Alperen Şengün

[clyde21]

you guys already have his (high end) comp, it's K Love, who blocked 1.5 shots per game in 29 mins at UCLA, but again that never really translated to the NBA.

[amcoolio]

you guys already have his (high end) comp, it's K Love, who blocked 1.5 shots per game in 29 mins at UCLA, but again that never really translated to the NBA.

Sengun doesn't move half as well as Love on the perimeter, I have a hard time seeing him hitting 3's consistently

Yes I know that there is a gif on here of him hitting a step back

But its slow and clunky

[clyde21]

you guys already have his (high end) comp, it's K Love, who blocked 1.5 shots per game in 29 mins at UCLA, but again that never really translated to the NBA.

Sengun doesn't move half as well as Love on the perimeter, I have a hard time seeing him hitting 3's consistently

Yes I know that there is a gif on here of him hitting a step back

But its slow and clunky

the expectation is that he's going to be shooting 3s at an acceptable rate, he's a 80%+ FT guy (Love was sub 80% in college) and already has range out to 16-18 ft., it's only a matter of time until he extends it.

[Clawed]

you guys already have his (high end) comp, it's K Love, who blocked 1.5 shots per game in 29 mins at UCLA, but again that never really translated to the NBA.

A stat that analytics people like more than blocks is steals. Bigman who rack up a lot of steals usually translates pretty well as it demonstrates defensive BBIQ, anticipation, etc. Alperen had 1.3 steals vs Kevin Loves 0.7. Alperens blocks were the most for any bigman in the Turkish Leagues and a really good sign.

[EvanZ]

you guys already have his (high end) comp, it's K Love, who blocked 1.5 shots per game in 29 mins at UCLA, but again that never really translated to the NBA.

A stat that analytics people like more than blocks is steals. Bigman who rack up a lot of steals usually translates pretty well as it demonstrates defensive BBIQ, anticipation, etc. Alperen had 1.3 blocks vs Kevin Loves 0.7. Alperens blocks were the most for any bigman in the Turkish Leagues and a really good sign.

Man, are you talking about blocks or steals? Get your stats straight. Kevin Love averaged 0.7 stl/g at UCLA and 1.4 blk/g.

[Clawed]

1.3 steals for Alperen and 0.7 steals for Kevin Love.

[BostonCouchGM]

I wouldn't be mad if my team had multiple 2nd rounders and used on on him

[ecuhus1981]

I think that his comp is more Jokic than Love. Undersized version, but similar styles. I also think that he will get a bump in draft stock due to Nikola's MVP.

[UnbelievablyRAW]

you guys already have his (high end) comp, it's K Love, who blocked 1.5 shots per game in 29 mins at UCLA, but again that never really translated to the NBA.

Sengun doesn't move half as well as Love on the perimeter, I have a hard time seeing him hitting 3's consistently

Yes I know that there is a gif on here of him hitting a step back

But its slow and clunky

the expectation is that he's going to be shooting 3s at an acceptable rate, he's a 80%+ FT guy (Love was sub 80% in college) and already has range out to 16-18 ft., it's only a matter of time until he extends it.

Guys like him that don't shoot 3's to begin with don't really become respectable higher volume 3pt shooters. Marc Gasol also shot like 40% from 3 technically with the Raptors but everyone that watched us knew he hated taking too many of them because that wasn't his game. Don't expect a guy that made his name posting up to be settling for open 3s that the defense will give him at the NBA level.

Jonas Valenciunas also can hit 3's now but almost never does it because its unnatural for him. Lopez is like the only non-3pt shooting big I can think of off the top of my head that made that a consistent part of their game.

[Charm]

Sengun doesn't move half as well as Love on the perimeter, I have a hard time seeing him hitting 3's consistently

Yes I know that there is a gif on here of him hitting a step back

But its slow and clunky

the expectation is that he's going to be shooting 3s at an acceptable rate, he's a 80%+ FT guy (Love was sub 80% in college) and already has range out to 16-18 ft., it's only a matter of time until he extends it.

Guys like him that don't shoot 3's to begin with don't really become respectable higher volume 3pt shooters. Marc Gasol also shot like 40% from 3 technically with the Raptors but everyone that watched us knew he hated taking too many of them because that wasn't his game. Don't expect a guy that made his name posting up to be settling for open 3s that the defense will give him at the NBA level.

Jonas Valenciunas also can hit 3's now but almost never does it because its unnatural for him. Lopez is like the only non-3pt shooting big I can think of off the top of my head that made that a consistent part of their game.

Sengun's shooting numbers are pretty similar to Towns's shooting numbers going into the draft, and he's now an elite 3-point shooting big. I'd wager that most 3-point shooting bigs had questionable or nonexistent jumpshots when they were the same age Sengun is now.

On the other hand, I'd be impressed if you can find a single example of a player who shot around 80% from the line at age 18 and ended up being a non-shooter in the NBA.

[Mirotic12]

There's a decent chance Sengun will never face a frontcourt that big in his NBA career.

7-3 center and 6-11 power forward is what the listings are. But to be honest, Yurtseven, who the NBA lists at 7-0, looked smaller than both of them.

NBA has Yurtseven at 7-0 275:

https://www.nba.com/stats/player/1630209/career/

Papagiannis, the Greek C, made Yurtseven look like a kid, and even Mitoglou, the Greek PF, looked bigger than him.

This is why all of these endless threads in these forums about how every single European draft prospect looks smaller than their listings is so ridiculous. As has been pointed out many times here, European pro teams from good leagues are generally just as big, or bigger than NBA teams are on average, and the NBA uses that special camera angle to make their players look bigger than they are.

Canada's team of 8 NBA players looked small against both Greece and Turkey at the OQT. Hell, even Boban looked smaller than he does in the NBA. In the NBA, he looks gigantic, while in the FIBA broadcasts he didn't. D. Sabonis that some people claim is bigger than Sengun looked just a bit slightly undersized in the OQT. Not undersized for the 5 position, he looked a tad bit undersized for the 4 position, yet puts up huge numbers in the NBA.

It really is amazing how NBA marketing gimmicks of "all NBA players are taller, longer, bigger, stronger, faster" than all other players in the world has worked. Sabonis looks smaller in FIBA play than he does in the NBA. So based on the arguments, reasoning and logic that are used so often in these discussions in these forums, Sabonis would be incapable of playing in the NBA. Because he is slightly undersized for FIBA at the 4 position, and because he also plays terrible basketball with Lithuanian's NT, while regularly getting outplayed by players that are not good enough for the EuroLeague.

So using that same reasoning and logic standards that are applied to Sengun here - D. Sabonis would be physically and also quality-wise incapable of playing in the NBA.

How much of that is ballhandling though? I tend to think that without the ball (or as a stationary passer) Garuba shows reasonably good awareness offensively. Or at least, reasonably good for a teenager on a team full of seasoned veterans.

Garuba is horrific level on offense for EuroLeague standards.

[Mirotic12]

Lasme and Dunston are much better defenders than Sengun, especially Dunston, who at his peak was an amazing defender. Sengun isn't anywhere near that good on defense.

With that being said, the Domas Sabonis comparisons are off. Sengun is bigger, if he's not taller, or as tall, he's definitely longer, heavier and stronger, even at 18, than Sabonis is. And Sengun is definitely more athletic than Sabonis is, even at 18.

Sabonis is always bad when he plays with Lithuania's national team, and he was absolutely terrible in the Olympic qualifiers. He was easily the worst player on the court at all times in the game against Slovenia, playing against a team with only one big that is a EuroLeague level player.

Sabonis and Giannis look like two of the worst players ever when they play under FIBA rules with their national teams, yet look at the numbers they have in the NBA. If you just judged them off of FIBA play, they would both be considered terrible players by EuroLeague standards.

[amcoolio]

the expectation is that he's going to be shooting 3s at an acceptable rate, he's a 80%+ FT guy (Love was sub 80% in college) and already has range out to 16-18 ft., it's only a matter of time until he extends it.

Guys like him that don't shoot 3's to begin with don't really become respectable higher volume 3pt shooters. Marc Gasol also shot like 40% from 3 technically with the Raptors but everyone that watched us knew he hated taking too many of them because that wasn't his game. Don't expect a guy that made his name posting up to be settling for open 3s that the defense will give him at the NBA level.

Jonas Valenciunas also can hit 3's now but almost never does it because its unnatural for him. Lopez is like the only non-3pt shooting big I can think of off the top of my head that made that a consistent part of their game.

Sengun's shooting numbers are pretty similar to Towns's shooting numbers going into the draft, and he's now an elite 3-point shooting big. I'd wager that most 3-point shooting bigs had questionable or nonexistent jumpshots when they were the same age Sengun is now.

On the other hand, I'd be impressed if you can find a single example of a player who shot around 80% from the line at age 18 and ended up being a non-shooter in the NBA.

Cody Zeller shot high volume FT's in college and was 75%. Scouts thought he could shoot because of it, never did and still hasn't 7 years later

[yoyoboy]

Guys like him that don't shoot 3's to begin with don't really become respectable higher volume 3pt shooters. Marc Gasol also shot like 40% from 3 technically with the Raptors but everyone that watched us knew he hated taking too many of them because that wasn't his game. Don't expect a guy that made his name posting up to be settling for open 3s that the defense will give him at the NBA level.

Jonas Valenciunas also can hit 3's now but almost never does it because its unnatural for him. Lopez is like the only non-3pt shooting big I can think of off the top of my head that made that a consistent part of their game.

Sengun's shooting numbers are pretty similar to Towns's shooting numbers going into the draft, and he's now an elite 3-point shooting big. I'd wager that most 3-point shooting bigs had questionable or nonexistent jumpshots when they were the same age Sengun is now.

On the other hand, I'd be impressed if you can find a single example of a player who shot around 80% from the line at age 18 and ended up being a non-shooter in the NBA.

Cody Zeller shot high volume FT's in college and was 75%. Scouts thought he could shoot because of it, never did and still hasn't 7 years later

Sengun shot 81%, has demonstrated he can hit threes with nice looking form, and didn’t have a second season like Zeller where he showed no improved shooting ability. I would venture that the correlation between guys who shot 80%+ from the line on decent volume in college/international play at this young of an age and then went on to become good NBA outside shooters is pretty high, even if there are some exceptions.

[Charm]

Guys like him that don't shoot 3's to begin with don't really become respectable higher volume 3pt shooters. Marc Gasol also shot like 40% from 3 technically with the Raptors but everyone that watched us knew he hated taking too many of them because that wasn't his game. Don't expect a guy that made his name posting up to be settling for open 3s that the defense will give him at the NBA level.

Jonas Valenciunas also can hit 3's now but almost never does it because its unnatural for him. Lopez is like the only non-3pt shooting big I can think of off the top of my head that made that a consistent part of their game.

Sengun's shooting numbers are pretty similar to Towns's shooting numbers going into the draft, and he's now an elite 3-point shooting big. I'd wager that most 3-point shooting bigs had questionable or nonexistent jumpshots when they were the same age Sengun is now.

On the other hand, I'd be impressed if you can find a single example of a player who shot around 80% from the line at age 18 and ended up being a non-shooter in the NBA.

Cody Zeller shot high volume FT's in college and was 75%. Scouts thought he could shoot because of it, never did and still hasn't 7 years later

Cody Zeller hadn't even made his NCAA debut by the time he turned 19...so if you want to make the case that he was shooting as well as Sengun at age 18, you're gonna have to dig up his high school stats.

[EvanZ]

Myles Turner was an 83% free throw shooter, and that was good enough for me to project him shooting 3s eventually (even if he's just ok there). Doesn't always work, but happens often enough that's a decent bet. Jaren Jackson another case but he did he 3s at a pretty decent volume as a Freshman.

Sengun shot 80% from the line on high volume, has good touch, has overall skill level and age where projecting him to shoots 3s is not a stretch at all. I'd say it's more like a coin flip.

[ATLTimekeeper]

Sengun doesn't move half as well as Love on the perimeter, I have a hard time seeing him hitting 3's consistently

Yes I know that there is a gif on here of him hitting a step back

But its slow and clunky

the expectation is that he's going to be shooting 3s at an acceptable rate, he's a 80%+ FT guy (Love was sub 80% in college) and already has range out to 16-18 ft., it's only a matter of time until he extends it.

Guys like him that don't shoot 3's to begin with don't really become respectable higher volume 3pt shooters. Marc Gasol also shot like 40% from 3 technically with the Raptors but everyone that watched us knew he hated taking too many of them because that wasn't his game. Don't expect a guy that made his name posting up to be settling for open 3s that the defense will give him at the NBA level.

Jonas Valenciunas also can hit 3's now but almost never does it because its unnatural for him. Lopez is like the only non-3pt shooting big I can think of off the top of my head that made that a consistent part of their game.

I can think of more than a few: Towns, Horford, Embiid, Cousins, M. Leonard. fwiw, Gasol liked taking 3s. He was just also great at using closeouts to move the ball. Horford is the same way.

[Clawed]

Jae Crowder isn't some athletic freak but he is a prototypical 3 and D player even though he is 235 points and is only 6'6" with a 6'9" wingspan. Draymond Green is 230 lbs, and Paul Millsap is 260 pounds and they are both around the same height as Jae Crowder as well but have a longer wingspan. All three of these are anywhere from good to great on perimeter defense and are smallish heavy guys in the perimeter. Of course I don't think Sengun can reach anywhere close to their levels, nor do I think Alperen is the same kind of player as them. I am bringing them up just to bring examples of players who are small but heavy players in the perimeter who aren't freak athletics who can be good defenders, infact some can even be great. I think being 6'9" with a 7'0" wingspan, 240 lbs, and a mediocre athlete (by NBA standards) doesn't automatically mean he will be bad at perimeter defense. BBIQ and hustle goes far and Sengun can develop that and already has a ton of this for his age as demonstrated by his blocks and steals.

[kobyz]

is he similar to Dino Radja?

[Charm]

is he similar to Dino Radja?

I'd say he's somewhat similar in style, but he's developing at a much younger age. Radja didn't really have any pro success as a teenager, and didn't make it to the NBA until his mid-20's. Sengun at 18 is already a league MVP and a key fixture in the Turkish national team.