Finally made some adjustments that prevented the double on him more and he came through and shined on the defensive and offensive end. Like many of you, I saw him shine and rally the troops. Whole Udoka was criticizing the guys post game, Senguin was encouraging them. he’ll be a good leader whatever team he’s on Like many I’ve been hating on his play, but it seems a lot of it has to do with the toxic culture of this team and cancerous coach
Sengun definitely stepped up last night and almost won the game for us with his will. Dude was spent, but he kept ballin'. This was the Alpi I love.
Tari : "I ain't believin none of this he's saying - I just want my money" Amen : "Big girl looks cute" Reed : "Sweet Baby Jesus, don't send me out there again" A few minutes after this leadership display - the collapse.
...but the two games before it? Leadership and diligence as a professional are habits you bring with you to work EVERYDAY - it's not something you get serious about only when you are about to be embarrassed. Would be great if he takes this as a lesson moving forward but trying extra hard in one game isn't the way you help this team. Get in that coaches chair every game, every practice - bring that passion to every play. It can't be only when you are about to be embarrassed on national TV(for the 3rd time in a week) that you suddenly care. If you are only motivated by the embarrassment of losing to the Lakers practice squad - then you need to find better motivators because he should be embarrassed every time he doesn't leave it all on a basketball court in the playoffs, in the regular season, in preseason, in practice. Make it count.
The average team age for teams in NCAA March madness tourney, is near 22 years old. Tari is the only one older than 23 here, and he is 24. Despite them being in the league a while, we tend to forget how relatively young these players still are '04 Team of Francis, Mobley, Yao vs the Lakers in the playoffs, was seen as "up & coming"' team with upside. Yao was actually the only rotation player UNDER 26 on that team. Francis, Mobley, & Cato were, 26, 28 & 29. This morning I thought to myself, Durant was the right move to make, but it's under the wrong team setting. Which concludes that it's the franchise culture that's the problem more than players. Players at impressionable younger ages where it can affect them
NIL money is real, those College players enjoy playing and staying longer. This was 1-2 years before Tari, Jabari, Green could get their hands on that money.
He actually has been for years, but he needs to realise it and do it every night. Often he coasts, and when he coasts, and KD lives coasting, nobody has fire. It's actually annoying that the leadership by reports put him in his place behind KD in the hierarchy earlier in the season. I'd hazard that was a big reason in his seeming regression and the big leap into stardom we expected not materialising. KD really was a terrible move the the team overall, despite being very entertaining to watch with his ridiculous shotmaking all season.
They've been in the league long enough to have played through the mistakes that were made last night though. Jabari bad pass, Tate stupid foul, Reed not protecting the ball all in succession. These are mistakes we expect rookies to make. I can forgive Sheppard. Ime refusing to play him last year was a huge mistake.
People can call me a crazy conspiracy theorist if they like, I genuinely think he is. I think he switched off early in the season when it was made clear to him it's KD's team and he's not the superstar or leader and he's mostly phoned it in since. Now, whilst i do consider that somewhat of a character flaw myself, I do also understand that lots of people are that way, and frankly after the Dickerson **** I think KD killed the motivation of a lot of the young guys. You don't play the way Alpi played against some of the top 5 players in the league last summer without actually being a very talented basketball player. Genuinely though, if Alpi wasn't the superstar on that Turkey team, who exactly are you suggesting was the real force competing with Jokic, Giannis etc?
Always has been since day one. Always will be until he's gone. There are going to be so, so, so many posters crying if this franchise trades Sengun for Giannis of all people.
im a believer in Sengun but the lack of finishing around the rim the last 2 seasons has made me question how good he will be. That and the defensive regression, and that we are now going on year 6 and there has been little to no progression in the shooting. I have no doubt that KD has not been good for Sengun, but I’ve come to believe that you can’t build around two non-shooters, and I just see Amen as a higher upside prospect. I wish we could see what it looked like with Amen and Sengun surrounded by 3 elite shooters, but we’ve just never had really good shooting personnel under Stone. Ultimately Sengun has to take some responsibility for his chronic inefficiency at the rim, as well as the lack of progress closing those other gaps I mentioned.
I keep having to remind myself that he's 23 years old. Even after 5 years in the league, I think some inconsistency and immaturity can be forgiven. I don't know man. The whole time he's been here, I've been back and forth on Sengun more than any other player. At times he looks whiny and soft, at other times he does look like he has "it". The talent is there, if you think he can shoot 3Pers at a respectable level, which I kind of think he could under a coach who actively encouraged it and tried to develop that aspect of his game instead of berating him for taking them. He's flashed it enough times that I think a Brook Lopez-like improvement in that area is very possible, if not likely. On the one hand, the fit between him and Amen is obviously horrible right now. On the other hand, could it look a lot better with a very different head coach...?
Ok, convince me, what's the indication that Amen is the better prospect? Superstar/star players are supposed to carry your team as a scorer or at least a playmaker, explain why you discount Sengun for his shooting but let Amen pass despite Amen being absolute trash outside of 10ft? Amen doesn't have higher percentages because he's a better shooter, he has higher percentages because the vast majority of his shot attempts are open layups or dunks from the dunker spot because the actual offensive talents got him an easy look. He doesn't create for himself or others anywhere near the same level as Alpi, and Alpi's a CENTER, Amen's apparently the Point Guard, and Amen actually has even more of a 90's Center shot chart than Alpi does, you realise that right? Alpi has more big games, more superstar flashes, is one of the 2 actual focal points of the team. Amen is a defensive specialist with almost no basketball fundamentals. You want to build around more athletic but significantly less skilled Tony Allen with a significantly worse jump shot? Justify it.
You don’t build around a 6’9 unathletic center who can’t shoot. Move him for Giannis if he is available.
