Alperen Sengun's Breakout: Is He Houston's Best?

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It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Let's talk about the Houston Rockets ORG. They went sort of all in, and it sort of worked. Let's recap the season. Michael Bolton PERSON, big rocket guy.

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Thanks, Josh PERSON.

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It's Michael Bolton PERSON here, and it's time for another episode

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of the locked-on fantasy basketball podcast. Let's get to it.

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Let's get to it, indeed. You are locked-on fantasy basketball.

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Your daily fantasy basketball podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network ORG. Hello and welcome to the Locked-on Fantasy Basketball podcast, brought to you by Basketball Monster ORG.

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My name is Josh Lloyd, and I was going to get Harrison Butker PERSON to do the introduction to this show, but he was a little bit intimidated by my masculinity, also the fact that I can kick further than him. I'm also the lead fantasy analyst at basketballmonster.com, and you can find me on Twitter as always, at Red Rock underscore Bball, on TikTok at Red Rock underscore Bball, and on Instagram at Lockedon Fantasy Basketball. Today's episode is brought to you by Game Time ORG. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use the code. Locked on NBA, as my phone goes off,-on NBA for your pretty bucks off your first purchase. Terms apply.Thank you also for making Locked-on Fantasy Basketball your first listen every day. We are free, and we're available for you to double-bang on all platforms. So we're here to talk Houston Rockets ORG in this show. What an interesting season. I was relatively critical of their off-season plan. Pretty critical. I didn't under the Fred Van Bleet PERSON stuff totally understand that. Going after Brooke Lopez didn't make any sense to me. The Dylan Brooks PERSON stuff, I was very,very worried about paying Dylan Brooks PERSON that level of money and him thinking that he's going to be the man and taking all these shots and stifling some development. Well, they improved unbelievably. Like, that level of improvement is just something you don't see. Will it work long term? I don't know. But it looks like that their moves were 100% the right thing to do.They still got some log jam stuff, but a huge, huge offseason from Rafael Stone PERSON, and I think it worked, and I was wrong. There you go. For those of you who love to jerk off over that stuff, clip that little part of me saying I'm wrong, because I know that some of you think I never say that,even though I feel like I say it every day. The Rockets ORG were great. It was, well, great, let's say great. Was it the off-season player personnel decisions? Was it the fact that they got a real coach and not literally the worst coach in the NBA ORG, Stephen Silas PERSON?He's gone and he went and worked his magic in Detroit GPE. Was it bringing in a year doka? Could have been. Not sure. But they're stacked with talent at the moment. And it is going to be really interesting to see where this team goes now.We'll talk a little bit about that coming up in a second. Let's just go through the overall sort of outlook for the Rockets ORG. Or not the outlook. What happened during the season? That's better phrasing. They finished 41 and 41.Yes, 500. A 2.1 plus 2.1 net rating. 20th best offense. And for a team that had the most unwatchable defense, the stuff they did under Silas PERSON was embarrassing. They were the seventh best defense.And that, some of it is personnel with Van Blit and Brooks PERSON, but it's also Utoka ORG. It's getting a real coach in who knows how to teach things defensively and those players. Hard to know where to apportion all the credit. But that was just a mad. That's it. That's real. I'm not saying that's the only reason they jumped up, but that's it. That's the reason, right? This is also a really weird team because when we headed into the preseason, we were like,what's going to happen here? They've got Kevin Porter Jr. So you're going to be their sixth man. Is he going to start? Remember Kevin Porter Jr.? People were thinking that he was going to start over Dylan Brooks PERSON and they'd run with him and Green and Van Vliet all together or that Van Villeut PERSON would be the secret. Crazy stuff. And now, like, obviously, Kevin Porter used up all of his shiploak points and he's done. I don't think he'll ever come back.I don't think so. But who knows? And that's, like, this is a weird time to think back September. The discussion was, will Kevin Porter start or will he come off the bench and how will he handle that? Weird. Their preseason over under was 31 and a half.Now, I haven't actually checked where I had them, but I'm going to tell you now, I didn't have them there because I said that is one of the biggest single season leaps that you could look at, given where they were the year before. I think that were 19 or 20 wins maybe the year before. You don't see 10 game jumps that often. But maybe, honestly, maybe in this NBA ORG, you do. We had a lot of gigantic drops that are gigantic leaps this season. So where did I have Houston ORG?I had them jumping up, actually, to 28 wins was my first pass at it. I settled on 29, so I still picked the under, and they embarrassed the over-under. They were 10 over it. So that is just a huge, huge hell. Okay, I'll live with that.Very hard, I think, for me to... What did they actually win the year before? 22 games. Very hard for me to suggest that a team will come out and win 19 extra games. That's a tough projection to make,but they did it, so well done. In the draft, they lost their pick. They don't have it. It ended up going to the Oklahoma City Thunder ORG. Pick 12, so they don't have their own pick. It doesn't matter, because they've got the Nets ORG pick as part of the James Harden trade, and that jumped up all the way to number three.So they have pick number three. After having pick number four last season, after having pick number two, the year before that, after having pick number two the year before that, and pick number two, the year before that. Two, two, two, two, two, two, four three. Haven't got pick one,but that's an insane level of draft assets. Plus, a guy that should have been top five in his draft in Shangoon PERSON, plus a guy that probably should have been top 10 in his draft in Whitmore PERSON. It's loaded, man. This team is loaded. They're not quite on the level of the thunder in terms of scary futures,but honestly, they're not far off. So they get Brooklyn's pick at pick 33. Pick 3. They've also got pick 44, which isn't their own pick. That's the warrior's second round pick. That's not a great second, but it's not bad.But that guy's just not going to have anywhere to play really on this team, is he? And who knows whether they keep it? Their most common starting group was the starting group that started like 45, 50 games. Van Vleet, Jalen Green, Dylan Brooks, Jabari Smith Jr. and Alperin Shenguun PERSON, the delicate dancer. That is not a shock. It is a little bit of a shock to see that their best lineup was not that group.The difference was Jeff Green instead of Jabari Smith PERSON. That was a plus 6.8. That's not, yeah, it's a decent minute. It's not a super, super-strong lineup. But it's basically their main guys with Jeff in there at 38 years of age over Jabari Smith PERSON. And we'll talk about Jabari a little bit later.He had a weird year. Their free agents coming up, there's not a lot happening here. The three restricted guys, Nate Hinton and Nate Williams PERSON, also known as Jonathan Williams PERSON, and Jermaine Samuels. Did you know that any of these guysplayed for this team? All two-way guys, all never saw the court, all with no real significant future. The only guy I'd look at maybe is maybe Nate slash Jonathan Williams PERSON. Maybe as a future back-end rotation player.But there's no real future in those guys. And then even when we look at the unrestrictor guys, there's not a lot there either. It's Aaron Holiday PERSON. It's Reggie Bullock PERSON, who he thought might actually have a role, but I think he just might be washed.And it's Bobar Mayanovich PERSON, who just is there for vibes, and that is it. And at some point he's going to retire, you would guess. But that's they're the only, maybe they bring Aaron Holiday PERSON back, but no guarantee of that. Bullock did nothing. Bobar and's a vibes guy. That's it. that's, they're the only, maybe they bring Aaron Holiday PERSON back, but no guarantee of that. Bullock PERSON did nothing. Bob Barnes PERSON are vibes, guy, that's it.That's all they do. Two guys with team options. This is where it gets a little bit more interesting. Jeff Green has a almost $10 million team option. The Wild Thing, Jay Schwint Tate PERSON, has a similar size team option.I would be, I don't mind bringing Jeff Green PERSON back just giving some stability in that second unit, but also remember, they have Stephen Adams PERSON now. Yeah, Stephen Adams plays for this team. So Jeff Green playing a lot of that small ball Santa. You've got Smith PERSON and Schengun there as well. You get hopefully a healthy season. I didn't even talk about Tari Isan PERSON before. I've Tari Isan PERSON. I'm not sure, it depends what they need to do in free agency. I'm not sure that Green is necessary there. And also, T tate PERSON realistically just shouldn't play he's gotten worse as a passerhe's not a good shooter there are plenty of other guys to play those minutes maybe the team just declines tate's team option and so that you don't just has no option like just won't play him and that sometimes happens i hate that disconnect sometimes between front officers and coaching where the front officer has to go, just get this guy off my team because I know you're going to play him incorrectly. It's the Jamir Nelson PERSON over Jamal Murray situation for the Nuggets ORG. Remember that? When the front office had to just dumpJimmy and Nelson to another team because Michael Malone PERSON just refused to go to any other direction than he's trusted veteran, even though it was very clear what the right decision was. Sometimes coaches get put into the right, or find the right answers through somebody, pushing their head down onto it, making them read. Maybe you could use that with a green screen, I don't know.You can do what you want. The only non-guarantee currently on the roster is the big fella, Jacques Landau PERSON, who has three morenon-guaranteed years at $8 million each. The contract was wild. Four years, $32 million. Then we found out that it was anon-guaranteed each of those years. Landau PERSON was embarrassingly bad. Embarrassing unfair. Sorry, Jock PERSON. He was bad. And then he was pretty good at the end.I thought really good at the end of the season. So I don't think they're going to guarantee Landau and pick up Green PERSON's team option. And I would think, even though Landau PERSON's much older than you think he's 28, I think that he would be the guy that you bring back and you save a little bit of money there as well.And they've got four guys who are going to be on expiring contracts outside of some of the other non-guarantee guys already talked about. One of them is Fred Van Bleet PERSON. He's got a team option on that gigantic contract. So that didn't come out in the initial reporting. You would think that they picked that up, given how he's been playing.Stephen Adams PERSON is going to be expiring. And then you've got the two rookies who are both extension eligible this summer, Jalen Green and Al-Pren Shengoon PERSON. So both of those will be restricted if they don't sign extensions in this coming off-season. So there are a lot of things happening with this Rockets ORG team because, again, they have just really, they've had some lottery luck, obviously, getting all those top picks, like we said,but it's not just that. There are some smooth moves, some savvy moves to get them into the position that they currently are. Today's episode is brought to you by Better Help ORG. Yes, it's Better Help ORG. Sometimes we need that opportunity to get something off our chests. Are you frustrated that your team was up 2-0 in a playoff series and then had to come home for the next two games and then lost themboth? Are you frustrated at live in Minnesota? Are those two things tied together? I don't know. But sometimes you need someone, sorry, for the strays, sometimes you need just that opportunity to get something off your chest to somebody unbiased in your life. And that could be one of the avenues of therapy. And that's not what you're going to be paying for therapy for. Hey, I want to tell you how bad my team is. But talking through that stuff, which might bother you,it might bother you to an amount that doesn't need to, but coping strategies, working through prioritisation of problems in your life, these are all the things that therapists can do. It doesn't have to be, hey, I need to talk about these thingsbecause 20 of my family members died all at once, and that's I'm the only person who can be sad in the world. That's not how it works. There are many different things that impact us in many different ways. And sometimes it's about attacking the acute problem, and sometimes it's about how we can go throughand figure out how to deal with some stuff on our own. And that's where therapy can also help. So, as therapy is different for everybody, better help, better help is flexible, and it's suited to your schedule, because we know that everybody's different. 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Speaker 1739.86s - 785.52s

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Okay, so let's take a look at the starters on this team. Now, for most of these teams that I've done, I think every single one of them, I've had six to seven guys in my group of starters. These are the potential starters. Honestly, as much as I like some of the players that are on this bench of this team, I think there is their starting group, their most common starting group. I don't really see any change coming whatsoever. Unless they make trades or something, I think there'd be no reason for me to think thatVan Bleet, Green, Brooks, Smith and Schengun is not the starting five locked in start next season. As much, again, I like the players on the bench. But what change do they actually make there? I'm not sure they make any. Let's talk Van Vleet PERSON. It's pretty easy to be down on Van Vlite in draft season.As you can see, ADP was 29. But he killed it again. 23rd in minus 1, 13th on Yahoo ORG. 30th in points. The average, 17 and a half points. We know that he's not a high scorer.3-3s, 4 rebounds, 8 assists, 1.4 steals and 0.8 blocks. Now, those steel numbers are down from what he did in the past and the block numbers are up, but we know what happened. And we also know that over the second half of the season is the way that the NBA ORG was weirdly adjudicating blocks,there was so many of these guys, C.J. McCollum, Fred Van Blyt PERSON. Who was the other one? There was another guard who was just putting up these insane block numbers. This isn't real.What's going on here? And then there seemed that was brought to attention about Van Blit PERSON. A lot of graphics put out first player under six footor six foot one to block this many shots. And then it went away. And they changed that sort of designation of a strip going offfor the ball as a block or a steel. And in the end, we ended with 1.4 steals and 0.8 blocks. We know this, whether there was that weird sort of rule change, rule interpretation change from the NBA ORG in terms of not giving as many fouls and the scoring all the dropped after the All-Star EVENT break. But that also happened.This never got mentioned, but I'm sure that there was a bit of a worded email that went around. So these scorers, like, these aren't blocks, make the blocks actually blocks. Because Van Bleet, after the All-Star break, averaged half a block a game, and 1.9 steals. What a shocker that is. Like, back to combined 2.4, and he was at 2.2 for the season. It's not a surprise. So when we look at this,as much as steals are a variable category, I think we knock the blocks, we bump the steals when we look at it next season. 42 from the field, 86 from the line, 39 from 3. Honestly, improved as a field guy. He is 30. There is going to be, like he's six foot tall. Maybe, like, maybe a six foot tall. There is going to be, like he's six foot tall. Maybe, like maybe you're six foot tall. There is going to be a huge drop from Van Vleet PERSON at some point. I don't think it'll be this season.I think we've got one to two more years. But don't be shocked if we get him getting Kyle Lowry PERSON at some point, where the 17 points become 12 points. He gets by on some steals and assists, but he just can't do it over time. His best comps for this last season was year 9 of Darren Collison when he was in Indiana ORG,and year 7 of George Hill when he was in Indiana ORG. And I think they're pretty reasonable comps. I think Van Bleets PERSON is probably a better player than both of those guys, but the lower scoring, high assists, good defense, solid three-point shooting is what all those guys bring. You'll also realize that Hill and Collison PERSON, Colson PERSON for other reasons like allegedly beating his misses,their time in the NBA ORG dropped pretty quickly after that. So, yeah, that's where I do worry about the cliff of Ambley ORG. That's why if I had a man Thompson or if the Rockets draft the point guard at number three, which I just don't know what they're going to do. What I feel they shouldn't do is draft Donovan Klinger PERSON.I've been pretty clear on that. That I just think Van Bleet, yes, next season and their team option, which maybe they pick up it after that, I'm not sure he start a caliber. But he was awesome. 96th percentile EPM, 94th CPM. I write the rim defense here at 32nd percent.You go, why does that matter? Well, it is tying into the blocks. Like, average 0.8 blocks, but again, that's not because he was defending the rim. So, again, those numbers are fake. Fake. We saw what happened with him.We saw what they were. He's not a shop locker. So we don't count any of that. But he was great. I expect him to be a third roundish sort of guy again. I don't expect the reins are getting handed over,and he was honestly just perfect for what this team needed. So was Alpren Schengun PERSON. Now, Schengun PERSON suffered that serious-looking ankle injury at the end of the season, but thankfully, it's not an ACL. Thankfully, it wasn't a fracture that required surgery.Mitchell Robinson having his second surgery today on his ankle, by the way. He's going to be ready to go for the preseason, all systems go. Schengun is still not even 22 years of age. He played 63 games and 32 minutes a night, and you know what I thought about Schengen PERSON. You know that I had him top five in his draft class before the draft.You know that I've been banging the drum of how good he can be fantasy-wise, a top 20 player, but you also know that I was a bit skeptical about this season because, A, the Rockets tried to get a centre to play over him in Brooke Lopez, and B, Imau Yodoka PERSON, maybe like Stephen Silas, would place defensive blame on Schengun PERSON. And it happened a couple of times, but overall, Schengun improved significantly as a defender. But we also saw when Shangoon went down, they played Jabari PERSON and a man at centre, really. And then the team went on this huge run.Is that to say that Shengun PERSON's bad or they're not going to focus on him? I don't think so. But as much as I like Shengun PERSON, as much as I value Shengun as a player, as good as I think he is, I am still yet to be fully convinced that the rockets feel the same way. And if I'm in dynasty formats, that means I don't change any valuation of Shangoon PERSON. But in terms of where we head next season for redraft, are they going to do it?

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Are they going to actually like even more commit or will they see what

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happened at the end of last season plus the return or the arrival of Stephen Adams PERSON and go well maybe Schengen PERSON doesn't do enough? I'm a little yeah. Again, it sounds like I don't like him. I'm just worried about how they view him. 36 in minus one. 23rd in points. He's 80p was 61 and I think what I said about him was he was either going to be top 30 or outside the top 80 because I don't play him enough. And I guess I was close enough to being right there when he was 36 in minus 1. He averaged 21 and 9 with five assists and 1.2 steals. Shot 54 from the field, 69 from the line. That is a little bit of a problem.30% on 3. I'm not sure he ever gets there as a three-point shooter, but you'd hope he could get to 34 consistently. He turns it over, but as a centre with a two-to-one assist to turnover ratio, you definitely take that. I think it's always worth mentioning, if anyone mentions a player in their fantasy rank and their turnovers, that you always mention the assists along with that. It's all well and good to have 1.1 turnovers, but if you average two assists, then it doesn't actually matter that much.What I was honestly staggered by, now you'll say, Josh PERSON, if you're listening on audio, you say this. If you watch on video, you know the answer already, but if you're listening on audio, you'll be like, well, you'll be like, I'm going to go double bang this, first of all, but you'll be saying, well, Josh PERSON is going to talk about the crafted similarities now.So it's going to be Yokic NORP, it's going to be subonis, it's going to be white centres who pass. Yes, that's what you'll think. Well, the top two similarities were year three of Greg Munro PERSON, and the second similarity was year two of Greg Munro PERSON. I went, what?What? Greg Munro, one of those guys that is sort of out of an era, started off really well, developed really good passing skills, couldn't shoot, didn't hit free throws, great rebounder, solid offensive guy, not a bad defender, a little bit underrated, passed at an underrated level,but ended up just out of the league so quickly. I don't think that's going to happen to Schengen PERSON. He's way better, way more offensive touch, way more moves, runs and offense. But they were staggering to me. He was 91st percentile Schengun PERSON in EPM and 76th in CPM. And his defensive crafted defensive plus minus was 63rd percentile. So again, he improved unbelievably. Again, this doesn't mean that he's a bad, sorry, there's a greatdefensive player, but I think the notion of him being a bad defensive player should be thrown out. We just need the Rockets ORG to be fully convinced of that. So, Love Shangoon, huge upside, still unbelievably young, still have some concerns about how Houston ORG used him. But I think we should have concerns about a lot of the Rockets ORG players just because of how many guys are there and how they figure them all out and how we get enough of a role and enough playing time for these guys consistently. It might take a year or two to thin it all out. Today's episode is brought to you by the Game Time ORG app. Game Time is an authorized marketplacefor NBA ORG tickets and with the playoffs on literally right now, if you want to go to an NBA ORG playoff game, well, game time is where you get the tickets. Because as the timer ticks down, as we get closer to each game, game time actually drops the prices of the tickets.You don't get this pricing, well, something's happening. You want to go, you got to, you know, Rudy Gobert PERSON, show me the money. You don't have to do that. The prices will drop as you get closer to game time plus so many other different features flash deals they send that alert on your phone they go hey something happening in your area tonight you want to go and you go what else am i doing picking pizza crumbs out of my belly button i'll go off we go and you get the tickets views from yourseat but what if i go am i going to see good? Or I'm going to be stuck behind a poll as I would be at the club on a Friday night? No, you're there, out there, great seats, and you can see them. Is this worth my money? Absolutely. Is it worth it? Maybe not.Let's try something different. Game time has all of these great features. So take the guesswork out of buying NBA tickets with GameTime ORG. Download the GameTime ORG app, create an account, use the code. Locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply again, create an account, use the code. Locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply again, create an account and redeem the code.Locked on NBA for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute, tickets. Lowest price guaranteed.

Speaker 11395.76s - 1458.5s

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Speaker 01461.98s - 2847.62s

I'm sure you guys don't have your views obscured by a poll on a Friday night. I'm sure you're all very, very wholesome. And that's, you know, we'd never know what I'm talking about there, in fact. Maybe you think you're going to some sort of architecture forum, and they're just talking about beams and lentils. Lintel ORG?That's Lintel ORG. That's the right word, isn't it? Shout out architecture. Okay. Let's get back into talking about some more of these starters on this team. So we've done two of them because we are just running slow.What else have I got to do? Let's talk to Barri Smith PERSON, who I'd say it was a little bit disappointing as a rookie. From a fantasy perspective, anyway. I was disappointed from what I thought he could do. We were a bit hesitant about where he would be this season. In the end, I think he sort of just lived up to the expectation.So sort of back on track. 20 years, only 21. 76 games and 32 minutes. You know, there's still going to be the risk here of like him and Schengoon and Ysen and Adams PERSON and where do the minutes go. But we're heading into year three here for Smith PERSON, and that is honestly where a lot of guys turn it up.He was 102nd 2nd in minus 1. He was 63rd if you look at Yahoo ORG again. Don't draft him in round 6. You will lose. ADP was 92, so just bang on. 14 points, 2 3s, 8 rebounds, 0.7 steals and 0.8 blocks.And part of the reason that his fantasy appeal was so high coming out of Auburn was really good block numbers, really good steel numbers. And that just hasn't come at all. He shot 45 from the field and 81 from the line. So he does take a lot of threes, but you want that 53% two point number to jump up. And that was, that was one of the problems for him coming out of college. It's like, why, like, this guy just can't really finish from two point range. And that hasn't, well, that has translated across which we didn't want it to. The two best comps for him, which I find really interesting. Rookie year Lowry Markinen, so not breakout Lowry Marketing PERSON, but rookie year Larry Markin PERSON was pretty good. And year two, Punch Bob, Bobby Portis, both Bulls ORG players.So both of those guys have turned into, you know, very different players, I think, to what we thought Smith would be. Both of those guys, Portis and Marketing PERSON, you would suggest they would be on the lower end of defensive abilities, whereas Smith PERSON was thought to be a very good defensive player with shooting an offensive upside. So he's got a lot to work on defensively then. 61st percentile on EPM, 32nd on crafted, and his rim defense frequency was only the 49th percentile.And that's a worry, because when you're playing with Schengun PERSON, who's not a ring protector, I would have thought that they would have tried to rotate things out more to get Smith PERSON in there to protect the rim. And that's a little worry. So does that mean that we get Schengun PERSON playing a little at the fourwith Adams at the five? Smith played at Centre down the stretch of the season, I thought was pretty good, but that number needs to be higher. For him to really, like, for him to jump into a top 60 player, sure, it'd be great if he scored 18 and a night. That's probably not happening here.It's going to 1.5 blocks and one steel. And at the moment, he's not being put in position or putting himself in position to do that. Let's talk about another young player who was picked at number two, and that is Jalen Green. What an interesting season. He is only 22. That's what they're so young. Smith, Schengun, Green, 21 or 22. 82 games, all of them, 32 minutes a night. He was drafted at pick 76. Interestingly, even in a points league, he did not hit that number.Yes, of course, he played all 82 games, so the totals will get excited. But on a per game basis, he didn't hit that, which is disappointing for a top two pick in year three to not take that step forward. But for category leagues, he was by far the best that he's ever been. 103rd in minus 1, and Yahoo has him 92nd. He averaged 19.6 points with 2.5, 3, 5 rebounds, 3 and 1⁄2 assists, 0.8 steals and 0.3 blocks.And we're 3 years in, I think we can feel okay about saying then defense is never coming. But what was impressive is the assists being solid enough, rebounds going up, scoring being better, and efficiency going up somewhat.42 from the field, 80 from the line, shot 50% from twos, 33 from 3. That's part of the problem is the three-point shooting. That needs to be better. But we also know that in March,he had one of the most red-hot streaks I've ever seen. I think it was a top five player for three weeks. After the All-Star break, Jalen PERSON was, like, where was it? He was like unbelievably high. I'd say he's a top 50 player, but it is worth remembering that it was like a three or four week hot streak. And after that, he went back to being bad Jalen Green PERSON. And before that, well, not bad. He went back to being mid-Jailen Green PERSON. Before that hot streak, he was getting benched.He was playing like 24 minutes a night, and they were just saying, we don't think so, mate. We're going to go with more men. We're going to go with more cam. And you are just not going to, you've got to play 25 minutes.And that's when, of course, I went, all right, he's a bad fantasy player with a bad fantasy profile who's getting benched. I don't think we rostered Jalen Green PERSON. And about two weeks later, he averaged 40 minutes a nightwith like 40 points on 70% shooting. But it was fake. The shooting was fake. It was clearly fake. It will remain fake. I hate these two comparisons.Rookie year Jaden Hardy PERSON, remember. The comparisons are not based on, we say Jaden Hardy PERSON barely played as a rookie. They're not based on how many minutes and stats did you accumulate. It's about things like shooting quality, deflections, turnovers, rim defense, passing, creation, load. And you could see if Jaden Hardy PERSON went to a team like Houston and Hardy PERSON was supposed to be a high pick. And he went to a turn on this, he would have put up, I think, very similar numbers to J. I'm probably less, though. The other one is fantasy loser RJ Barrett in year three.Don't get defensive Raptors and Barrett fans. Barrett has been terrible at fantasy, apart from the 30-odd games that he played for Toronto ORG. They are terrible fantasy comparisons. 61st percentile Jalen Green was in EPM, 40th in CPM. In year three, he needs to get to the line more, 64th percentile only. So meaning that the hot streak came because he was just relying upon extreme outliershooting. And as you see for the season, that's not what he brings. So while it was great, but Jalen PERSON was able to do all of this, I am absolutely still concerned about where this goes with a men Thompson PERSON there with Cam Whitmore PERSON therewith maybe a guard coming in at pick three where does he go if you can't give him a max extension you cannot do it he was great but you get you startyou do get the feeling that both him and Schengun PERSON can't really coexist if you want to get the optimized version of this team. They can play together, fine. But to optimize the team, I don't think you can have both guys there together. I think we sort of saw that. I'm still relatively skeptical about himreaching a consistently high level. Maybe you aren't. The last starter is your mate, my mate, Texas Ludoort. It's Dylan Brooks. It's only 28 Brooks, he. 72 games, 31 minutes. Again, I was really worried about that contract. What is this contract? What are you doing? Who else is paying Dylan Brooks's money? Is Dylan Brooks. It's only 28, Brooksie. 72 games, 31 minutes. Again, I was really worried about that contract. What is this contract? What are you doing? Who else is paying Dylan Brooks's PERSON money?Is Dylan Brooks PERSON going to come in and say, I'm getting paid $80 million, I need all the shots? And that was a worry. But I also, there was this ridiculous narrative about Brooks that maybe I perpetuate it. I probably did feed into it a little bit,but I also pointed this out many times. The idea was that Dylan Brooks PERSON comes in and takes all the shots away from all the good players. And I did point out, as much as I am not a Dylan Brooks PERSON guy, I think you know that.I said that when he played with Jaron, Desmond Bain, and Jarmerant PERSON, he'd have like 15 usage. So he actually did know how to pull his head in. The problem was, is that when some of those guys were out,he was like it's Dylan Brooks PERSON time. And my worry was on a team like Houston ORG with unestablished players that he would just think it's Dylan Brooks' PERSON time the whole time. But he didn't. He was drafted somehow in 34% of leagues, which never made much sense. 202nd ranked player this season.10th in points. You average 13 points with two threes and three rebounds and 0.9 steals, shot 43 and 84. He did go on a hot streak early on. It was rosterable for a period, but he's Dylan Brooks PERSON and he went back to being Dylan Brooks. His comps, year 10, Avery Bradley PERSON. That was Lakers Avery Bradley PERSON, championship year Avery Bradley.And year 6, J Crowder. That was Cavs ORG Jazz Crowder. 63rd percentile APM, 53rd in CPM. And I highlighted this because his offensive load was 39th percentile. He just didn't do anything offensively, and that was theworry. It's not that we wanted Dylan books to do that, because we know that leads to suboptimal outcomes. But he was able to, and again, I commend him for doing this. Knowing your role, and like the Rock PERSON says, shutting your mouth.Now, he didn't really shut his mouth, but I think he was, I don't know if he was worth it, but maybe he was worth it for the Rockets ORG. The problem still is here. Like he blocks Easton, he blocks Whitmore PERSON, he blocks a men. And at some point, probably after this season,he will seed his starting role, I'm guessing. But for now, I don't see him moving out of that starting group. Maybe you'll think they'll just move on from him, put him into a bench roll, then you'll get Whitmore slash Esen slash Thompson PERSON starting. I don't think so.So let's talk about the other players of note, because there are a lot, and there are a lot of guys that we love, and one of those is Tari PERSON lost season. It's always a hard discussion for me on Tari Aeson because I liked Tari PERSON A lot as a prospect.I liked Tari PERSON A lot as a fantasy player, but as often happens, and it makes me feel like a hater, is that the hype goes through the roof. As a rookie had happened, he was playing all these minutes in the preseason. I was like, I don't see how it happens in the regular season.People expected him to get 30 minutes a night this season, playing over Shengoon and Smith PERSON. Because they love what he does. He's a solid player. I think he can be a starter. But I do think we need to settle down.He's 23 years of age. He played only 22 games and 22 minutes after they found a tumor in his leg. Seemed like some mismanagement there, but I'm glad that he's okay and they got that out and he should be ready to go. Also, reminder, he played 82 games as a rookie. Turns out, playing 82 games doesn't mean that you play them every year.I don't know. Maybe. Some people might think that. Everyone. Eastern, though, in 22 minutes, 123 in minus 1, 137 points. This is why people love him for fantasy.10.7 rebounds. Great rebounds for a small forward guy. 1.4 steals and 0.9 blocks. Be really cautious. He is the guy. He is one of the guysthat are a traditional straight 9-cat ranking will tell you is unbelievably better than so many guys that are actually better than him because A, high volume steals and blocks B, low turnovers. Forget the fact that you get one assistand under 10 points and under a three, it doesn't reflect in those rankings that way. So one of those guys is always going to look way better than the actual production is. He shot 64 from the line only, just 50% on his twos and 36 on his threes. I'll go right down to the bottom of this graphic.He shot quality 22nd percentile. He's just a bad shooter. And that is, like, we love the hustle. We love the defense. We love the defense event creation. Offensive rebound is strong, but he can't shoot. And he needs to be able to do. The two comps for him. One of them was ACL legend DeWan Blair PERSON,which I was like, oh, that's not great. The second one was year two of Jalen Johnson PERSON, but we know what happened in year three for Jalen Johnson PERSON. But I'm not sure the path is there for Eason PERSON to do that. Still really like him, but I also just think we need to just calm down on him. 78th percentile EPM, 67th CPM, again, very good player, would start on a lot of teams,not as clear cut here, and the lack of passing ball movement, shooting usage can be a problem. And he's not alone, because we've got to talk a men Thompsonompson i love a man thompson i had a man thompson at three in this draft class i had a man thompson in tier two for rookie dynasty drafts i had a man thompson ahead of his brother um i also was had a man behind a sara PERSON for redraft because the opportunity wasn't going to be there and opportunity was not there. 21 minutes a night, sorry, 22 minutes a night, played 62 games, age 21. He's older as well.As a second, you guys, he's older. But like Eason, he played 22 minutes and still ranked 135th in category leagues, 140th in points leagues, because he just does stuff unbelievably. I think he probably will be a point guard, but he can play the three. He played some centre.He can play a little bit on the wing, but ideally he is a point guard. And there are still just too many guys in front of him, and you'll see why there's problems here. Nine and a half points, six point six rebounds, 2.6 assists in 22 minutes, 1.3 steals, 0.6 blocks.Shot 54 and 68? The 68, actually better than I thought it would be. Almost 60% on his twos, but he shot 14% on threes. He doesn't take any of them, but this is the Russell Westbrook PERSON situation. You need everybody else to shoot, and he functionally plays as a centre a lot of the time. So when we talk about the Schengun and Green PERSON fitting together and running the offence and all that sort of stuff, maybe there's incompatibility. How do a men and Schengungo together? When Schengun's under 30%, he's a somewhat willing three-point shooter and a men just can't hit him, then it's harder to play a man in that functional offensive center role. I love him. I think a man is going to be a top 25 fantasy player. I think it's going to take some manipulation and tweaking from a team, but I think we talk a lot about this, about these guys that when they're given the chance,they put up numbers. And my pushback often is, but if you give them that chance, the team is bad. So therefore, that chance will probably never come unless it's in a situation for six weeks where a team is trying to increase their draft pick odds.Or that they just don't have the other option in place, Brandon Ingram PERSON. So, I have that concern. With the men, I actually think he is going to be good enough where. So, that's, I have that concern. With a men, I actually think he is going to be good enough where you go,all right, we just, we do need to put the pieces around him because he is this good. He is dynamic.He is the best athlete in the NBA ORG. He is visionary offensively and defensively. He rebounds and steals and blocks and passesand scores and finishes, better than so many other guys. And we need the right players around him. I think he can be that guy. But we're not there. When I do the crafted similarities of players,I try to keep it to position. And I was like, I don't really know what position to do for a men. Like, he played some point guard. Yes, he played at the two, yes. He played centre. He played small forward. So how did I judge him?Well, the best comp that they came up with was rookie year Ben Simmons PERSON, and it makes complete sense. At least he's willing to take some threes. They don't go in, but otherwise, yeah, I can see that. The other one was Year 3 of Greg Munro PERSON. Greg Monroe again, huh? It's a Greg Munro PERSON show.If I narrow the positions down, things get, like, really weird. Really weird. If I take, like, the centre, power forwards, small forwards out of it, and just run the guard position, and I think a man is going to be a guard, but again, it's a weird fit. The best comps were 2007 2007 Trevor Areza and 2015 Janice and to the Kumpur PERSON if I run it just as a point guard who comes out well it's 1999 Larry Hughes and 2018 Dejonte Murrayjust an intriguing just such an interesting player that I love people were so out on him at the beginning of this seasonamazingly there were people telling me man I might actually just drop him in my dice and you have to be insane againit means there's probably an issue with the rules in that league that you even consider that but i still think the ceiling here is absolutely sky high you might disagree that i've much higher ceiling than brand of me much higher and higher than scoot too but it is going to take some workand some patience and i'm not sure he's walking into 30 minutes next season where does it come from that's what we need to see a lot of the off-season stuff play out. And then it brings us into this guy who inexplicably failed to like number, was it 19 or 20 in the draft, Ken Whitmore PERSON, based on some shoddy information from his former coach, which is just unbelievable. Maybe there is this ongoing or lingering knee time bomb that is going to end his career after seven or eight years. That is the worry. That is what some of the stuff that was passed around that I heard,as well as some of the other stuff about, you know, oh, he's a, he's a shy boy. He's very quiet and that's what, which is weird. But everything that we know that Cam Whitmore PERSON can and can't do from Villanova ORG, we saw that play out. He's not even 20. Four years younger than Dalton Connect PERSON. 47 games only had some knee problems, played only 19 minutes in the G-League to begin the year.214th in minus 1, 209th in points. He averaged 12 points a game in 19 minutes. Four rebounds, 1.73s, 0.6 steals. Shot 68 from the line, which is a little weird. 45 from the minutes, four rebounds, 1.73s, 0.6 steals, shot 68 from the line, which is a little weird, 45 from the field, but 54 on twos and 36 on threes as a volume rookie is unbelievably impressive. His two best comps were rookie year Quentin Richardson PERSON, and probably more intriguingly, rookie year goose, Anthony Edwards. Now they're not the samebody shape. Edwards is more of a 3-4, Goose PERSON is more of a. Now they're not the same body shape. Edwards PERSON is more of a 3-4, goose is more of a 2-3, and the one big difference in the way that Edwards PERSON is getting, Edwards PERSON, again, look at Edwards now, versus as a rookie or versus in college, the work that Anthony Edwards has put in to change his game has been immense.Because, Andrews PERSON couldn't pass and just contested mid-range twos. And that's not what happens now. The problem here is a Whitmore PERSON car pass. 54th percentile EPM, 48th and crafted, but he's pass a rating 9th. 9th percentile.Does not pass. Did not pass at Villanova ORG. Does not get free throw attempts enough. He gets steals. His deflections are great. He scores.He'll shoot. But where is the role? Does he play over Brooks PERSON, which means he plays over Easton? Does he play over Smith PERSON? Play over Shengoon and Smith plays at center. So we've got a men, Eason and Whitmore, who if they were on Charlotte, Detroit GPE, the Spurs, the Wizards, we'd be playing 32 minutes a night and be top 50 players, really without any hesitation. But that's just not likely to happen here.At some point, there's going to be a wrecking about, well, is Eason better than Jabari or is Whitmore better than Brooks PERSON or is a men better than green? I'm not sure that's going to happen next season, but just a wild plus. I get pick three. Where's that bloke going to play? Rob Dillingham, Reed Shepard, maybe it is Klingon NORP. Rissus Shea PERSON.I don't know. Where do they play? Whoever they pick at three, if they don't trade that pick. Also, every team, oh, we're looking to trade the pick. You know, bro, if you're going to trade the pick, somebody needs to be willing to trade with you.We hear this every year about the top picks. None of them move. They don't get traded really ever. We hear this every year about the top picks. None of them move. They don't get traded really ever. We hear this all the time. They're going to move the pick. Cool, it just doesn't happen.Oh, I guess we're, no, we're happy to just sit with our pick. It just very rarely happens. So the Rockets might say they're going to move pick three, but the offers might be just so bad. I guess we'll just get the talent. That's how it usually works out.Last player that I'm going to talk about is Jacques Landau PERSON. I'm not going to talk Jeff Green or Nate Williams or Bobarn or Bullock or Holiday PERSON, but Landau PERSON is interesting. They made a bet on him to be their backup center in the end. It was Jeff Green PERSON who got that initial job, and then Landau PERSON did get that spot later on.He's 28. So he's much older than you might think, because he came into the NBA ORG late. 56 games, 14 minutes. He was 335th in minus 1. He averaged 5 and 3 with 0.6 blocks, but shot 52 and 80. And as a big man, those numbers are intriguing.His two highest similarities were Hot Rod Williams, Year 5 and Ken Birch PERSON. Remember Ken Birch PERSON, the big tree? Year 5 as well. 77th percentile Birch, the big tree? Yeah, Year 5 as well. 77th percentile, EPM, 69th percentile crafted, but what I loved was his rim defense, 89th percentile. Landau showed flashes in Phoenix the year before, and when he had the opportunity when Schengun went down this season, I thought he was very, very serviceable. A solid backup big, who if you call on him, is useful.But the problem here now is that Stephen Adams PERSON exists. And that is a variable that I haven't really talked about probably enough through the show. So any minutes that you wanted Eason PERSON to play small ball center, or Jabari to play at the five because you wanted Eason, more in and more Whitmore PERSON, what the hell does Adams PERSON do? Because I don't think Adams and Shengun PERSON can play together.So does Shengun play 28 minutes and Adams plays 20? Does Adams play 16 as a backup only? What the hell happens? This team is getting to that stage where there are too many guys and there are people who are going to be cut down and you don't know how it's going to work.So Lando PERSON was strong and other teams should maybe inquire about him as a backup because there are just no opportunities for him now. And that is the opportunity, as I push the wrong button, that's okay. We'll hit the right one now. The opportunity for this show to end. If you had to tell your friends about it, but also to subscribe,to hit the thumbs up, to leave your comments, and to give that five-star review. Who's up tomorrow? Oh, it's the Sacramento Kings ORG, who, um, their fan base had some interesting things to say over the off-season and some changes in opinions now, and we'll dig into a lot of that as we get into the show. Guys, we are done here. Thank you so much for listening, everyone. See ya. It's winner take all time in the NBA and NHL ORG,

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