Alperen Sengun Rockets Season Review: Defensive GROWTH, Offensive ISSUES, All-NBA Next Year & More

Alperen Sengun Rockets Season Review: Defensive GROWTH, Offensive ISSUES, All-NBA Next Year & More

On today’s show, Alper and Shingun season in review, expectations coming into the year, growth throughout the season, as well as big questions for the Turkish big man moving forward. Plus, we get to our one game, one play, and one number, as well as the overall season grade. It’s all coming up right here at Locked on Rockets. This is mission control Houston. Ignition sequence start. 6 5 4 3 2 1 zero. What is up and welcome to another edition of Locked On Rockets, your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball. As always, I’m your host, Jackson Gatlin, native Houstononian and credentialed media member. I’m also the host of Locked On Thursdays. Be sure to follow along wherever you listen to your podcast or on YouTube. Just search Locked on Rockets, where the best way you can help us grow our show is to listen every single day on a podcast platform of your choosing and then like, comment, subscribe on YouTube. And as always, thanks so much for making Lockdown Rockets part of your day every single day, whether it’s on your way to work, on your lunch break, or in the gym. Thank you so much for being an everydayer. We’re kicking off our Rockets review series here, starting with the man in the middle, Alperin Shingun. Uh we’re going to take a look at kind of expectations coming into the year, growth throughout the season, questions that we still have for him moving forward, as well as getting to our one game, one play, and one number from this past campaign and his overall season grade. We’re going to be doing this for all of the uh remaining members of the Rockets core rotation from this past season. So, we’ll do Amen Thompson next. Then we’ll get to Jabarisma Jr. and Fred Van Vleet and Tar. We’ll hit everybody. Um and where I want to start with Alp just a quick refresher kind of expectations coming into the year you know going back to year three right you know Rockets finished 41 and 41 Alparingu was clearly the team’s best player that year but regrettably that year ended in in you know disappointment because of his season ending injury right he wasn’t able to be a part of that late season push that the Rockets tried to make to get to the playin tournament ultimately losing out that that final spot hot in the Western Conference playing race to the Golden State Warriors. And so coming into this past year, right, one of the big questions was how is Alp going to respond after dealing with the first major injury of his career, right? Being sidelined for the final quarter of of his third year and then, you know, having to rehab and rehabilitate and work on his body coming into year four this past campaign. and he talked about this a lot that he came into the year in the best shape of his entire career and he looked like he was in the best shape of his entire career. There was a lot of reporting. We talked about the fact that, you know, he really worked on his core strength, uh, which was something that that certainly helped him out a lot, uh, with the physicality of the NBA game, really becoming more of a terror on the glass, becoming a more dominant rebounder, really be able to hold his own defensively at times. Um, and so that was certainly a big boost to him coming in. But I think expectations-wise coming into the year, you know, off a season where he averaged 219 and five was, okay, can he become can he level up again? What other improvements can he continue to make to his game? Can he become an allstar? Um, and he achieved a lot this past year. He did become an all-star, right? and and you know whether or not you agree with his selection as an all-star, you know, a dude who averages 19, 10, and five is certifiably an all-star caliber player. And when you factor in the team success on top of that, the Rockets flirting with being, you know, uh, one of the four four or five, you know, best teams in the entire NBA for most of last season. It was a no-brainer that Al Brining was going to receive the All-Star knot. So, he received his first All-Star honors, the first homegrown all-star for the Houston Rockets all the way since Yao Ming back in the early 2000s, which is, you know, a significant milestone for him. Um, and I think the other side of things coming in, you know, expectations set forth by the Rockets coaching staff, right, because of who Emodoka is and the identity that he has cultivated for this Houston Rockets team. You know, that first year under Emo, they finished as a top 10 defense. And then this past year, they finished as a top five defense. And a big part of that, not the only part. I’m not giving LP all the credit, right? There’s the playing defense at an elite level in the NBA is very much a team thing, but it’s really hard for a team to become an elite defensive team if you have a defensive liability in the middle. And I think that time and time again, Alparen Chenun has proven that he is anything but a defensive liability as the starting center for this Houston Rockets team. The most impressive part to me about Shingun’s season this past year was not really anything to do with his offense. It was how he leveled up again defensively. He should. It was, you know, being able to be the starting center on a top 10 defense was already impress impressive in and of itself that first year, but then being able to double down on that and watching his continued growth and impact on that side of the basketball for the Rockets to be able to finish as a top five defense speaks volumes about his ability as a defender and the fact that he really is, you know, has evolved into a bit of a two-way force at the end of the day. some of the things that the Rockets were able to do this past season were only able to be done because of the versatility that Shingun actually provides you on defense. Now, look, he’s not, you know, he’s not a a switch everything one through five kind of defender. He’s not a guy that you want switching out on smaller guards on the perimeter, but he does unlock a lot of different things for the Rockets defensively. Namely, the success of the double big lineup, right? the fact that the Rockets were able to run that double big lineup for so much of last season after discovering it late into the year and then really relying on it to close out the season strong as well as you going to it a ton in that series against the Golden State Warriors. The key to unlocking that double big lineup is the fact that Alpin Chingun is able to play alongside Steven Adams. the fact that he’s able to fly around in that kind of bizarre zone defense that the Rockets run where they put Steven Adams in the middle and you have Jabarius M Junior and Alpour and Shingun flanking him on the wings. That success doesn’t happen without Alper and Shingun being able to move his feet on the perimeter without his ability to read and react appropriately defensively. And so I think the Rockets coaching staff really set forth, you know, this level of expectation for LP to be able to come in and really continue to, you know, hone, you know, hone hone in on and refine the defensive side of his game. And he leveled up once again defensively. being able to be the backbone and the starting five for a top five defense in the NBA is, you know, a testament to just how good he’s become on that side of the basketball. So, I think that, you know, coming into the year, he, you know, had a lot of expectations on his shoulders. Um, you know, he achieved becoming an all-star, which was certainly on his kind of to-do list of things that he wanted to achieve as an NBA player. And not only that, right, the Rockets were able to achieve a lot of team success as well, finishing as the second best seed in or the second seed in the Western Conference. Um, you know, earning homecourt advantage in the playoffs. Ultimately, they fell in seven games to the Warriors. But it was such a monumental season for learning, for growth, and there’s still a ton of room for improvement in Alpin Shingun’s game. That’s the crazy part is he did grow a lot this past season, but there were also some spots that he regressed in. Unfortunately, and there are still some very significant questions about his game moving forward. And we’re going to get into some of those here in just a moment. Like what does the offense look like for Al Perin Shingun next season? How does his role change with the addition of Kevin Durant? We’re going to get there in just one moment. First, today’s episode is brought to you And continuing on here at Locked on Rockets, your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball. All right. So, spent a lot of, you know, that first segment kind of laying out laying the foundation for things and focusing a lot on the defensive side of Alpin Shingun’s game, which to me was the most impressive part about his season this past year was just how much more impactful he became defensively. Didn’t really know that there was going to be another leap that he could take on that side of the basketball. Now, conversely, unfortunately, Alps also regressed offensively, and that was one of the big knocks on him this past season, right? It wasn’t all sunshine and roses, unfortunately. Uh, Shingun’s numbers, uh, offensively took a significant step back. Um, specifically just his efficiency, right? How many times this past season did we talk about did we do game recaps or talk about the fact that Shingun struggles in and around the basket? It’s it’s like he kind of lost his shooting touch, right? second year in the NBA, Alperugan had a 59.9% TS percentage. Um, then his third year in the NBA, he had a 58.5 TS percentage. Uh, this past campaign, drops just plummeted all the way down to 54.5% true shooting. Uh, that was easily it it was easily his worst efficiency season as a pro in his four years in the NBA. And at times, you know, early in the season, we credited some of the the shooting struggles, the touch around the rim to some of his newfound strength, right? Getting accustomed to all the muscle that he put on in the offseason, the core strength, the workout, the phys the the strength and conditioning stuff that he went through in the offseason, rehabilitating and trying to come back in stronger and in the best shape of his career. It really kind of felt like it might have messed with his touch a little bit around the basket. So, one of the big questions for Alparen Shingun moving forward with the Rockets is can he regain that touch? Because I’ll be completely honest, if Alberin Shingun had an efficiency season similar to either his second or third year in the NBA this past campaign, if he had had a a TS around 58 1.5% 59%, 60% like somewhere in that range, 58 to 60%, his numbers would have jumped off the P. he would have been legitimately in the MVP discussion. He wouldn’t have won it, but he would have been a top five like MVP candidate because you take a a true shooting percentage of 54.5% and you bump that up like five percentage points up to 59 and a half, which is what he did, uh, you know, that’s that’s the middle ground between years two and three. If you average those two seasons out, if you bump him all the way up to there, suddenly he’s averaging, we’ll call it 24 a game, maybe 25 a night with 10 rebounds and five assists. 2510 and five, that’s an MVP caliber player on the number two seed in the Western Conference, a top four team in the NBA. So, it’s disappointing from in that regard because it felt like there were a lot of points left on the table, a lot of opportunities missed by Alper and Shingun to be more effective in and around the basket. Um, and I will say though that I even though this is a big question for him moving forward, can he regain that touch around the rim? I a part of me feels like so much of the focus from the coaching staff and and for Shingun himself was spent on the defensive side of the basketball that you know the the offense kind of became it took a backseat unfortunately and you know that’s not that doesn’t necessarily need to be the case right you want your big man to be as efficient as possible but unfortunately Shingun with his shot diet as well right he’s not just taking shots within you know three to five feet of the rim right he takes a a lot of, you know, those little push shots in the paint or, you know, those kind of flamingo midi shots. Um, and so his shot diet is a lot more similar to guys like, you know, a Joel Embiid or a Bam Adabio and guys like that, their TS isn’t as high as as as, you know, effective as some of the other bigs who exclusively play in and around the basket. And so for Alp, I do think there’s a realistic, you know, pathway forward for him to get back to the efficiency that he had in years two and three of his career. Um, and if he can get back to that level of of efficiency, which again I’ve got the confidence that he will get back there, um, I think there’s more evidence than not that he can be an efficient player in and around the in and around the rim and, you know, on volume in particular because you also go back and look at, you know, his uh, shot diet from the the those first two years or the two years where he actually shot uh, significantly better. And you know, in year three, he averaged 15 and a half attempts per game. He actually took less attempts uh this past year on worse efficiency, unfortunately. So, I don’t think it’s like a volume thing. It’s not like, oh, he wasn’t taking as many shots and then suddenly he became a big focal point. He just couldn’t deliver. No, he delivered plenty in that third year. Um, I think he’ll get I think he’s I mean, we’ve already seen plenty of workout videos of him in the offseason. I think that some of the focus for him and hopefully for the coaching staff as well will be resh will be shifted back to the offensive side of things for Alp. Um and the t, you know, the touch, the craft, the finesse around the basket, that’s all still there. The footwork, the bag that he has to, you know, really get to whatever spot he wants to against opposing bigs, that’s all still there. One of the other big questions for him though is what does the outside game actually look like for Alpar and Shingun moving forward because in addition to really struggling from, you know, from just an overall efficiency perspective, it was his worst year shooting the three ball as well. And I remember going all the way back to training camp for the Rockets asking Emodoka about the idea of Alporn Shingun and Steven Adams double big lineups. And then, you know, it took them most of the season before they eventually tried it. But one of the answers that EA gave me was, you know, traditionally when you run a double big lineup, you want one of those bigs to be a spacing big. And he talked about Alp. And he said that Alp absolutely has the touch to be a spacing big. It’s more about a confidence thing with Alp. And so seeing some of the workout videos that we’ve seen from him this off season, seeing how much work he’s putting in on that three ball, um you know, catching and shooting off motion, setting a screen and popping out to the three-point line, different things like that. If Alpen Shingun can become a confident three-point shooter and really get that shot to a place where it’s reliable and consistent in that in that 32 to 34 35% range, he doesn’t have to have a flamethrower. It doesn’t have to be anything crazy, but get adding that to his game will unlock a lot, not only for himself and giving him a whole another dimension of his game to rely on, but it will also unlock things for his teammates because as it stands right now, the Rockets have a starting lineup that projects to have two non-shooters in the starting lineup. And it’s, you know, they had Shingun and Amen Thompson in the starting lineup this past year, but if you can add a three ball to Alporn and Shingun that’s at least reliably consistent, that adds so much more floor spacing for a guy like Amin Thompson to be able to get downhill, drive, penetrate the defense, get easy kickout opportunities to his teammates, that kind of thing. So, what whether or not, you know, Shingun comes back with a serviceable three ball is going to be another big question for him moving forward. And quite possibly the biggest question of all, right, is how different do things look with the addition of Kevin Durant. First off, KD, you know, h adding a top 10 player, adding a superstar talent like KD, a guy with that much offensive gravity is going to do is going to do wonders for guys like Alpin Shingun and Amin Thompson. It’s going to make life easier for them. And I also think that this is the best case scenario for Alpine Shigun moving forward because even though he’s basically been the Rockets’s best player for the past two years, at times he’s been forced into the role of being their go-to scorer of being their number one option offensively. And it doesn’t necessarily feel like that is the best most ideal role for Alpin Shingun. I’ve maintained pretty consistently for a while now that it feels like his ideal role, you know, within the construct of a championship caliber team is probably as the second or third option offensively where you really you focus more on his ability to make reads and make plays out of the middle of the floor, which will sometimes mean he scores for himself. Other times it means he’s setting up teammates. But his ability as kind of the offensive fulcrum for this Rocket team is really where I think he’s going to be able to find the most success. And now that he’s got a true number one option, a consistent and efficient and reliable number one option in Kevin Durant and a guy that is very clearly number one in the hierarchy because previously, right, this past season, some nights the number one option was Alper and Shingun. Other nights it was Jaylen Green. Other nights it was Fred Van Vleet or Dylan Brooks or a Min Thompson or even Jabari Smith Jr. occasionally. And that level of inconsistency on a night-to-ight basis I think made it really hard at times to figure out how you were going to attack, who you were running plays for, you know, h who you were identifying as far as like, okay, this guy’s going to get his shots here. We’re running the game through this guy. That kind of stuff. Alper and Shenun now having Kevin Durant, you know, to rely on as the true number one option for this team is going to be great for him to be able to have, you know, as an outlet when he’s making his moves, whether he’s posting up, whether he’s attacking the defense and facing up, and then he has a kick out or an outlet out to KD. Hell, their twoman game is going to be phenomenal, right? having Kevin Durant with the ball in his hands, had Alpore and Shingun come over and set a screen for him and then, you know, KD either gets to his spot on the floor and elevates and knocks down, you know, a three or a mini pullup or potentially getting all the way to the rim or then Alper and Shingun if they decide to double KD if they want to slow him down. Then Alper and Shingun gets the ball in the short roll and gets either a straight line drive to the rim or can then be that connective tissue piece and kicking it out to the next open shooter if the low man rotates over. There’s so many different things that are going to be unlocked from having the gravity of not just one really talented offensive player. Because that’s the downside here is, you know, Shingun has very clearly been the player with the most scoring gravity on the Rockets for the past couple years. He’s commanded double teams every single night, whether it’s posting up, whether it’s facing up. He routinely and consistently has been the only player that has demanded double teams for the past two years. And now you’re going to introduce another guy that on a nightly basis is going to command a double team. And having two players with that amount of scoring gravity is going to really unlock a lot for this Rockets offense. I think we’re going to see a version of this Rockets offense where things actually look a lot easier than they ever have in the past three, four years that Al Brining’s been in the NBA. Um, and again, that’ll just make things a lot easier for him moving forward. he’ll get some of the easiest opportunities of his career and hopefully that’ll mean better numbers across the board as far as his finishing, his efficiency around the rim, all that good stuff. Um, coming up, want to get into our one game, one play, and one number from Alpin Shingun’s season, as well as his overall season grade. We’re going to get there in just one moment. and final segment here at Locked on Rockets. Your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball. All right, let’s get into our 111s here. Our one game, one play, and one number. So, if you uh have been a listener for a while, you know that we do this uh in our review episodes each season where we do one game, one play, one number. Now, the fun part is here. I want to hear from you. I want you, dear listener, dear viewer, in the YouTube comments to share with me your one game, one play, and one number that stands out to you from Alpir and Shingun season. So, let me know your thoughts in the comments. Um, for me, starting off with the game, one game that really stood out to me was the overtime win against the Minnesota Timberwolves on the road, uh, as part of the inseason tournament group play stage where Shingun struggled like flat out. Like he was pretty awful in the first half of that game. Just seemed discombobulated, poor efficiency. Um, I think by the end of the first half, uh, he was, what was it, what was his first half stats? He was one of six shooting from the first half. Uh, you know, looked all kinds of discombobulated. And then he came back in in that third quarter, had a monster third quarter, 10 points on four of six shooting. Then he managed to put up six points in the fourth quarter. And then in overtime, stretching the game into OT, uh, he scored another four points in OT. And that was where he hit he he just he hit Rudy Goar with the turnaround like, you know, push shot and then he ran back to the middle of the court, was was amped, was hyped up, hit him hit Rudy with the two small gesture. Fred Vanet came over and was was, you know, gassing him up there at midc court. That game to me was one of the most impressive games of Shingu’s entire season. And trust me, there were plenty of impressive games to choose from cuz not only did he find his way back as a scorer in that game cuz he struggled in that first half, just one of six shooting, finished nine of 23, but he also managed to put up the 10 rebounds. And again, he he became a very consistent rebounding force this past year after, you know, year three and a couple seasons before that. There were some times where you didn’t really feel his presence on the glass as much as you would need to as you would want to feel it. 10 rebounds, also had 11 assists in that game. So, a monster triple double for Alp where he took over in, you know, in that second half in in overtime and helped deliver the Rockets that win on what was at the time a pretty big stage, right? You know, in seasonason tournament, there’s a lot of hype around it. Um, and I just really liked that game because to me, one of the toughest mental aspects for players to sometimes overcome is when you start a game bad, when you’re struggling, when you are, you know, in the mud and you just can’t figure it out, you’re missing your shots, you’re turning the ball over, whatever, how do you respond? How do you handle the mental adversity of battling uphill and trying to get back into get yourself back into the game? And I think that Shingun has shown a lot of mental fortitude, you know, in particular in this game, but also just, you know, throughout the season, right? Plenty of times where you can see a game where maybe Alp struggles in the beginning, but finds his way, you know, later on in the game. And that’s what some of the best players do. Some of the greatest players in the NBA, you know, they might struggle for a quarter or two, they might be off for a half, um, you know, miss a bunch of shots in a row, but they find a way to deliver and they also find multiple ways to impact the game. And the fact that Shingun doesn’t just have to rely on his ability to score the basketball, which he managed to still turn around and do in this game, but also the fact that he impacts the game with his rebounding, with his facilitating for his teammates, with his defense and the impact that he has on that side of the basketball as well. There’s so many little things, his screening ability. Shingun impacts the game across the board in so many different categories for this Rocket team. He is the straw that stirs the drink for the Houston Rockets. Um, now going into our one play for Al Pinching, I kind of tossed around a few different plays here, but I think I ultimately settled on the final play from game four against the Golden State Warriors where the Rockets had a chance to take the lead. They were down one with, you know, whatever 10 seconds left on the clock, whatever it was. Emo Doka calls timeout. They draw up their play and it wasn’t they didn’t really draw anything up. It was literally just an outrunching an isolation play on Draymond Green. I would have much rather seen them like even just hell give Alpie a screen or something like give give him a little bit of help. Don’t make him go one-on-one against one of the greatest defenders of all time. But that’s what Emodoka called. He called Alp’s number and Alpie made his move, tried to spin on Draymond. Draymond walled him off and Alpie put up a shot and it, you know, wasn’t the greatest shot. It wasn’t a, it was a, it was a really phenomenal defensive play by Draymond, right? He didn’t seed any ground. He didn’t let Alpie back him further into the paint. Um, but I also think Alp kind of settled on that shot, right? And I think that play is going to be something that Alp has likely had, you know, on repeat in his mind throughout the off season and, you know, ever since it occurred because if Alp hits that shot, you know, Rockets get one more defensive possession and and you know, maybe they they the Warriors hit a miracle shot, they win the game anyways. Who knows? Butterfly effect is crazy like that. But let’s just say Alpie hits the shot and they win the game because of it, right? Hits the game winner. Rockets tie up the series 2-2 headed back to Houston. Things could look drastically different, right? If if the Rockets have this thing tied up 2-2, and they’re heading back to Houston, they win game five in Houston, and then maybe they close close out the Warriors in game six on the road. Like, everything could have changed had he hit that one shot. And I think first off, him settling for that shot, I think is kind of uh indicative of some of the efficiency struggles that we talked about earlier in the show. You know, settling for some of those, you know, spinning, turnaround, push shot, floaters, whatever. Like, those are shots that he’s capable of hitting, but are they crazy efficient shots? Are they shots that he hits at a high clip? No. Maybe not the best, right? Maybe you could have gotten something a little bit better. you know, put your head down, barrel through, you know, draw a foul, do something. Again, maybe they drop something where there’s actually an action involved, right? Getting him a screen, uh, you know, a little inverted pick and roll action with Fred Van Vleet coming over as the screen or something, right, to help him out a little bit. But I also wanted to highlight that play because I, you know, while there’s still going to be chances for Alp to be the guy that delivers in the biggest moments for this Rockets team moving forward, he’s not going to have to be that guy anymore. Like again, that’s not really, I think, the role that you want Alpore and Shingun to have to play for this team moving forward. That shot belongs to Kevin Durant now. And you’re going to live and die with whether or not Katie hits that shot or if KD gets doubled, right, and they force the ball out of his hands. That’s when Alpin Shingun gets to step up or that’s when Amin Thompson gets to step up and deliver as the recipient off of, you know, a pass from KD instead of Shingun being forced to try and deliver because unfortunately there wasn’t anybody else on the roster that the Rockets could reliably go to in the closing moments of game four to try and get their own shot off. Right. In theory, that guy should have been Jaylen Green. Jaylen Green was supposed to be the Rockets leading scorer, go-to bucket getter, you know, clutch time killer, like all that stuff. And he wasn’t that, unfortunately. So, the the burden, the responsibility fell on Alpore and Shingun’s shoulders. But with how the Rockets have changed this team with this with the big-time blockbuster trade for KD, that no longer falls on his shoulders, it’s no longer going to be his responsibility or solely his responsibility. I’ll say there will still be moments for him to, you know, showcase himself, to elevate, to rise to the occasion, to hit a gamewinner, to be the go-to guy. Absolutely. I’m not saying like he’s not getting demoted. It’s just not having the sole pressure in that moment is going to be huge for him moving forward. And then down to my number from this past season. I went back and forth on this one because I I could have picked the true shooting percentage number, but we talked about that a lot already. So, the other number that I wanted to highlight here, the number that I have is 749. 749. That number is the number of touches, number of possessions where Alparin Shingun commanded a double team this past season. Alpar and Shingun commanded the second most number of double teams in the entire NBA last season for frontcourt players. The only player who demanded more double teams than Alpore and Shingun was Nikolic who finished with 841 possessions where he was doubled. nearly hundred more than Alpore and Shenun. Uh further down the list, Carlton Towns was third on the list with 697 possessions doubled. Then Giannis with 688 possessions doubled. Um so like at the end of the day, Shingun clearly has so much gravity and unfortunately as I know it’s supposed to only be one number, but I want to build off of this. Um, the points per possession that the Rockets generated off of those double teams was only a measly 1.05 points per possession. That is the third worst on this list of players behind, and I apologize, it’s not actually just front court players, it’s it’s everybody in the NBA. Um, the only players with worse efficiency or the only teams with worse efficiency off of double teams were the Phoenix Suns with Devin Booker being doubled. They only scored 1.02 points per possession. And then the Detroit Pistons with Kade Cunningham being doubled 511 times where they scored 1.01 points per possession. But if the Rockets can get to a place where that number rises up right where you’ve got now shooters, you’ve got guys like Kevin Durant, Dorian Finny Smith parked around Alpinon, you’ll have Jabari Smith Jr. who hopefully doesn’t start out the season, you know, just bricking shots left and right. You’ll have Fred Van Vleet in a much smaller role offensively where without being tasked to be, you know, to carry as much of an offensive burden as he had to carry, you know, at times this past season, his shooting percentages should regress back to closely, you know, closer to his career numbers. I think that the Rockets aren’t going to like completely go away from having Alpore and Shingun as a go-to option, right? a lot of the offense is still going to funnel through Alper and Shenon. It just means that I think he’s going to be less so maybe the play finisher and more, you know, the play initiator, right? Getting things to go through him. And, you know, it’s going to be pick your poison. Either you don’t double Alp and he draws a foul or finishes at the rim or or gets to one of his spots and knocks down a shot or you do double him and then, you know, he’s kicking the ball out to a wideopen Kevin Durant or or Jabari Smith Jr. or Fred Van Vid or whoever else. So, Men Thompson, you know, cutting in from the dunker spot or or, you know, uh, out in the corner. Like, there’s so many different things that this Rockets team is going to be able to achieve next season. And that number, I think, illustrates the profound amount of respect that teams have for Alpin Shigun when they’re game planning against the Houston Rockets. and the fact that he does command double teams more than any other player not named Nico Joic in the NBA like that is a certifiable fact and uh I I thought that that stat was uh was really really interesting. So for me to to put a bow on this to wrap it all up, my season grade for Alpin Shingun, I’m going to give him a B+. And I I probably could have gone, you know, been a bit more generous and gone with an A minus, but I’m going to say B+ because there despite, you know, how impressive some of the growth was defensively, right, and what we saw out of him on that side of the floor, he did regress a chunk offensively, right? Um, and you know, there there was a significant gap between what he could have been offensively and what he probably should have been offensively for this team this past year and what he actually provided offensively. Um, and there’s nobody to blame but himself for that, right? Like the stuff around the rim, like missing bunnies around the rim, um, settling for shots at times, not being as aggressive as he probably needs to be, um, making his moves, getting downhill, getting all the way to the rim. That’s a him thing, right? It’s not like, oh, his teammates didn’t set him up or they didn’t get him the ball or he didn’t get enough touches. It was just No, like he just flat out needs to be better and he knows that. And I really feel like his focus this off seasonason and the focus from the coaching staff for him will be to get back to a place where he can be similar to the offensive production that he had in year three, coupled with the growth and the impact that he had defensively this past year. And man, I’ll tell you what, if he can do that this next season, the expectation is going to be for him to finish as an all-NBA player and the Rockets have a chance to have two players on the AllNBA squad uh this next season between Kevin Durant and Albering. And also, don’t sleep on Amen Thompson because my goodness, the year three leap that we’re about to get out of him is going to be sensational. We’re going to be talking about him in our next review episode. But I’m going to give Alp a B+ for this past season. Uh earning the All-Star nod. Uh helping lead the Rockets to the number two seed in the Western Conference. Uh so many things to be happy for and proud about this past season for Alp. I want your thoughts. What’s your season grade for Alpin Shingun? What is your one game, one play, one number that stood out? If you don’t feel like doing all three, you can just give me whichever one jumps out to you. You don’t have to pick all three. Um give me your thoughts in the YouTube comments. Remember, the best way to help grow our show is to listen every single day on a podcast platform of your choosing and then like, comment, subscribe on YouTube. But as always, thank you so much for watching. Thank you so much for listening. We look forward to having you back right here at Locked on Rockets, your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball.

Alperen Sengun Rockets Season Review: Defensive GROWTH, Offensive ISSUES, All-NBA Next Year & More

Alperen Sengun’s breakout season: All-Star nod, defensive leap, and Kevin Durant’s game-changing arrival. Is an All-NBA selection on the horizon for the Houston Rockets’ rising star?

Host Jackson Gatlin (@JTGatlin) dissects Sengun’s impressive growth, from anchoring a top-five NBA defense to commanding double teams at an elite level. The analysis covers Sengun’s offensive regression, the impact of Durant joining the roster, and a deep dive into key plays that defined his season. Gatlin explores how Sengun’s role might evolve alongside Durant and sets bold expectations for the young center’s future.

Tune in for expert insights on Sengun’s path to becoming the Rockets’ first homegrown All-Star since Yao Ming and his potential to reach even greater heights next season.

#Rockets #NBA #AlperenSengun

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