There was a case to be made during Silass era. Now, with Udoka at the helm, I really don't see an outright difference between the way the team treats Alpi and Jalen. Udoka very regularly praises Sengun during press conferences. Coaches give him his flowers in half-time interviews when he is playing well. More importantly, Sengun's just got a big 5 year contract. If that's your idea of mistreatment then we don't see eye to eye on this matter. I don't understand this constant need of making Sengun a victim.
I missed the first few minutes, but after he sat the first time, it looked like he was trying hard on offense and defense to me. He missed shots, but he did force some misses. He looked visibly frustrated to me, as he was trying hard and sometimes still missed or the Pistons made shots. His facial expressions/body language weren't great. He doesn't look like he is having fun, to be honest.
He had a bunch of yummy bears on him…should have feasted. Kept trying to back down these Chuck Hayes instead of moving towards the basket via cuts or taking them off the dribble.
Sengun is not shooting. He is just throwing the ball up and hoping it goes in. In past years he was much more deliberate in what he was doing. He is rushing especially with his left handed hook. He will get it straightened out and be the all-star we all were expecting before the year is out.
Sengun hasn't been an All Star this year. It's a shame he can't have last years form with this year's record.
He’s coming back from a major injury. Sometimes it takes a whole year for the player to return to form
He'll be fine it's been a rough stretch. We've been talking about adding shooting for Green/Amen, but it's all culminating to the same thing: Sengun/Amen/Green all need more spacing and they are getting suffocated for good attempts and assists in the meantime. When you have bad spacing, the same exact possessions get harder. That means there is a smaller volume of good shots outside of offensive rebounds. While we have 3 playmakers PLUS a PG on the floor all of whom seek the ball. I think it's pretty clear our big man needs better shooting. Starting Amen has helped Green but it may be doing something else predictable: putting too much pressure on a big man. As Rockets fans we understand this phenomenon well - it's the one we solved in order to win our 2 titles. Your big man needs easy simple and reliable outlet options in order to put fear in his defender. The two players starting with our Core Trio must be great 3PT shooters. Their second best skill would be defense. Their 3rd best skill would be safe hands. That's it, the starting lineup is done and dusted, just needs 2 role players who cannot behave like stars in those roles. Someone who's ego is in check. I think the 4 people best suited for those roles are Jabari, FVV, Holiday, Uncle Jeff. Possibly Whitmore, Tari, Landale, Brooks when they're on. Of these 8 you pick the 5 best shooters in order to maximize our spacing since we are so bad at shooting and spacing. Most likely ending up with: Sengun/Jabari/Adams Jabari/Tari/Jeff Amen/Brooks Green/Whitmore FVV/Holiday Right now, that's the best spacing we can achieve. This team can realistically be a #10 offense without having to work harder than the rest of the NBA on rebounds. This team should play as fast as it possibly can without turning it over too much. That's it. That's optimized. There's nothing more you can do in terms of tweaks (pace, space, rebounds, turnovers are the big opportunities for things actually under your control) to really improve this system, it's not endless. But we will have at least squeezed out every last bit of spacing we have out of this squad. What does that mean for our defense? I guess it could hold up if we're fully healthy, but realistically we finish a bit lower in the top 5. That's an elite defense with room to improve in the future just with muscle and experience for the young guys. No roadblock whatsoever to becoming #1 the following season. So I think we could be something like #5 defense and #10 offense (without the rebounding fix) which is nice and balanced on the way to a championship window and more clearly tells us what we need to do in terms of development and trades in the future. Don't worry guys, collectively Jalen/Sengun/Green's 3PT% is going to determine the future of this franchise and that's mostly in our control. They just need to improve slowly each summer on their 3PT% for a few years. By the time we have something like Sengun and Amen comfortably at 34% and Jalen comfortably at 36-37% this team will be just as unstoppable offensively as they are defensively. It's not his responsibility, but frankly Sengun's career and this team's future could be unlocked with his 3PT shot alone. That is the one biggest fulcrum for this Rockets team. More realistically though, Green and Amen should get much more stable with their jumper in the next couple of years.
If that's what you truly see, then you aren't watching enough off ball, or on the sidelines mid play. I can't remember the last time I saw Udoka jump out of his seat and stalk the sideline screaming at Jalen for a horrible defense lapse. Happens constantly to Sengun when... he helps of his own man and doesn't stop another person's man at the rim. I can't remember the last time I saw Jabari or Brooks go directly at Jalen to scream in his face for a mistake. Heck, in this very game FVV threw a terrible pass at the top of the key which the defense deflected, FVV and the other player raced in the backcourt for it before it went out of bounds. As soon as it went out of bounds FVV turned and immediately gestured and yelled at Alpi because you know it wasn't FVV fault at all. If you genuinely think Jalen and Sengun are treated the same, I think you'd be amazed if you spend an entire game watching the sideline or watching other players, instead of Sengun or Jalen. It's quite obvious we don't see eye to eye. This very game Jalen threw two turnovers in rapid succession to Sengun, yet Sengun was the one immediately benched? It's not a constant need to make Sengun a victim, it's calling out what happened. Doesn't matter that you don't see it, it happened.
I like this comment. Those flat footed shot put shots just seem like a bad shot so far this season for example. Before this season everything he did offensively was so fluid. It's all mechanical now - except the minimal games so far this season he's free flowing at the top of the key allowed to do what he wants offensively.
I certainly do hope I'm wrong about expecting Sengun's actions to start to show his frustrations with always being the one blamed for everything.
This is how good he has been the past 3 years, the first time not everything is perfect, people are going into the woods after him.
