Yeah, maybe? Ultimately to me a "superstar" just means "can you be the best player on a team that wins a championship." You can place that bar wherever you want to, for me I would say it's probably all-star starter, first team all NBA, and at least in the MVP conversation? You can go back like 40 or 50 years and every championship team has had 1 guy in this category other than that one pistons team. Historically it's been a requirement to win a championship outside of some once in a generation fluke. If you think Sengun can reach that level then you can put him in there, but I think it's really unlikely. And without one of those guys I think the ceiling on your team is having a really nice regular season and getting bounced in the playoffs because you'll eventually run into a team with one of those guys and he'll put you away.
Amen is going to be a superstar. If he can make it to the starting lineup, he should be first team defense in his second year. His offense is also coming along. Sengun is on the way as well.
Yes, Sengun can be that guy. You just need to build around him and Amen and Tari the right way. With these three guys, you already have the hub, the future best post player in the league, amazing rebounding, tons of stocks, screen assists, box outs. And keep Dillon. Having Amen, Tari, Dillon, Alpi is incredible for defense. What you still need are some top 3-point shooters and cutters, and someone who is super steady in bringing up the ball and protecting it. Somehow bring in guys like Buddie Hield, Tyler Herro, Payton Pritchard...Markkanen...Naz Reid...basically guys who can shoot close to 50 % on open threes with zero dribbles. What we dreamed Jabari could become. I think Reed will get there. Jalen will hopefully improve...maybe Cam. I also always thought Tyus Jones would be good for this team, but he is now in Phoenix.
Yeah I understand your vision. I'm just saying that it's all for nothing if Sengun isn't a superstar. You can shuffle these pieces around all you want, construct the perfect team, get all the perfect pieces, get the perfect coach. But at the end of the day, I think the ultimate ceiling of this type of team would be something like that Atlanta Hawks team that won 60 games and then got swept by Lebron. Four of their starters were all stars that year, but they had zero all-nba players. Stacking up a bunch of good players, good roleplayers, a great coach, all that stuff can only get you so far. And again, I know you think Sengun will get there, we just have a difference of opinion on that. And I really hope you're right. But from what he's shown me so far, I don't see it happening.
I’m not playing a game. The only players to average what you think Alpi can eventually average are Oscar and Jokic. Those aren’t just “superstars” they are top 20 players of all time. So obviously if Alpi ever managed that then yes that would not only be superstar status that would likely be mvp for that particular season.
It’s primarily the assists that is making it so exclusive, which makes sense. If Sengun averages 25 points I doubt he also hits 6 assists. Lower the assist total to 4 and the grouping is far broader.
The only thing stopping him from averaging more assists is the fact that Jalen, Jabari and others keep bricking wide open shots he feeds them.
Jalen should also be part of the core. While his shot comes and goes Jalen is an elite defender and him being on the court opens the space for everyone else.
It's a simple question but it's not a simple answer, at least not for me. I could probably write thousands of words on it that nobody would want to read, so I'll try to keep it really brief. When you look at these superstar guys, most of them you know right away in year 1/2, guys like Lebron, Luka, KD, etc. And then the second group of guys are the guys who take a while to develop, two current examples would be Giannis and Jokic. Obviously any of our guys would have to be in this second category if they ever wanted to reach the superstar level. If you go back and look at all the guys who became superstars this way, they mostly follow the same general pattern. They typically have very rapid improvement, a steep increase year over year, until they become superstars. Another thing that they usually do is they address and fix major areas of their game that need fixing, or add new things to their game that weren't there before. I don't see either of those things for Sengun. I don't see big enough improvements year over year for him. And more importantly I haven't seen him improve in the biggest areas that hold him back from superstardom. Keep in mind, this is just my opinion, none of these are definitive statements. My personal assessment isn't worth much of anything. He could become a superstar and I could be wrong. But this is just what I see.
A few things in response to that part: Alpi was actually similar to Luka in that he was an absolute standout in a good league over in Europe. Becoming MVP of the Turkish league at age 18 is not a small achievement. Alpi then totally got held back by Silas/Stone, but possibly also by having to adapt to a new language, new culture and everything. Still, look at the trajectory: How is that not rapid improvement and a steep increase? (If you compare it to, let's say, Jalen - Jalen has pretty much been the same player ever since he got into the league - perhaps slightly better on defense this year, we'll see. No significant upwards trajectory in his production.) Still a small sample size this year, he has been in a shooting slump, has seen fewer minutes, and hence his scoring is down, but it looks like his rebounding, rim protection and overall defense have massively improved this year. I also have hope for his 3-point shooting, and, hopefully eventually, free-throw shooting. As to the defensive leap he has taken this year - remember, defense was by far the main criticism by his detractors - don't take my word for it, look at the data: Add to that some of the hustle stats hardly anyone pays attention to - screen assists, boxouts, deflections - he is among the league leaders in all of those.
I think you'll be wrong on this take. We might not have any superstar, but we might have many borderline superstars, who are not superstars because their scoring is not up there. The point of having a superstar is mostly carrying the scoring load and taking the game over when the time comes. We might not have one player to do that, but we have many players taking turns in doing that. So, it is kind of a unique situation imo, and there is hope that your take, which is true in general, may not apply in our case.
It's funny how much better Sengun seems to get when he has two players that understand cutting and can also help him defensively by being some of the best on ball defenders in the league. Who in the starting lineup is a good cutter?
The other thing is that only Fred is good at passing to Alpi. Jalen is doing it sometimes. Dillon rarely does it except in the very beginning of the shot clock, and Bari practically never does it, at least not in a fluid game situation or in terms of setting up Alpi to score. Dillon has been great, but you can see his and Bari's assist numbers. Almost nothing.
