In DEFENSE of Alperen Sengun - Analysis on why Sengun may already be an above average defender

Does it matter if Sengun is too slow to switch onto Fox. Fox isnt' an elite shooter by any means. Sengun should be able to force him into tough shots. And when he does switch is when Jabari needs to be downlow to help with weakside blocking. We should have schemes in place to help, but instead we just have 5 guys standing around doing absolutely nothing.

 

Rockets generally has better 2p percentages and worse 3pt percentages than opponents in 2023. Someone should teach them how to stop raining 3s but also train them for better 3pt shooting.

The team sucks, you need 9 very good players for the success. Houston is not there yet.

 

Sengun never switches screens, the Rockets play drop by choice. Jabari is supposed to go over the screen and force Murray who was burning us into a drive into Sengun, instead he got open looks. Inexplicably Silas refused to adjust and change up his defense by switching Sengun onto Murray, even though throughout the game Sengun was cross matched in transition plenty of times with Murray already.

I’m not saying Sengun’s defense is above average or even average yet like the OP, just that in this instance the onus is on Jabari to take away the 3 and on Silas to adjust if he can’t. If Fox was getting easy layups out of pick and rolls with Sabonis then I have no problem blaming Sengun.

 

lolwut?

 

@Haymitch he’s not going over film individually with Sengun because Sengun wasn’t the one screwing up all night.

 

At least he admits it.

 

He feels like it, but I haven't seen it (yet).

 

Jabari's comments are part of the problem. Severe entitlement without the results among our young players. Sorry Jabari, but you are not the best defender on this team.

 

Was just typing the exact same words, lol

 

Yeah not even close. But I meant this part

 

It makes sense to do this. Sengun can't really fix his slow feet - and thus we can't use the obvious strategy of switching PnRs - but Jabari *could* (theoretically) get better at fighting through screens to help cover this gap in our D.

 

He's not very quick laterally but he's probably the only guy on the team who understands the defensive scheme. Everyone else just over switches and leaves people open for no reason. You can see him get frustrated (often at Jabari) several times each game because someone switches a back pick incorrectly and just let's a cutter waltz into the paint.

 

I don't really see him as an above average or even average defender and I have a hard time trusting metrics that aren't open source. If I can't see how a stat is calculated, or at least have a very detailed description of how it works under the hood, I can't value it too highly. There are also a lot of defensive stats that don't really mean a whole lot by themselves, but people like to use them as support so long as they support their prior belief. The bottom line is that the defense is worse when Alperen is on the floor. You can blame it on the drop scheme, or the guards, or whatever, but the defense is worse when he's out there and better when he's not.

That being said it's hilarious that anyone's takeaway is that the team is better without him, or that he gives up more on the defensive end than he gives you on the offensive end. That is just demonstrably false, it is factually untrue, you can see it by watching the games or by getting into the numbers. The benefit he gives you on offense outweighs the damage he causes on the defensive end, it's not debatable.

 

Senguns feet are faster then your brain...can your brain be fixed?
Ever heard of training, going to the gym, dieting? LOL

 

Lol look at the haters cant accept the greatness lololololol
they all stood up in unison reciting centuries old formulas...

if jalen green were doing half of what sengun does hed be considered lord of the universe lolololol

i am so sorry jalen is a bust lolololol despite everytthing handed to him on a silver platter... thats how life is!

i just hope the management continues to be stupid and trades sengun to some nice destination for another chucker or a shot at another chucker lolololol

 

Jabari: I'm the head honcho on defense.

 

I was looking for a way to explain the bad vibe in the interview and this fits perfectly.

 

bear in mind he only ever played 10 full nba games of 35 minutes in his career...he only started playing real games...i am sure hell reach elite level on defensive with a couple of years of playing experience under his belt.... his defensive potential is through the roof, has all the tools...
with only 10 games under his belt on a circus team and a circus coaching, playing 15 minutes sometimes LOLOL, you cant expect him to be hakeem on defense