Nope. Tate has more PG skills than Christopher. Christopher is a SG that might be strong enough to play a bit of the 3 despite being a bit short for it. There's nothing wrong with him being what he is though.
To clarify, he doesn't need to create any offense for anyone else in a starting lineup of Green/Gup/Sengun/Banchero/Interior defender X. He may be the PG if you look at it like that but his role on offense will be cutting, hitting open 3's and penetrating after the defense collapses on Green, Sengun or Paolo. Sorry, that was simple enough of a concept where I didn't think it had to be explained.
So what you really mean to say is that the future is to not have a PG at all, not that Christopher would be it.
There is no way to predict that Bacharo will fall to 3. It's just as likely he'll go #1 or #2. I think the only guy that doesn't fall to 3 is Holmgren. I think it's 50/50 if it'll be Smith or Bancharo to fall to #3. It's a good problem to have cause I think Smith will be a solid NBA player for his career. I'm not sure Smith will be a franchise player but I'd still be happy with him.
In the right situation, why not? Playing him out of position because Wood was too chicken to guard bigger players and letting him dictate offense too much wasn’t really playing to his strengths. Being the clean up guy and point of attack defender at least puts him in a position to succeed. His sophomore slump can largely be attributed to poor coaching.
Yeah I feel like Jabari ends up more akin to Middleton than Klay Thompson in terms of career. That said Middleton ended up the #2 option on a title winning team.
Paolo could be off the board by 3, which is fine as the key was getting any of the top 3. Hopefully they lean into player development next year and get another top 5 pick. We are 2/3 of the way through the tank and can’t lose our nerve. 2024 could be a return to relevance for our beloved franchise!
Talk about strawman - no one is saying Banchero and Sengun are the same athletically. They are saying they have same weaknesses - defense. And I'm not the one who pulled plus defender out of thin air, I was responding to the poster who did say that.
Yeah but his perceived weakness defensively is different than Sengun's perceived weakness defensively so they aren't the same. Also, Sengun was one of the best defenders in the team last year, it's odd there is so much talk about his defense.
^ If Paolo ends up on the team. I hope anyone who discounted this at least watch (best effort) as many as Rockets games next season and participate in the game threads. It's all well and good until Rockets starts losing and people start turning on Sengun because they don't want admit their guy fits only certain systems. Chet/Jabari/Paolo are not Cade/Evan/Jalen. Last year there's a chance all these guys end up being their franchise guy. I'm not so sure here, maybe 1of 3 might be that guy. BPA is just best player left, it's not code that they'll be a franchise guy. It's like 'fit' has become a dirty word. If the player can only fit in limited configurations, maybe he's NOT the best player available. Redundant weakness goes across the board... from Paolo not just to Sengun but to Green also. Rockets should ask themselves: Are we building around Green or not? If we are then Jabari or Chet. Get two way guys.
The original discussion was about redundant weaknesses per Stone. Rim protection and perimeter defense is a redundant weakness in common for both Sengun and Banchero.
I do think that OKC fans are a bit overestimating the ceiling potential of a Giddey SGA backcourt. They act like they made out like bandits with Giddey, when in actuality I think his rookie season was exactly what you could have anticipated based on his pre-draft scouting report. Sure the court vision and length are high highs, but the 26% 3pt shooting and the 47.8% true shooting are almost absolute fatal flaws if we don't see rapid improvement in the next year or two. For all the **** Westbrook gets for being inefficient, he's never had a single season with a true shooting that low, even in his rookie year. I still would rather have Jabari or Chet, be it on the Rockets or the Thunder, but certainly Paolo is a fantastic consolation prize, and a ceiling of Chris Webber or maybe even better says to me that there are definitely scenarios out there where Paolo outperforms the other two.
Sure, if you believe that to be the case but Sengun had a fairly high block percentage last year, one identical to Clint Capela, despite being only 18 years old so I'm thinking a lot of the criticisms are overstated. He struggles with lateral quickness and he's sometimes overly aggressive leading to foul trouble sure, but that's about it. As I said, he was one of the best defenders on the team last year. As to Banchero, he absolutely does not struggle with lateral quickness, his perceived weaknesses defensively come from him resting on that side of the ball and losing his man. There's no reason to think he can't be at least solid on that side of the ball. Also, when it comes to PF/C.....it's really odd to talk about their perimeter defense, since it's something basically every PF/C struggles with. They aren't wings, they aren't guards.
"Fit" is a bad word because teams don't draft players they should (Luka) to not overlap with average to above average players they already have. If Paolo is there at 3 and the team believes his weaknesses are redundant with Sengun's, you draft Paolo and trade Sengun or resort him to bench duty. It's like people on here last year not wanting Green because his skills overlapped with KPJ.
Are you comparing Paolo to Luka? In no world is Paolo going to be Luka, or Lebron or some of these other ridiculous comparisons. Stop with that nonsense. If he was even remotely close to either of them he would be the hands down favorite to go number 1. Their games are in no way similar. At all.
Sacrificing Sengun for Paolo only assumes he'll be better which, right now is an unknown. If you put Paolo in Turkish league, can anyone 100% say, Paolo be league MVP? Part of the problem for Rockets next season could be political. If Paolo is worse, will Stone/Silas bench him because of the high draft price and the egg on face. Sengun (like Christopher) was the opposite, despite Silas benching them earlier in the year, they showed enough to still earn their minutes. If Paolo ends up giving Rocket's Sengun's same offensive production (not better, not worse), then would you still sacrifice / bench Sengun? If that double big lineup don't work for everyone else. And what happens to rim protection or switch defense. We already seen what a one-side offensive 4 looks like on the Rockets two years in a row. I'm not high on Wood, but I'm not going to lie and would be genuinely surprised in Paolo's offensive stats (and efficiency) would even be close to Woods. This is not me lobbying for Rockets to keep Wood, this is me saying we could be replacing Wood with a one sided big (a 4) who's even worse on offense in his first two years. Yes this is a bit unfair to Paolo if that is his rookie year, but like any employee to job, that person is judged on how good he is at the job. 'Fit' aside, if looking at "BPA", what makes a player 'best' includes skills like defense and 3pt shooting. If both Sengun and Paolo are bad at 3pt shooting next year, it's a lose-lose for both players.
You are just arguing for stupidity's sake now. Both Sengun and Banchero struggle defending perimeter. Period. For different reasons of course (one for lack of effort/focus another for limited athleticism), but both struggle in this area. And perimeter defense is critical for switch everything defense. In addition both struggle defending rim. For different reasons, Sengun is aggressive and foul prone while Banchero lacks commitment. And both lack length to be plus defenders in this area, only 7'0.5 wingspans. And pointing out best defenders on Rockets last season is like rearranging chairs on the deck of the Titanic. The defense was criminally incompetent.
This. We are still much closer to NBA bedrock than contending so "fit" isn't as much of a concern as getting as much talent as possible right now, especially with a top 3 pick. Sengun might be better suited leading the bench unit as a playmaking, super 6th man role for all we know.
We are the worst team in the NBA. Fit is the last thing we need to worry about. Draft best player available. Don't over think. If Banchero and Sengun can't play together then we can trade later.
