Alperen Sengun is the Rockets' franchise player

Green had 4 years of unlimited play time and development opportunities, the whole team catering to him and he only improved in basic perimeter defense.

Reed was glued to bench and was pulled back every time he made a mistake and he is in his second season.

equalling both and then lecturing about racial bias. Priceless!

 

this last stretch of games is the best he's ever played.

 

I am not sure which idiot you are arguing with but your points are spot on!

 

Been here for a good minute so not going anywhere. I’ll still be here to remind you how silly you sound when you yap about SOFs. I’m sorry they touched you inappropriately.

 

No matter what is said or not, you have your own interpretation. In context, you can not compare Jalen and Reed because their roles were different, you could only compare the outcome. That they're both inconsistent.

Jalen was asked to do more against the opposing team's best defender, while Reed is simply asked to not turn the ball over and to score against the opposing team's worst defender?

As an example, their last game against Minnesota, Jaden McDaniels was tasked with guarding KD, last year he guarded Jalen. They always put McDaniel on the opposing teams best scorer.... At no point in time did he ever guard Reed Sheppard, nor did he have to!

So to take that in its totality, could you imagine Reed trying to score over a 6'9 athletic freak like McDaniel? Reed is 6'3 and Jalen is 6'4, maybe 6'5? So the height disparity is not that great between the two but the difference in what's asked of one player vs the other is immeasurable. And at the same time Jalen was asked to score, he was also asked to PLAYMAKE, because FVV was hurt, last yr as well. And we didn't have nearly the turnover problem then, that we are having now....REMEMBER THAT?

Once again, just pointing out the FACTS. However, I know you're going to have your own interpretation of whats true and not.

 

I share the injury concerns, cause every year he goes through a slump and you can clearly see it as it perfectly aligns with his lift disappearing, and let’s face it there isn’t much of it to afford losing some unlike say Amen lol.

This is where Udoka’s “system” is brutal though - I’m not sure any 23 year old is meeting his demands on both ends. The sad state of our bench complicates the issue - I think he’s playing most mpg as a center behind Jokic, and Amen, KD and Sengun were all top 10 in mpg iirc until Sengun got that ankle injury, but my guess is his body started giving up before that. And with Stevo’s injury there wasn’t really much of an option.

Again comes down to poor planning and lack of alignment though - knowing our chances were super slim this season I think focusing on development while keeping KD and Amen and Sengun in good shape would result in the better outcome for the longer term. Players shouldn’t leave their health in the hands of the Nigerian Thibs - he just doesn’t care for anything except his record as a coach. He needs to learn with whatever bench he’s got, cause trying to cover up the flaws of the bench while playing starters to death doesn’t help anyone - unless you had a significant hand in shaping that bench and are now trying to cover your own as5.

 

Anyone who KNOWS, when Jokic first came into the league he had serious stamina problems. He could barely get up and down the court.....He was OVER WEIGHT. Go look it up!

Although Sengun is not over weight, I think he needs to get into better shape. He has issues closing games. However, recently within the last 3 games, he's looked better. Maybe its because he played competitively last Summer and he's just now catching his 2nd wind or the effects from an injury.....Im not sure but he has looked better.

 

I just saw the interview Sengun did with his arm around Tari. That was great.

I have to admit I have been critical of Sengun in various threads this year, even going as far to say I would consider him the primary trade piece to try to improve this roster (getting rid of Ime would be best thing for us, but it seems like that's not an option).

Seeing him step up and be a leader is such a contrast to Dickerson. He'll never be a great athlete but Alpy is moving really well after coming back from that much-needed time off. I'm thinking his lackluster play this year has been a result of trying to "tough it out" probably due do Ime's influence. He looks a lot more like the Sengun we saw in those awesome Euro highlights from the summer.

THIS version of Sengun is definitely the type of player you keep and work around their limitations. I do think we will always need an above-average backup center with Sengun just to give a different look, but his play in recent weeks and his leadership has me feeling like he is a keeper.

 

This is why I'd love to pick up Myles Turner in the offseason if we can get him for like DFS + Adams + a bundle of SRPs or a heavily protected Rockets FRP or something, after Giannis presumably gets traded elsewhere (i.e. New York). If Sengun is the guy, we can lower his minutes load by having a backup who is legitimately starting caliber, and stagger Amen's and Sengun's minutes more than we can right now. If Sengun isn't the guy, we can trade him and already have his replacement in house to see what this team looks like with a stretch big. Kind of a win-win. (Yeah, Turner's contract is bad, but so is that DFS contract, and arguably Adams if he can't stay healthy.)

 

Turner’s contract isn’t bad other than the length. Less than 30m year for a stretch five, fairly good rim protector is really pretty spicey. Injury concerns are the biggest alarm. He is only 30 so he would be pretty old by the end of the contract.

 

Both his offense and defense have kind of been declining, so I think there's some question how long he will still be starting caliber (if he even still is). Otherwise, I'd agree. Maybe you could take the optimistic view and think of him as a bounce-back candidate, since he literally just turned 30 last week and it doesn't seem like his production should be this down? Maybe just a down year? Perhaps somebody who's watched the Bucks more than I have this season could chime in on that.

 

Let me help you understand from my point of view. I think if a player is GOOD enough, he will never sit on the bench in the first place.

The only player I can think of who sat on the bench his first 2yrs but was good enough to deserve playing time was Kobe. And the only reason he sat, was because of who he was playing behind, Eddie Jones.

I just don't think Reed is good enough to be a starter. Ive been wrong before, as you alluded to but Im sure you have been wrong before too! Reed reminds me of that fan favorite who is at the end of the bench and when he comes in everybody wishes he hits a shot!

Reed is solid but I just don't see starter and DEFINITELY not an all- star

 

Just off the top of my head, here are some former and current all-stars that spent significant amounts of time on the bench their first two years, starting with three you should absolutely be aware of as a Rockets fan:

James Harden
Tracy McGrady
Kyle Lowry
Nikola Jokic
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Steve Nash
Jimmy Butler
Jalen Brunson
Jalen Johnson

I'm sure I could go on, but you're just straight-up wrong on this one. Lots of players started out coming off on the bench and became all-stars and even superstars, let alone decent starters. And it's getting more and more common these days because more guys are getting drafted at 18-19 when they're still incredibly young and inexperienced as opposed to past eras where that was less common.

That doesn't mean it will happen for Reed, I've said before I think he would be a 6th man if he never improved much beyond what he is right now, because he does have some obvious flaws in his game holding him back, and his 3P shooting is more "very good" right now than "one of the best in the NBA". But given his age and experience level, I'd say it's more likely than not he will improve somewhat, so he will probably be a starting caliber player sooner or later. An all-star, I don't know.

 

People forget he did this for Jalen the entire time. Alpi's always been the heart and soul of the team even if he wasn't in the traditional leader role (I'd postulate that was still Fred last season, in truth.) Go back and watch the tape, you could always tell they were tight as friends and whenever Jalen was really slumping it was Alpi who was trying to pick him up and give him that support.

 

To name a few more:

John Stockton
Mark Price
Manu
Havlicek
Ben Wallace
Billups
Jermaine O'Neal
Kyle Lowry
Siakum
Dragic
Jimmy Butler

 

Great call. I couldn't think of any at that moment but never the less, good call. Now, back to the question at hand, should Reed be a starter, I think you answered it the same way I would've. He is a 6th man

 

I remember reading tweets about him having a poor touch a month ago. How is it fair for us to live among these people? I deserve better to be frank.

 

When Sengun is being the playmaker, it opens up a lot things for himself and for the team.

 

Especially coming from @hmlbasketball.