Alperen Sengun is the Rockets' franchise player

They won the last 4 before Sengun went down so they were already playing better with Sengun.

 

I said FVV is the most important player on the team in terms of playing winning basketball early in the season, and I still think the same way so Clutch has a point there imo.

What clutch doesn't see (or prefers not to see) is that young players are almost never good in terms of playing winning basketball. So saying he shouldn't get max contract because he doesn't have better net rating than a champion, veteran point guard you pay 40m$/year is extremely short sighted.

Paolo Banchero is an all-star, everyone is drooling over him and Banchero has a minus net rating on a 39-28 team, lol.

 

I pay for advanced metrics that are far more accurate at measuring player value than net rating, and it also supports the notion that Fred has been our best player (in fact a top 20-30 player in the NBA). Sengun had a hot start, was our best player for the first 1/3 of the season, then hit a wall, especially when Fred was out, then started playing better again before his injury. Fred was good throughout the season but has been great recently.

However, to conclude that your 21 year old, vastly improving, all star trajectory, by far your second best player isn’t worth the rookie max just because a 30 year old, in his prime, top 20-30, max player is currently marginally better…is horrible logic. A rim running defensive big is cheaper than the max because they don’t impact winning as much as a heliocentric allstar center. This really, really isn’t fking Rocket science here.

Clutch can twist this three ways to Sunday but the head honcho already made it clear, Sengun will be here for “years to come”, so you can either deal with it or keep crying for the entire next era of Rockets basketball.

 

You know trading Sengun for a nice haul and replacing him with a defensive big wouldn't be a terrible thing. I mean, it is for the team.

 

Weird logic to part ways with Sengün who is 21 before the veterans and Fred who is 30 and Dillon who will be 28 are staying longer than Alperen?

Sengün is the safety blanket when you have closer games, and yeah, the closer games will come again, you bet.

Now enjoy Amen and the Run and Gun show.

 

If they go on a run, Alperen is Turkey soup.

 

I touched on it in another post, both are not mutually exclusive, you can get a defensive big and play Alpe, then you have both styles.

1/2 court and running. Stagger those minutes.

That is what most of wanted us anyway, Daniel Gafford a running big and lob threat.

 

2 styles > 1 style, plus Majic Alpe Sengün.

 

Alperen's game does not match the other players, both Alperen and Houston should part ways for their future, Alperen can go to a championship candidate who plays slowly, Houston should find a center (landale is also possible) and continue.

 

I agree, stated it before, i believe in AlP, he will be an exceptional player, who can pursue MVP award one day. But i do not believe Rockets FO's willingness to commit to him, from a personal (maybe a bit selfish) perspective, i think him being traded could be better for the Rockets and him.

 

I do not think that, only fans with short term sightedness think like that.

You have too many players who are rhythm players, and Alpe is one of the few young players that delivers when the team is actually playing like CRAP and can be the PILLAR of Strength for the Rockets when things go sideways and they go sideways.

Everyone can be like Jalen and thrive in games that are easy......but who is the rock when things get ugly? Fred is only going to get older.

 

Even if you plan to trade him, I think it would be better to trade him when he is 28 at least you give him the opportunity to chase rings and Alpe also gave you a part of his prime years......only if the Rockets are not a perennial championship contender by then.

(That would be 6-7 years as a Rocket)

Win Win.

Even if Alpe was glued to the bench because of injury or bad play, I would still keep him until he is older.

 

What I am talking about is not the quality of Alperen, in my opinion, he is a player who will be an all star at least 4-5 times when his career is over, but there is the example of Porzingis Doncic, there was no harmony, is it a risk to send Alperen? Yes, but you have to send them to benefit from the others. I don't know how reliable Jalen Green is to lead the team.

 

Yes, and you have to consider what you would get in return.....you do not trade young quality players unless they are non quality malcontents like Kevin Porter.....

You trade them because you respect their wishes to chase a championship somewhere else and get a good haul in return when they are older players.

This is just not the right timing to do it.....

 

Some young people need to be given up, it is technically impossible to keep everyone at the same time, OKC will have the same problem, they need to be traded somewhere while their value is high, I don't think Jalen Green and Jabari can't be traded amen Whitmore eason can't happen either, their value is the highest here. There is a high Alperen and the team plays differently than him, one of them can be traded in the 1st round

 

You can try but you still would not get the same returns back....that you wish you were getting.

Udoker is still in the experiment phase so I am not volatile and fidgety right now, save it for later.

If he decides after 2 seasons he is going with Jalen Green and Amen Thompson, we as fans have to accept it. We can at least say we have been warned.

 

For those believing that the team is better than Alpi, let’s consider a few things (thanks to my wife as some of these are her observations):

1) Jalen is finally hitting a respectable percentage of his threes and Fred has refound his shot. No offense - fast or slow - is going to work when your primary perimeter shot-takers is bricking it like John Starks on his worst day. Jabari’s been a better and much more consistent shooter this season but pretty mediocre on catch and shoot 3s, ineffective as a cutter, and abysmal as a finisher in the dunker’s spot (all of which Alpi is elite at setting up). However, in Amen, we now have what appear to be an elite cutter and dunker-spot finisher in the lineup. So I don’t think it’s a coincidence that our offense starts to look better once the guys Alpi was passing out to start hitting their shots.

2) None of our guys are facing double and triple teams the way Alpi was. If teams swarmed Jalen the way they swarm Alpi, we’d be seeing a lot of bad shots, bad turnovers or (in the best case scenario) a lot of the ball being passed back to Fred to restart the offense. If teams swarmed Jabari the way they swarm Alpi, he’d be averaging 0 points and 10 turnovers.

3) It has been explicitly stated by several players and coaches that Alpi is the only Rocket that they’re game-planning for. Right now, we are playing a very different lineup and the plays are different as well. So teams are less prepared for what we’re doing. If we still had a couple of months of basketball to play, I would expect defenses to be a lot more effective against us a month from now.

4) Playoff basketball is never about running and gunning. Never. Teams scout their opponents thoroughly and just the muscle memory that comes from playing the same opponent consecutively leads to slower games. That’s not to say that a team should walk the ball up the court every play - that would suck for multiple reasons and if a fast break is available, it should happen. But unless you’re the 1986 Celtics (who ironically on paper didn’t look like a fast team), you aren’t going to beat the best teams running.

 

Also nuances should be noted.....Banchero draws the double teams, dribbles the ball a little too much to draw attention to him for other players, and take absolutely ridiculous shots.......

 

Respect, Mrs. Subtomic is a bball gem.