Rockets best lineup leads to some uncomfortable conversations

I’m afraid to write about Alperen Sengun.

This is just not an attraction for sympathy. These are actually not the worst issues I’ve encountered in my life. But, I’ll say that I’ve acquired literal dying threats for observing that Alperen Sengun doesn’t play protection very effectively.

If the web is a cesspool, that factors to broader points with human nature. Is the web a spot the place the boldness of anonymity emboldens individuals, or is it only a consequence of them taking their masks off?

Anyway, writing in regards to the Houston Rockets necessitates writing about Alperen Sengun. Writing about Alperen Sengun, in the event you intend on preserving journalistic integrity, requires the occasional use of a essential lens. So right here comes a bit that is essential of Alperen Sengun.

Please do not (threaten to) shoot the messenger.

Rockets’ best lineup doesn’t function their best younger participant

Per CleansingTheGlass, he isn’t a part of the Rockets’ best 2025-26 lineup.

That can be Clint Capela, Dorian Finney-Smith (sure, that Dorian Finney-Smith), Kevin Durant, Amen Thompson, and Reed Sheppard. That group is +38.4 in 154 possessions. That’s not a large pattern dimension, however it’s consequential sufficient to discuss.

So what is going on on right here?

Let’s flip to the more and more modern databallr. When Sengun and Sheppard share the ground, they’re +0.2 in 816 minutes. The Rockets shoot 35.1% from deep after they share the ground.

Remove Sengun, add Capela. The Rockets are +14.1 in 467 minutes. The staff shoots 40.2% from deep. Hypothesis:

Sheppard performs higher with an enormous man who does the massive man stuff.

He shoots higher when he is on the ground with an enormous man who units jarring screens. He’s simpler to insulate on alongside protection a – right here comes the dirtiest phrase in Rockets fandom – a rim protector.

It’s solely a concept. It’s doable that, in additional prolonged minutes, defenses would alter their protection. Capela’s complete incapability to do, effectively, a lot of something apart from dunk on the offensive finish may show problematic.

What’s the answer right here?

Rockets want extra grit from Alperen Sengun

This is just not a commerce Alperen Sengun piece. Or, at the very least, that is not the one answer that will likely be introduced.

It is an “Alperen Sengun needs to play differently” piece. As gifted as he’s, he isn’t fairly prodigious sufficient to have the Luka Doncic mentality (and realistically, even Luka Doncic wants to change his mentality). He cannot absolve himself from the soiled work if this staff goes to succeed.

Last 12 months, Sengun made dramatic strides on protection. He improved a lot that he compelled me to eat crow. I praised him profusely in public. A wholesale mea culpa. Self-flagellation to the purpose of deep bruising.

Now, it looks like I’m consuming crow once more.

Sengun has regressed to “is this guy viable” ranges on protection. He wants to get again to his 2024-25 stage. If he cannot defend that effectively whereas conserving vitality for a big offensive position, he isn’t value rostering. Luckily, he did it final 12 months, and he ought to have the option to do it once more.

One factor he is by no means finished is correctly display for his guards. That wants to change. Functionally, the Rockets want Sengun to be mainly Sabonis-with-defense. He must be leveraging his excessive basketball really feel to function as a dribble hand-off hub. His capacity to rating in isolation must be a part of the Rockets’ package deal as effectively, however when it is his main position, it would not do a lot to elevate his teammates.

Here’s a easy NBA precept: If you do not complement your teammates, there’s a threshold you want to meet for particular person productiveness. Sengun is not reaching that (exceedingly excessive) threshold, so he wants to complement his teammates. That means making their life simpler on protection and screening for shooters. If he cannot do this, the Rockets could have to have some uncomfortable conversations.