{"id":518579,"date":"2026-01-05T18:28:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T18:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/518579\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T18:28:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T18:28:15","slug":"could-alperen-sengun-be-a-victim-of-the-leagues-65-game-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/518579\/","title":{"rendered":"Could Alperen Sengun be a victim of the league\u2019s 65-game rule?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kevin Durant believes the NBA\u2019s 65-game mandate won\u2019t last<\/a> long. Or much longer.<\/p>\n

(Hopefully he\u2019s right).<\/p>\n

The rule was implemented to prevent players from load managing their way to accolades and honors.<\/p>\n

(See Kawhi Leonard and LeBron James, of late).<\/p>\n

The downside is that players with legitimate injuries are also withheld from the same milestones, which was an unintended consequence.<\/p>\n

Durant, himself, fell victim to the rule last season.<\/p>\n

26.6 points, 6 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 52.7 percent from the field, 43 percent from three, 83.9 percent from the foul line, 59.8 percent effective shooting, and 64.2 percent true shooting.<\/p>\n

This season, Nikola Jokic could be deprived of an MVP award, due to the same mandate.<\/p>\n

Alperen Sengun, a Jokic look-a-like by the masses, could also be affected by the rule, potentially.<\/p>\n

Depending on how much time he misses with his latest injury and more importantly, whether he\u2019s able to remain healthy upon returning.<\/p>\n

Sengun has played in 28 of Houston\u2019s 32 games thus far.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll need to play in 37 more of Houston\u2019s 50 remaining games.<\/p>\n

10 of those games are back-to-back games.<\/p>\n

Will the Rockets choose to rest him in those games? It wouldn\u2019t be a bad idea, if it\u2019ll allow him to get fully healthy for what\u2019s expected to be a deep postseason run.<\/p>\n

Especially since this will be his third time having to miss time this season.<\/p>\n

And especially if you consider the Rockets\u2019 success without him this season, as they are 3-1 when he sits (which is a small sample size, I know).<\/p>\n

All told, Houston has 50 games remaining over the next 98 days.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t leave a ton of wiggle room if he\u2019s going to miss back-to-backs (which isn\u2019t a guarantee, to be fair).<\/p>\n

Sengun was viewed as a potential All-NBA selection, and based on his play, that shouldn\u2019t be much of a question.<\/p>\n

Especially at the center position (and especially if factoring in team success).<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen how long he\u2019ll be out of commission with his latest ankle injury, but it\u2019s a positive that he\u2019s considered day-to-day.<\/p>\n

And we shouldn\u2019t expect the Rockets to rush him back after any injury.<\/p>\n

But any additional injuries (or extended absences) could put him at risk of missing the league\u2019s mandate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant believes the NBA\u2019s 65-game mandate won\u2019t last long. Or much longer. (Hopefully he\u2019s right). The rule…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[7,292,194,4066,6,211,48716],"class_list":{"0":"post-518579","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-rockets","11":"tag-houstonrockets","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-rockets","14":"tag-rockets-injury-report"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115843911150310780","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518579","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=518579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}