I don't disagree with your overall assessment, nor do I think a lot of this is Senguns' fault. However, I will note that when the Rockets lost FVV in the offseason and I wanted the team to get another PG, a lot of posters here told me I was overly worried and that Sengun will be our PG. So partly the reason people are felt let down is simply that they actually believe Sengun is a version of Jokic. And he can just be the hub of a top-5 offense. Not my own personal position, and I have been flamed by other posters when I said the designation to be too optimistic, but there are a lot of Rockets fans who buy into Sengun as a young Jokic. So from that standpoint, he is absolutely underperforming expectations.
People started gloating that they won over the Jalen fans, and now the bad juju that ****ed up Jalen's career that was brought on by Mathloom's chapters has transferred over to Alpi. He has the Jalens now so we're ****ed I'm afraid.
•Hurt feelings •Not mentally strong •Got thrown off the bus, ran over, reversed the bus, ran over again, drove forward, ran over again. Publicly & privately humiliated. •Fred & Steve no longer here to cover •Bum ankle •Eurobasket •Ramadan Tough couple of months for Alperen Sengun
I think everyone can agree something is off with him - the regression is real in several areas(chiefly rebounding and defensive effort): Is he tired from playing Euro ball this offseason? Is he playing through nagging injury? Is he unhappy with his coaches? Is he battling with KD for leadership of this team? Is he suffering from increased defensive focus with the cast surrounding him? I think all of those are legit explanations and reality is probably found in many of those at once. Regardless, I think we can all agree he is a talented player in any case and there are some tangible lessons we all need to learn here including Alpi. I personally think we should trade Sengun but its less about him not being good and more about him being our most valuable asset who I think is not quite good enough to be a #1 - but he might be "the missing piece" for another team. Ultimately, pair him to a draft pick and some trade filler(like DFS) and you have something you can go star hunting with...and if you can't find that star - maybe you just find a more complementary big with some defensive chops to a team who is probably better off playing more uptempo long term given the skill sets of Reed and Amen.
Is Alpi Muslim - is he observing Ramadan? That could explain some of the low energy play of late. I hadn't heard others call this out so not sure if this is just an assumption based on him being Turkish or something you know for fact.
SOFs probably a week away from blaming his awful performances on allergies atp, they’re just throwing sh*t at the wall hoping one of their lame excuses sticks
There's videos online of him drinking alcohol on a tv show, if he's Muslim he's the least devout one I've ever seen. Looks more like a secular child of Muslim parents if anything (something which is also very common where I live in the UK, and we have a large Muslim population in my city.)
I think it's just clear that Alpi is actually getoffmydickerson and he's now just sulking because the team/media didn't fall for his bait the way the average CF member did so he remains KD's lil sidekick clumsy b****-boy t-rex waddling across the court with a loaded diaper...
After ~midseason 2023-2024, teams figured out how to scheme our (efficient) FVV-Sengun two man game offense by leaving open everyone else, packing the paint, and zoning up the backside; forcing our other guys to take and make 3's to keep them honest and allow a primary action to work. Given our spacing, we haven't been able to punish that, in terms of first play halfcourt offense. We've been bottom 10 in the league in first play halfcourt offense since, second to last in 3PA. Rim finishing happens with 5 other bodies in the paint now. Rather than solve that problem, Ime/the FO have gone the other way and said "f*** true shooting %, we're going to pack the paint ourselves with terrible spacing and just get the ORB%". Everyone but KD's TS% has stagnated / gotten worse as we've leaned more and more that way, while our overall ORtg has improved. I don't agree with it, but since last year our offensive philosophy has increasingly been about getting the ORB rather than scheming to make the first shot. The monotonic increase in ORB% to unheard of levels reflects that. And tbf it has kinda worked in propping up overall ORtg (but obviously has downsides). But now it is like a caricature and you have Sengun at 55% TS and Amen nearly leading the league in dunks but with below average TS%. Last 3 seasons: HOU ORB%: 27% -> 35% -> 38% (highest by far in 20+ years) HOU ORtg: 20th -> 12th -> 5th HOU EFG% (no KD) 54% -> 53% -> 52% Sengun TS%: 58% -> 54% -> 55%
Seriously, picture that in your head, baby t-rex fills its diaper and runs off to mommy to get changed. Who does it look like?
Maybe some people believe him as baby Jokic, maybe at the beginning. But your generalization doesn't work anymore. Most people this season I see are screaming at Udoka for having Sengun initiating from outside the 3pt line (how Jokic operates). That and the poor spacing (again unlike Denver's offense) inspire no Jokic comparison in the fanbase. Sengun is not a point center. He is best getting the ball in the paint with cutters and shooters around him. It is fine having him ISO once in a while. But not good for a bread and butter play.
Just nobody start gloating or prematurely declaring him a superstar. If we **** up our entire future with the Jalens we're going to have to have another ****ing tank!
