Does the Rockets front office have a problem with Sengun?

He has a proven track record and came from the Pop coaching tree. I'm not sure what else needs to be said. He was the most sought after coach available and his hire should mean that he has the autonomy to put forth whatever roster he feels like gives him the best chance to win. At this point we have a bunch of little flawed balls of clay. From Sengun to Jabari to Jalen to the new guys. I don't think any prospect is better than another right now. Sengun isn't more talented than Jabari who isn't more talented than Jalen who isn't more talented than Amen. They all do different things and do some things worse than others. I'm not certain that you can 100% build around Sengun or Jalen or Bari yet. That's up to Ime and whatever he decides. That's his job. So whatever he decides is fine by me.

 

I wish @Clutch would respond in this thread and express his feelings about Sengun. And if he comes out and admits he does not like him I have no issues with that. We are all entitled to our opinions. I just wish he wouldn't try to push his personal opinions as the teams in interviews. Ime will be the one deciding who plays and has said it will be based on merit. The best players will shine in such a system and I have no doubt Sengun will flourish.

 

None of the other stuff you wrote is relevant to my question.

what’s his “proven track record?” He was the coach of a good team he inherited for one year and an assistant for like 12 years. I agree coming from Pop tree is promising.

Silas had like 20 years of assistant coaching experience. He lead the “most explosive offense in nba history” or something like that. Is that not a “proven track record?”

he was most sought after by whom? And according to whom? What other teams supposedly wanted Ime given his “incident?”

I’m not saying we hired wrong. I don’t know who else was even truly available. I am content w the hire. I think he COULD be very good. But there’s a lot of this mystic confidence that Ime will do this and that. But how do we know? He has one year of head coaching and 8 years less of assistant coaching that Silas had…

 

What about him you know.... Playing in the NBA. Isn't that part of experience?

He also was seen as the best coach out of the Pop line of assistant coaches.

 

I think this is much ado about nothing. Sengun has his issues on defense (fouling) and 3 point shooting that he needs to work on and I think that is where these rumblings from the front office/ownership comes from. I'll let the process play out with Ime before any of it concerns me.

 

Mmm playing is certainly experience though I don’t think it makes good coaches. Sooo many ex (good) players have made terrible coaches.

 

Heck, everyone has different opinions.

I am suspecting Ime is just doing the strength and weakness of all the players and assess their trade value.......just that.

Not sweating it until it snowballs into something bigger.

One question though, how is the Turkish community in Houston?

I did not follow Alperen on IG.

 

There is a certain type of ex-player that makes good coaches. It's usually the ones that aren't ultra gifted that learned to stay in the league for multiple years because they are so technically sound and understand team defense and offense concepts.

 

^this

1. This is one of the issues when ceilings are projected. While athleticism and physicals are important, they seem to be over counted in the calculus with our front office.

• Physicals are easy to measure. It's lazy ceiling projections if mainly base on that. What's harder is measuring feel for the game, the mental processing, projection on how likely that player is to improve on set of bball skills.

2. What's a bit warped and under-counted is iteration of skill development. If the player in your specific freshman / sophomore class, is ahead in the class. The question you should ask is why is this student ahead in the age bracket and how can I accelerate his development?

• Whatever learning up to that point is at least working for them that they are ahead... and to simply say they won't keep improving is not base on any evidence. In most skill development, it's the opposite, you give that A student more attention and teaching.
• For the players who got the nod because of basketball physicals, this is fine except they may be playing catch-up in the skills department. Can't magically assume they'll leap ahead of their peers, because "guess what", the other players want the minutes (and money) too.
• Not to pile on KJ Martin, but he is one such example. Physicals off the chart. He does have some skills (adequate) in certain places. But as athletic as is; if the propensity on skill development is average (not a knock), but avg or below avg, that player's usefulness on the team is limited.

3. Draft profile lingering... In general, it's way too optimistic. I like the idea of Jabari's draft profile, but living up to it is entirely different. Instead of too much emphasis on ceilings and floors, I much prefer the likeliest of projection (median). Instead Sekou having a Paul George comp, his actual career trajectory is probably Terrance Williams. If a NBA prospect lasts longer than the average lifespan, probability wise they're more likely a Luke Ridnour or Eric Dampier.

TLDR for this bullet is, instead of clinging to their original draft profile projection, really really look at what you have and evaluate accordingly.

 

You know what is painfully lacking in all of these discussions that include quotes and opinions of so many people (fans, bloggers, experts and reporters)? Yes, you guessed it right – what Alperen Sengun himself thinks about all the team and about his game.

And what can be a better source for info this than his intreviews on Turkish talk shows in TURKISH LANGUAGE. I know he improved his English, but in public we see him speaking English only when he is asked questions by reporters, and this is where he instinctively carefully choses his words and tries to be “politically correct” towards his teammates, coaches and the organization. But in those talk shows he returns to be his ordinary self and seems like just a smart and respectful teenager (which he still is), talks about this wonderful world of NBA, about all those incredible NBA players, about mad offensive skills of so many players, and that there is absolutely no cake walk in the league.

There were so many surprising revelations I took from those talk shows. Here are just some of them:

- Probably the most hardworking guy on the team is Jabari Smith Jr. And that almost after every practice Jabari refuses to leave and spends extra time in the gym. “He works out like crazy”
- Silas was indeed a very nice person (actually he said this AFTER Silas was already fired)
- Last season we lost so many games in the 3rd and 4th quarters after leading at halftime simply because “our attitude was not correct” and “we ourselves could not understand what is going on and why this is happening”.
- There are really huge players in the NBA like Joel Embiid or Rudy Gobert. But this is not a problem as I can easily beat them by my floater shot which I must continue to improve (by the way, in 4 games against Minnesota in 2022-23 Sengun was 31 for 45 (69% FG)
- I like to be challenged. I welcome this as a motivation to prove people wrong. The very reason I improved my 3-point shot was people telling me that I can’t make them and should stop taking them.
- I enjoy assisting so much more than scoring. I like to make plays and make my guys score.
- We are absolutely aware that this season is the season we as a team must show a very serious improvement.

 

Clutch is more than likely too intelligent to get himself involved in such needless drama.

 

I listened to Silas for all of 5 minutes and knew he wasn't that guy. As did Harden which is why he left. Udoka is different. If he succeeds here does he also not get credit because he "inherited" this team like Kerr "inherited" Curry? He took an underperforming Celtics team and showed them how to play the right way. He was the right hire and I'm not going to question his decisions right now. He's earned that much. If we are a .500 team deep into next year than I'd probably change my stance.

 

This is interesting. It’s sort of what I’ve been thinking/saying for a while now about Sengun.

I see why ppl live him. He can absolutely play in the nba and does some very impressive things with his passing.

but like I’ve also pointed out. He’s small for a center in the sense he is not long and he doesn’t play big because of a lack of athleticism.

I see the question marks with him and I have seen then for a while now and I’m no GM coach or front office member so I get we’re the professionals are coming from.

I also get why fans love him. He’s clearly been the most impressive player the last 2 seasons for the team. But the teams been bad with it without him on the court so is he really the future or just a guy who is a solid high end role player off the bench?

 

Rafael Stone doesn't care about Turkish people.

 

Sheesh reading through the thread and it gives me the sad part of the movie vibes for SOFs (or "complication" for movie nerds). Good news is that we still have rising action and climax to look forward to!

The false cause fallacy that Sengun = Jokic is setting up the most invested for heartbreak. The blueprint to winning rings is pretty consistent over the last 10 years+. Denver breaking the trend isnt really harkening a new era of basketball because Jokic is a 1 of 1 and they enjoyed some aspects of said blueprint themselves. While Sengun can mimic some of what Jokic does the biggest issues he'll always have is wingspan, lack of vertical pop, slow feet and minus lateral quickness especially when asked to defend a roller in PNR and anytime he's switched on the perimeter. Sengun is literally HUNTED by apt scorers and playmakers in the league for a reason. Sounds like defense is going to be important for Udoka so apart from Sengun guys like Jalen, KPJ, and JC should all be ready to ride the pine when the effort is not there if meritocracy is going to be an honest admission from the front office.

 

Pretty sure this is all BS. I think the FO and Ime in particular are just challenging Sengun. He has said himself that he likes when the coaches yell at him and gets a chip on his shoulder to improve when people criticize a part of his game. No way he is lazy.

 

Sengen ceiling is basically Vucevic.

Vuc isn't on the same stratosphere as Jokic.

 

No it’s not. That’s more of a floor

 

I don't think he's got traditional star player potential, but I think he's the kind of guy who could develop into a great No. 3 or No. 4 option on a contending team. Some version of a poor man's Rodman, Draymond, etc. Per 36 minutes as a rookie, he averaged essentially 16/10/2/2/1 and that was with expectedly poor efficiency. If he can improve his shot selection and get better at finishing around the rim, I could see him developing into a consistent 15/10 guy who fills up the box score with blocks and steals and regularly takes on the opposing team's toughest defensive assignment.

 

Hard to say. Vucevic was a big that came up in the 'old school' doing similar things to Sengun currently, but he was also able to modify his game as soon as an emphasis on stretch bigs was the rage. Vucevic is now a viable 3 point shooter and legitimate last line of defense center. Sengun has work to do just to reach Vucevic levels of impact.