I am afraid to write about Alperen Sengun.<\/p>\n
This is not an appeal for sympathy. These are certainly not the worst problems I\u2019ve encountered in my life. But, I will say that I have received literal death threats for observing that Alperen Sengun does not play defense very well.<\/p>\n
If the internet is a cesspool, that points to broader issues with human nature. Is the internet a place where the confidence of anonymity emboldens people, or is that just a consequence of them taking their masks off?<\/p>\n
Anyway, writing about the Houston Rockets necessitates writing about Alperen Sengun. Writing about Alperen Sengun, if you intend on preserving journalistic integrity, requires the occasional use of a critical lens. So here comes a piece that\u2019s critical of Alperen Sengun.<\/p>\n
Please don\u2019t (threaten to) shoot the messenger.<\/p>\n
Rockets\u2019 best lineup does not feature their best young player<\/p>\n
Per CleaningTheGlass, he\u2019s not part of the Rockets\u2019 best 2025-26 lineup.<\/p>\n
That would be Clint Capela, Dorian Finney-Smith (yes, that Dorian Finney-Smith), Kevin Durant, Amen Thompson, and Reed Sheppard. That group is +38.4 in 154 possessions. That\u2019s not a massive sample size, but it\u2019s consequential enough to talk about.<\/p>\n
So what\u2019s going on here?<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s turn to the increasingly fashionable databallr. When Sengun and Sheppard share the floor, they\u2019re +0.2 in 816 minutes. The Rockets shoot 35.1% from deep when they share the floor.<\/p>\n
Remove Sengun, add Capela. The Rockets are +14.1 in 467 minutes. The team shoots 40.2% from deep. Hypothesis:<\/p>\n
Sheppard plays better with a big man who does the big man stuff.<\/p>\n
He shoots better when he\u2019s on the floor with a big man who sets jarring screens. He\u2019s easier to insulate on defense alongside a – here comes the dirtiest word in Rockets fandom – a rim protector.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s only a theory. It\u2019s possible that, in more extended minutes, defenses would adjust their coverage. Capela\u2019s total inability to do, well, much of anything other than dunk on the offensive end could prove problematic.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the solution here?<\/p>\n
Rockets need more grit from Alperen Sengun<\/p>\n
This is not a trade Alperen Sengun piece. Or, at least, that\u2019s not the only solution that will be presented.<\/p>\n
It is an \u201cAlperen Sengun needs to play differently\u201d piece. As gifted as he is, he\u2019s not quite prodigious enough to have the Luka Doncic mentality (and realistically, even Luka Doncic needs to change his mentality). He can\u2019t absolve himself from the dirty work if this team is going to succeed.<\/p>\n
Last year, Sengun made dramatic strides on defense. He improved so much that he forced me to eat crow. I praised him profusely in public. A wholesale mea culpa. Self-flagellation to the point of deep bruising.<\/p>\n
Now, it feels like I\u2019m eating crow again.<\/p>\n
Sengun has regressed to \u201cis this guy viable\u201d levels on defense. He needs to get back to his 2024-25 level. If he can\u2019t defend that well while conserving energy for a large offensive role, he\u2019s not worth rostering. Luckily, he did it last year, and he should be able to do it again.<\/p>\n
One thing he\u2019s never done is properly screen for his guards. That needs to change. Functionally, the Rockets need Sengun to be basically Sabonis-with-defense. He should be leveraging his high basketball feel to operate as a dribble hand-off hub. His ability to score in isolation should be part of the Rockets\u2019 package as well, but when it\u2019s his primary role, it doesn\u2019t do much to elevate his teammates.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a simple NBA principle: If you don\u2019t complement your teammates, there is a threshold you need to meet for individual productivity. Sengun isn\u2019t reaching that (exceedingly high) threshold, so he needs to complement his teammates. That means making their life easier on defense and screening for shooters. If he can\u2019t do that, the Rockets may have to have some uncomfortable conversations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I am afraid to write about Alperen Sengun. This is not an appeal for sympathy. These are certainly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[7,292,194,4066,6,7352,211,9782],"class_list":["post-659824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston-rockets","tag-basketball","tag-houston","tag-houston-rockets","tag-houstonrockets","tag-nba","tag-player-analysis","tag-rockets","tag-rockets-analysis"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116234125745535471","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659824","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=659824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}