably feels like he is unathletic because some of his movements are not pretty or aesthetically pleasing....
He has a goofy way of running and jumping, but in my opinion, people underestimate his athleticism. He was literally fat as a teenager, and he is still not really fully out of puberty. But he can get up enough to dunk on people. I remember KPJ saying "Alpi can put anyone in the rim." And Zach Collins can attest to that. I would say he is definitely a lot more athletic than someone like Jokic, and we know that whatever lack of athleticism Jokic has, it hasn't stopped him from becoming the best player in the world. If Alpi fulfills his full potential, he can become as good or better - like Jeff Green said.
Overall Sengun is at least an average athlete, he just isn’t the traditional athlete people are used to.
Sengun is definitely a better athlete than Jokic. Sengun also has a pretty strong vertical, he just isn’t as explosive as some guys with a similar vertical.
