Completely disagree about Sengun. And Its not all that hard to find stretch bigs these days to come off the bench or play along side him. Also Lopez didnt become a decent 3 pt shooter until almost a decade into his career. You max Sengun and them figure it out later. If you need to move him in the future for some reason, then move him.
I don’t agree with that statement. Randle has more in his arsenal which makes teams defend his teams differently. After all he is a 3 time all star. He is also a good passer at the 4. It’s about how opposing teams defend the teams they play based on their abilities. Having stretch ability is always valuable in this era of zone or zone switch defenses. That’s why the great Manimal isn’t in the league despite being a very “efficient” player. Again that’s why TS% should never be the lone indicator of player value. A big part of why the Rockets struggled last season was teams playing zone sagging wings and corners to protect the paint against a very good one on one Rockets team that couldn’t shoot 3’s or mid range shots.
why would a stretch 5 play alongside Sengun? That means 2 center lineups. That stretch 5 better be able to guard quick 4’s or move like a 4 otherwise it’s pointless in this era of smaller quicker 4’s. That’s why Rockets never play 2 big lineups with Sengun. He isn’t a 4. But again this goes back to why Sengun is such an interesting case because he doesn’t have stretch ability and he isn’t an imposing paint defender the likes of (Porzingis, Myles Turner, Hartenstein etc). He’s simply a big that has very good handling, can low or mid post with dribble drive ability and above average passing.
I think you haven’t watched Randle play closely enough to make that assessment. Randle has been an above average passer/playmaker last several years with the Knicks especially in transition. He also makes plays to the corners and wings with his dribble drive. Avg 5 dimes a game past 4 years.
Correct me if I am wrong but he has an expiry date and that is 21st of October to extend....or he is in danger to go to RFA. A lot of times he is already extended and the news breaks much later in real time.
This one is easy. You want the foundation of your offense to feel secure. You don't want them going out in a critical season only thinking about doing what's best for them. You don't want them worrying about getting injured and losing tens of millions of dollars in negotiation because of it. I would still wait till next summer and offer him the max then. However, it's ONLY because of the cap hold vs cap space issue. What I'm explaining above is that there are certainly benefits to extending him now. However in my opinion, those benefits don't outweigh leaving open the opportunity to secure 3 max-worthy players simultaneously next summer (in the optimistic scenario where Sengun and Green earn the max while we have the cap space to acquire a 3rd max player outright). IMO there's a potential dynasty possible here. In any other scenario, I would extend Sengun. Scientifically speaking, anyone who is in a non-robotic job performs better when their basic needs are taken care of in a way that guards against easy financial disaster. Only people in robotic jobs (factory assembly, data entry, etc) perform better with a carrot/stick approach. Most jobs are non-robotic and an athlete is essentially an entertainer. You've heard it all your life: a happy employee is a more productive employee. Anyone who has managed teams for more than a few years will tell you that, unless they run a ****-show.
….this is why we should’ve taken Zach Edey. We have zero oprions to be longtime starters behind Sengun. With Green we have tons of replacements, so his value is minimized vs Sengun.
So we should have blown the pick on a permanent backup to the best player on the roster rather than picking the best pure PG in the class to replace an aging PG currently making over 40 million a season? Bold.
Usually, and it's a weird phenomena, but teams bend over backwards to appease their star player. The Rockets have a whole lot of making up to do in appeasing Sengun considering the utter nonsense they've done regarding him ever since he's been on the team.
I think odds are greater the Rockets add a star by trading matching salary than by trading some matching salary and cap space or by using cap space to sign a star. Also, I think players want to go places that treat players better such that extending Sengun likely helps attract stars. Sure, Morey's made it work without trying to create a player friendly environment, but he's mostly had an MVP level player to attract players other than the first trade that he made for Harden.
Everybody acting all confused and spitballing "why" thinking the team needs to "appease" anyone meanwhile Rafael Stone is all :
In the sense that Scola would be a max player in todays NBA, yeah, sure. In the sense that Latrell Sprewell would get his bag to feed his family in todays NBA? Sure. Neither are going to be top 2 players on a championship team without drastic turnaround of their weaknesses into strengths. It's far too early to be maxing out contracts on such a young team, but what choice do you have?
Most NBA starting centers do not stretch. Even some of the perceived like Wemby last year shot 3p: 32.5%.
