I still don’t think casuals realize just how special Alperen is. The way he warps the game is highly unusual. The foul drawing, the passing out of double teams. He still plays like a bonehead at times, and he often needs a swift kick in the ass, but god damn can he be special If he figures it all out. I could not be more stoked with this roster right now. Udoka is running through Alperen, and Amen has unlocked Jalen Green. Sublime.
The Rockets offensively are playing through Sengun, Green and Fred .. Those are the guys on ball the most in the half court.
Majority of his bricked FTs were before 3rd qtr. If he’s that out of shape then Silas was right about his conditioning
I just hope that bricked FTs don’t make Alperen hesitant. I’d rather he shoot Shaq %s and draw 12 fouls like tonight, than play soft and tentative like Ben Simmons. Alperen needs to be a 2 down back. Give him the ball and let him soften up the middle, and then the guards come in and close up the game against a battered frontline.
As much as I can’t stand him it’s one of giannis greatest strengths. He can be 2-12 from the line but his mentality to attack never changes. Basically opposite of ben Simmons.
He literally has been starting bad and getting better and better as the game goes on most of the time lately.
The ole defense is starting to rear its ugly head some. He was able to move a lot better on defense before.
Panyalı. He had an outstanding game but if his weakness of making his free throws isn't addressed, it's gonna b an issue in playoffs when they utilize the hack a technique. Game was a lot closer than it had to b since he whiff so many of them
The touch was back and against the two bigs setup that gave him problems against Boston. Free throws and some undisciplined and out of position defense hurt him. Move your feet better .
Yeah it's getting really bad and I think ultimately it is a conditioning issue. You can tell Sengun is getting really tired in the games now, and that's when his defense suffers the worst. The ole defense has been happening almost entirely in fourth quarters. I don't think there's much he can do about it at this point in the season but I hope it's something he addresses in the offseason. There are cardio programs that can target this stuff specifically. But the other side to it is knowing how to pace yourself and pick your spots, which is something all the greats have to learn how to do at some point. Nobody can play at max intensity all the time at starter minutes.
Honestly these are the growing pains that are going to happen when you have high usage 22 year olds being asked to play high level defense on elite level teams. Green shows his conditioning issues with his streaky shooting also. Eventually these guys will condition themselves into getting used to playing this level of defense and be consistent on offense. What Ime is doing for these young guys will pay off in the long run. By age 24 our young guys are going to be 2 way lean cardio machines
I don't really see the same issue in Green because he still plays great clutch defense and is also still able to score down the stretch. Like obviously the cardio thing applies to all players to some degree but Sengun seems to be having way more trouble with it than others, which is why I pointed it out. Those layups and blowbys in the fourth quarter against Memphis nearly cost us the game, we were just giving away free points on possession after possession after possession. He had the one block on Ja that was obviously huge but it was clear he was completely gassed on the plays before that one.
