{"id":210654,"date":"2025-08-03T15:01:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T15:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/210654\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T15:01:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T15:01:09","slug":"alperen-sengun-expects-kevin-durant-to-open-up-the-game-for-rockets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/210654\/","title":{"rendered":"Alperen Sengun expects Kevin Durant to \u2018open up the game\u2019 for Rockets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Later this month, Houston Rockets<\/a> center and 2025 NBA All-Star Alperen Sengun plans to play for his native Turkey in this year\u2019s\u00a0EuroBasket 2025<\/a>\u00a0competition.<\/p>\n

It will be the 42nd edition of the\u00a0EuroBasket\u00a0championship, which represents the quadrennial international men\u2019s\u00a0basketball\u00a0championship organized by\u00a0FIBA Europe. The tournament is being co-hosted by Cyprus, Finland, Poland, and Latvia, with games taking place from August 27 to September 14.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

With preparations underway, Sengun recently granted an interview to Anadolu<\/a>, a state-run news agency in Turkey. These were among Sengun\u2019s first public comments of the 2025 NBA offseason, since players have no requirements to do interviews when there aren\u2019t games.<\/p>\n

Naturally, Sengun was asked about the blockbuster trade bringing 15-time All-Star Kevin Durant to the Rockets. His response, via Anadolu<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I\u2019m excited to play with Durant. Everyone is excited to play with him. It doesn\u2019t matter his age \u2014 ultimately, he\u2019s Kevin Durant. I have no doubt he will bring a lot to the team.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s very experienced, and we have some very young players. I think he\u2019ll open up the game for us. He\u2019s incredibly effective both offensively and defensively.<\/p>\n

The Rockets are coming off a 52-30 season with the No. 2 record in the Western Conference, and considering the offseason additions of veterans like Durant, Dorian Finney-Smith, and Clint Capela, Houston is among the initial championship favorites<\/a> for the NBA\u2019s 2025-26 campaign.<\/p>\n

But part of the reason for that optimism isn\u2019t just the individual play of newly acquired veterans. The idea is that because Houston has a relatively young rotation featuring up-and-comers such as Sengun, Amen Thompson, Jabari Smith Jr., Tari Eason, and Reed Sheppard (all between 21 and 24 years old), the Rockets could have more room for internal growth than many of their competitors.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

As Sengun notes, the idea is that Durant\u2019s experience \u2014 in addition to the elite perimeter scoring and floor spacing that he almost always brings \u2014can further boost the development of those young players.<\/p>\n

More: Rockets star Alperen Sengun to play for Turkey in FIBA EuroBasket 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: Alperen Sengun expects Kevin Durant to \u2018open up the game\u2019 for Rockets<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Later this month, Houston Rockets center and 2025 NBA All-Star Alperen Sengun plans to play for his native…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[1307,883,7,17440,984,374,28770,37119,292,194,4066,2497,938,6,1081,211,873],"class_list":{"0":"post-210654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-alperen-sengun","9":"tag-amen-thompson","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-basketball-championship","12":"tag-clint-capela","13":"tag-dorian-finney-smith","14":"tag-eurobasket-2025","15":"tag-fiba-europe","16":"tag-houston","17":"tag-houston-rockets","18":"tag-houstonrockets","19":"tag-jabari-smith-jr","20":"tag-kevin-durant","21":"tag-nba","22":"tag-reed-sheppard","23":"tag-rockets","24":"tag-tari-eason"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114965439241044956","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}