Small sample size but so far Sengun has been the best player on the Rockets who are 5-3. He is anchoring a top 10 defense and is the engine of a top 10 offense. He has 19 points, 8.3 rebounds, 6.1 assists to only 2.0 turnovers and has 63.7% TS. Additionally, his advanced stats have been off the rails including WS/48 of .252 and 7.2 BPM which are both top 10 in the NBA. His on/off +/-numbers are insane as well on offense and defense.
Nikola Jokic has always been a beast statistically on both sides of the ball even before his MVP seasons and Sengun has matched it so far. Compare Nikola Jokics stats at 24 years old to a 21 year old Sengun’s stats and they are pretty neck and neck. Jokic has better FT%, 3%, rebounding but Sengun has better TS%, and assist/TO ratio.
Jokic will likely be a top 15 nba player when it is all said or done and the chances of Sengun being that just aren’t likely. Jokic was pretty stagnant for 4 years before he suddenly took a leap his MVP season and there is no guarantee that Sengun will hit that leap either. There is no guarantee that Sengun keeps playing as good as he has either for the whole year but even if he doesn’t he should still get credit for the fact that he played so good so far.
Sengun doesn’t have the height of Jokic but Sengun is much more athletic. I have never seen Jokic nearly his head on the backboard while doing a chase down block 2 feet out of the restricted area. Sengun had 77 dunks last year, Jokic had 21. Sengun had 70 blocks last year, Jokic had 47. There is no numbers that prove one player is more athletic than another but these numbers suggest Sengun is the more explosive athlete.
I was conflicted as whether or not I should talk about Sabonis in this thread but I will, I think preMVP Jokic is better than Sabonis. There should be a new meme were preMVP Jokic is Charizard and MVP Jokic is mega Charizard while both Sengun are Sabonis are Charmeleon instead of this
Jokic statistically took a leap because coach finally realize they should run through him
Dude was basically underused the first 4 years of his career
Exactly, Jokic wasn’t even playing in the NBA for the entire first year after he got drafted and couldn’t benefit from the advanced NBA facilities/staff earlier.
They were just living in different circumstances. Jokic and the Nuggets had to prove the point-center system was viable against the small ball era.
No doubt scouts now also keep an eye for “Jokic-type” players and they get drafted higher up and given more chances early on, after seeing Jokic’s success.
If Jokic got the starting job from day 1 and the team played through him he would be rewriting history at a ridiculous level.
It’s never been a guy like Jokic so it’s fair they didn’t understand how a guy like that changed the game. Then guys like Sabonis and Sengun come along and teams get it.