Alperen Şengün

[RollingWave]

To add on to the absurdity.

It should be noted that Sengun has by far the highest PER on the Rockets right now, and one of the highest True shooting too, despite looking like he's doing bizzaro things most of the time.

If he was doing this with full starter minutes, he should probably be the ROY right now right? at least it would be a serious discussion between him and Mobley

[HardenGoat]

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This says it all, the rest of the stuff you hear about the rookies is just biased fan chatter. Mobley and Sengun are way ahead of the pack but the edge is Sengun already.

[EvanZ]

DARKO likes him too.

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[K_chile22]

He's got the absolute floor of good sixth man that you run your second unit offense through, because that's already what he is right now, leads team in usage, has a 60% TS and is in the 94th percentile in assist rate for bigs. Needs to be able to stretch that performance out over more minutes and as a starter, eventually, but he's had a hell of a start. Had his first really bad game last night though. Had nothing for Mitchell Robinson.

3 point shot coming around would be big too. I think it will eventually

[CptCrunch]

Sengun is an incredible talent on offense. There is an outside chance he can become a Jokic level passer. He is ahead of Jokic's rookie 20 year old season at only 19 years old.

[LukaTheGOAT]

DARKO isn't the only thing that is bullish on Sengun. Among rookies, he is #1 in per-possession impact acorrding to

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[crows2]

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This says it all, the rest of the stuff you hear about the rookies is just biased fan chatter. Mobley and Sengun are way ahead of the pack but the edge is Sengun already.

Don’t discount Barnes’ offense. It’s a clear top 3, but Sengun has played substantially less minutes than the other two. He’ll need to maintain close to this efficiency whilst increasing his playing time if he wants to win ROY.

[EvanZ]

Would be interesting to see him and Evan Mobley matched up at the pre-draft combine..

I think Sengun and Mobley are more similar than a lot of people think. Both are very good passers, good ballhandlers, and have wonderfully soft touch. I think Sengun is a nose ahead in all of those areas, but Mobley's no slouch. Inside, Sengun lacks Mobley's length, but Mobley lacks Sengun's physicality. Both of them have some potential to be adequate perimeter defenders, but aren't quite there yet.

Tiebreaker for me is that Sengun's a full year younger. So he's probably just a bit more likely than Mobley to make the big offensive improvements that would elevate him from quality starter to superstar. But both have really tantalizing ceilings.

Only his agent or his dad could compare Sengun to Mobley without mentioning the disparity in athleticism.

So are you his dad or his agent?

Man some of the takes in this thread probably didn't age well...where's Mirotic12 right now?

[ofeek]

Man some of the takes in this thread probably didn't age well...where's Mirotic12 right now?

as Turks, we knew what was about to come but perhaps it was a surprise for some of our fellow european members

what made us feel so confident was the fact that we knew his personality as well. He is a humble, small town kid, which is the key behind his success.

when you compare him with other turkish players in the league, mainly cedi osman, and furkan korkmaz, both suck why ? because they have completely opposite backgrounds growing up / being raised in Istanbul.

their talent brought them to some point but that is it. They never worked hard enough, whereas Alpy will only get better.

all in all, i am very very proud to have been the one opening his thread about 2 years ago in this great platform. back then he was mocked behind even his current teammate garuba but he proved everyone otherwise.

he also set a great example of how irrelevant all those needed euroleague experience talk before coming to the league

let's see when he will make to his very first all star game.

[clyde21]

had him 14th by the the time the draft came and that seems too low at this point, he's so good. that passing is legit, he's like a Pau Gasol/Nikola Jokic out there without the length.

[baldur]

seems like bias towards white european guys will never decline nor end even after luka doncic.

[NO-KG-AI]

I think he's a lot quicker and more mobile than a lot of detractors give him credit for. I fell for him pretty quick watching him dominate, and still love him. I think he's a guy that's easy to overthink his flaws, but he's just always producing. Just a damn good basketball player.

[peZt]

If only he was a couple inches taller

[HotelVitale]

seems like bias towards white european guys will never decline nor end even after luka doncic.

Nah, Sengun should’ve gone higher based on what he’d shown but the history of European white guys in the draft isn’t very good, and besides Sengun is just a lesson in the usual stuff with the draft: he’s not that tall or athletic and lacks some key skills but he’s got just enough instinct, touch, etc to make it work. Lots of euro players who have elite IQ and instinct aren’t very effective in the NBA, all comes down to a million little things and Sengun so far has shown he’s on the good end of those. He’s just quick enough, his passes and reads are just fast enough, his touch is just good enough, etc, but if all that was a smidgen slower or worse he probably wouldn’t be very good in the NBA.

All the usual stuff with the draft, we almost never know how those small margins and instinct things will translate and have even less of an idea how a player will develop from there in years to come.

[peZt]

seems like bias towards white european guys will never decline nor end even after luka doncic.

Nah, Sengun should’ve gone higher based on what he’d shown but the history of European white guys in the draft isn’t very good, and besides Sengun is just a lesson in the usual stuff with the draft: he’s not that tall or athletic and lacks some key skills but he’s got just enough instinct, touch, etc to make it work. Lots of euro players who have elite IQ and instinct aren’t very effective in the NBA, all comes down to a million little things and Sengun so far has shown he’s on the good end of those. He’s just quick enough, his passes and reads are just fast enough, his touch is just good enough, etc, but if all that was a smidgen slower or worse he probably wouldn’t be very good in the NBA.

All the usual stuff with the draft, we almost never know how those small margins and instinct things will translate and have even less of an idea how a player will develop from there in years to come.

A lot or most of those busts were just "prodigies" who never performed on the senior level and were solely drafted based on some perception of potential they showed at the youth level. If a 18 year old dominates professional leagues tho, you don't let them drop. That's like the #1 evaluator when picking Euro guys. Even if their athelticism and body seems to indicate a low level of potential to some scouts (like with Doncic or now Sengun) you draft them because there is a reason they dominate grown ass men at 18

[jezzerinho]

seems like bias towards white european guys will never decline nor end even after luka doncic.

Nah, Sengun should’ve gone higher based on what he’d shown but the history of European white guys in the draft isn’t very good, and besides Sengun is just a lesson in the usual stuff with the draft: he’s not that tall or athletic and lacks some key skills but he’s got just enough instinct, touch, etc to make it work. Lots of euro players who have elite IQ and instinct aren’t very effective in the NBA, all comes down to a million little things and Sengun so far has shown he’s on the good end of those. He’s just quick enough, his passes and reads are just fast enough, his touch is just good enough, etc, but if all that was a smidgen slower or worse he probably wouldn’t be very good in the NBA.

All the usual stuff with the draft, we almost never know how those small margins and instinct things will translate and have even less of an idea how a player will develop from there in years to come.

A lot or most of those busts were just "prodigies" who never performed on the senior level and were solely drafted based on some perception of potential they showed at the youth level. If a 18 year old dominates professional leagues tho, you don't let them drop. That's like the #1 evaluator when picking Euro guys. Even if their athelticism and body seems to indicate a low level of potential to some scouts (like with Doncic or now Sengun) you draft them because there is a reason they dominate grown ass men at 18

Let's call it the Hezonja Effect.

Totally agree. Holding your own in ANY reasonable grown man league is ridiculously undervalued by most. It's no mean feat for an 18/19 year old and, in Europe anyway, they're managing it while simultaneously learning actual team basketball and not redundant skills like how to poster a 17-year-old pickup-level guy.

[peZt]

Alpi is example #512312 that Scouts and GMs are still too stupid when it comes to drafting Euros.
When history has shown us one thing, then it's that 18 year olds who dominate or produce in Europe rarely if ever bust out. Someone who becomes MVP of a grown mens league at age 18 is a top 5 talent. Just stop overthinking and draft the dude in the top 5

Yet NBA teams keep falling in love with raw, athletic Euro's who barely get playing time in their pro teams and yet they still somehow think that guys who arent good enough for their Euro team will be good enough for the NBA. Why? Simply because they dominated some kids at the U16's and therefore scouts think they have "potential". There are too many examples to count of Euro busts who got less than 5 minutes per game yet were still drafted in the lottery, cause of their suppossed potential.
And then guys like Sengun who don't fit the NBA narrative with their body, fall outside of the lottery, despite dominating men at 18 years

Next example is Nikola Topic. If this dude isn't getting drafted in the top 5, NBA teams will make yet another obvious mistake

[EvanZ]

I get why fans are going to love Sengun. But I want to see what he does in the playoffs. I think he’s a liability maybe on both ends. The shooting isn’t there. Even the free throw shooting is a question. Defense is not a question mark. It’s just bad. He’s not a rim protector at all. In Europe he was but it hasn’t translated. The guy is basically a lot like Sabonis right now. Great IQ and great passer. Can score inside. But everything else is a problem come playoff time.


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[Clawed]

If the start of the season is any indication he can play both sides of the ball at an elite level. He is scoring 19 ppg at 62% TS with a 3 assists to one turnover ratio and anchoring a top 5 defense and is one of the best defenders on the team. Pretty insane in this small sample size.

[Yallbecrazy]

Alpi is example #512312 that Scouts and GMs are still too stupid when it comes to drafting Euros.
When history has shown us one thing, then it's that 18 year olds who dominate or produce in Europe rarely if ever bust out. Someone who becomes MVP of a grown mens league at age 18 is a top 5 talent. Just stop overthinking and draft the dude in the top 5

Yet NBA teams keep falling in love with raw, athletic Euro's who barely get playing time in their pro teams and yet they still somehow think that guys who arent good enough for their Euro team will be good enough for the NBA. Why? Simply because they dominated some kids at the U16's and therefore scouts think they have "potential". There are too many examples to count of Euro busts who got less than 5 minutes per game yet were still drafted in the lottery, cause of their suppossed potential.
And then guys like Sengun who don't fit the NBA narrative with their body, fall outside of the lottery, despite dominating men at 18 years

Next example is Nikola Topic. If this dude isn't getting drafted in the top 5, NBA teams will make yet another obvious mistake

This x1000. Topic is probably #1 right now, Doncic was the #1 prospect in my adult life (20 years), and Sengun should have gone top 5.