My 2 cents on Sengun's defense is that he's a lot like Harden. i.e., he's inventive and good at using the element of surprise when he has the ball. When the other guy has the ball, the inventiveness is useless. In fact, Sengun's dependence on his own creativity makes it harder to adjust when his job shifts to defense. Part of what's impressing me about Jalen Green this year is that he also loves to use the element of surprise on offense, but he's showing that on defense he can lock in and react quickly when the opponent tries to surprise him. My working hypothesis is that Sengun, unlike Green, got where he is by relying heavily on creativity. So there's no reason to expect that Sengun will become a good defender. The best Udoka can get out of him is liability mitigation.
Sengun is anchoring a defense that has been top ten the last two seasons with two of the worst defensive guards in the league starting. Im sorry but I call BS on him being a bad defender. its just not true.
Its so funny how people on this board harp on sengun's defense but praise jalen and jalen and freds defense have been a major problem for the rockets over the past year. Its guards that go off on us most nights. people ignore that. because sengun is european he's an easy target to attack for defense because of stereotypes. people in texas love their stereotypes it doesnt matter if its true or not.
Mostly agree with this regarding POA defense. I do think Udoka is likely putting Sengun in good positions to use his mind as a help defender close to the basket. Sengun also quickly reacts when he's on a mismatch to get switched back to someone he can guard as soon as Brooks or someone else is ready to switch. Udoka also keeps Sengun close to the basket such that Sengun can end a possession with a defensive rebound.
Agree and disagree; they are certainly a decent sized part of the formula. Iverson was self-admittedly lazy, which was a damn shame.
The Jalen fans on this board are laughing at the idea that I'm some kind of Jalen stan. Also, not to get all D&D here, but: "People in Texas love their sterotypes" is a true gem.
I never said anything about you being a jalen stan. you guys love making stuff up and your stereotypes lol
I didnt say it because it was a stereotype I said it because I live here and its true. its highly racist in texas and racists are that because they love stereotypes. people in texas see sengun he is euro opp must be bad a defense lol Ive actually seen adams blow more assingments than sengun, no one talks about that though because he's known for defense lol
That's a really interesting point, about finding ways to use Sengun's creativity as a a help defender. On one play in the Spurs game, he anticipated the entry pass to Wemby and stepped over to snag it. That's the kind of thing Amen and Tari and Sheppard do, but I hadn't noticed Sengun doing it before.
So in your opinion, it is okay for you to lump a disparaging view for all people based on a state (Texas), nation, continent of origin for lumping a disparaging view for all people based on state, nation, continent (Europe) of origin. I've said numerous times how Adams have sucked at defense this year. Though, I'm not an expert of discriminating on a group of people based on their state of origin. Is there something about being part Tongan, part European that makes Adams immune from racism? Adams has a reputation as a good defender because he was a good defender...not because of his origins.
He gets quite a few steals. He also uses clever anticipation to get quite a few blocks, despite not being as tall as Chet or as bouncy as Amen. He is one of the better defenders on the team, and the stats prove it. Yes, Udoka helps him with the assignments, but I think part of that is to protect him from foul trouble because he is so valuable on offense. While Jalen has started showing some more effort on defense, the effort is still inconsistent. Our problem has been perimeter defense, much more so than rim defense, and that has not changed. Again, the stats prove it. The reason the Warriors killed us in the first half of that game was that they had tons of open threes, and made them - not that they would have been killing us at the rim.
Sengun has limitations, but he's not a "bad" defender. He is not exceptionally long or athletic so his help defense, rim protection and being able to shutdown smaller players are not strong suits. But he has good anticipation, he hustles, he's got good strength and he knows he needs to be locked in on that side of the ball. Sengun's defense isn't going to keep you from winning.
Jalen sucked so bad on defense last year, IMO, that all I notice now is the good plays he makes. His on-ball defense has been so much better, and he's also more active in looking to help. I'm probably cutting him some slack. Every time he boxes out, an angel gets its wings.
Doubt you could put together 15 seconds of good Sengun defense in his career that can match Gianni's defense this season. If you asked 30 GM's, coaches, players in the league who they would take? Sengun right now or Gianni's right now? I think they would laugh at you. You are implying that or telling them that Sengun anchors a top 5 defense in the league and will be better than Gianni's "defensively" within the next 5 years.....they will laugh at you. Barring major injury, Gianni's will still be better than Sengun on offense and on defense separately. As Gianni's turns age 35. They will tell you that you are cute for thinking such, come at them with such confidence in what you are saying, but obviously having low basketball I.Q.
I love how you guys are stereotyping alpi and getting mad that im stereotyping you. LMAO. Doesnt feel good does it lol
Literally said none of this, you're just making up a bunch of crap. I said Giannis is a shell of what he used to be on defense, because he is. I don't want him for many reasons, but that's one of them.
When it comes to defense, schemes matter. Even if you are the guy getting scored on every night, sometimes that means you are the best defender charged with being "the guy we most want you to try to score on". Udoka schemes to keep Sengun out of positions where he can be exploited. That's what a good defensive coach does. I don't think that necessarily makes Sengun a great defender just because he is the tallest guy out there on a top 10 defense - he's not the anchor defensively by any stretch...but he does what Udoka asks which is to limit possessions by rebounding the ball and for a team with the type of gritty and athletic defenders we have - that's super valuable so he is playing a very important role to the defense. He still seems fairly average as a big defender to me but that's not meant to be an insult because that's significantly better than where he started as a defender but there is a reason why you often see Sengun matched up to weaker offensive players and his teammates switching out matchups off ball to get him away from pick and rolls before they occur. I think that's just to say - Udoka makes sure he has enough good switchable defenders around Sengun(95+% of Sengun lineups have some combo of Fred/Jalen/Brooks/Eason/Amen/Jabari) to be able to give Sengun the role of not being the point of attack(POA) defender but tasking him instead with putting a body on someone and getting boards and he is succeeding in that role and the defense is succeeding in keeping Sengun away from the POA. All that said - it's the regular season and we better be thinking about how to build a title contender, not just win some more games. Teams don't necessarily have detailed game plans every game for how to exploit weaker defenders - maybe at a high level in regular season, maybe in key possessions like in crunch time minutes.....but in the playoffs - that level of detail DOES get exploited and I think that's the concern you have for Sengun(and Jalen too for that matter) that he needs to continue to improve as an individual defender because he specifically WILL be tested a lot more if this team is going to be in the playoffs. When a team like let's say OKC or Minnesota is deliberately trying to find ways to get Sengun in pick and roll coverage against Shai or Edwards and may be actively running plays trying to get that matchup 20+ times in a game rather than just in a handful of crunch time possessions in the regular season. You want a recent example of this - look a how Dereck Lively was such a critical defender for Dallas until they met the Celtics and then Boston schemed Lively away from the plays(by putting all their shooters our there when he was on the floor) and forced Luka and PJ Washington to be help defenders at the rim and they ran away with the series because those guys struggled to play the help defender role they hadn't been forced to play against teams like 'Sota. The moral to the story? Sengun has improved and is thriving in his role now on this team but if we are to be a championship contender, there is still A LOT of growth needed from guys like Sengun and Green and it starts today with trying to be effective in those limited minutes where they do get stuck in those unfavorable matchups and need to try to learn to force tough shots without fouling by playing smart angles, by having hands up, by having good footwork, by communicating more seamlessly with their teammates, etc....because after all - you are only as good as your weakest link in the playoffs.
If you love Giannis ole ass so much then go be a Bucks fan. Go to the Bucks forum because im tired of seeing you **** slober over a guy who had to put in play off effort just to beat the Jazz so he can finally get 2 games on the season lol
There it is.....you only like the 19 year olds. Steve Nash, LeBron, Tim Duncan, CP3, Haslem, P.J. Tucker, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Vince Carter say, "Eat Them!!"
