Only in his third NBA season, Alperen Sengun is averaging career highs across the board and is now Houston’s best offensive option. Not only is he earning an All-Star consideration, even finishing ahead of players like Domantas Sabonis over fan votes, he’s already proving he could some day dominate the league.
According to the 21-year-old, one of the biggest reasons he’s improved so much is due to his sacrifice. “I worked really hard this summer, more than any summer,” said the young Turk. “Like [working on getting] more physical, my shooting, everything. It was a really hard summer for me.”
Another big reason is the Rockets‘ new coaching staff. Shortly after the 2022/23 campaign came to an end, the Texan franchise decided to part ways with Stephen Silas, who had only posted a 59-177 record after three years at the team’s helm. Now that Ime Udoka is in charge, the European player feels more comfortable than ever.
Alperen Sengun was a FORCE in the Rockets’ thrilling overtime win over the Jazz 🚀
37 PTS
14 REB
6 AST pic.twitter.com/2Wq8LUUwi7— NBA (@NBA) January 21, 2024
“He’s helped me a lot because he’s a tough coach, and I came from Europe where every coach is like that,” Sengun shared. “Where I grew up, it was always tough for me. Ime’s tough, but he likes teaching you. Like if you’re playing bad he’s like trying to wake you up, you know, and that’s how I learned in Europe. You come here and you don’t see that in the NBA that much. There’s not many coaches like Ime, but Ime is like how I want to be coached.”
The former Celtics coach has praised Alperen many times in the past, but has also been quick to call him out on his deficiencies. A great example of this was during the squad’s overtime loss against the Bulls, where the 21-year-old was Houston’s strongest asset, but his shooting wasn’t efficient that night.
“He played one half of basketball basically, decided to show up at halftime, exerted himself the way he normally does,” Udoka said postgame. “Saw the player that he is [in the second half] more so than what he is not in the first half with zero points, and so for whatever reason it took him a little time to get going. Took time searching for fouls instead of going to score, and I think we got much more certainty [from him].”
Teammate Fred VanVleet has witnessed Sengun’s growth and believes that it is impossible to guard him ‘one on one’
When Houston brought in coach Udoka last year, one of his main goals was to get the young Turkish star to break some of his “lazy habits” and live up to his potential. The same mission was expected for teammate Fred VanVleet, who signed for the Rockets during the summer.
“I knew the skill was there, knew the talent was there, I was just kind of studying his habits and seeing his approach, and seeing how I could help him in certain areas,” the former Raptors star said about Alperen. “All of the guys, but especially him, kind of didn’t have like a process of how they want to get to the thing they want to get to.”
Even though many call him “Baby Jokic”, he’s definitely not at the same level of the Nuggets superstar. However, Fred believes that the third-year player is slowly becoming “unguardable,” as he’s proving to dominate in one on one situations.
“He’s unguardable really, I mean, you can’t guard him one on one,” VanVleet expressed. “That’s the first step, so now he’s going through the second step which is making the defense pay for sending help. And the better we are as a team, the better he’ll play.”
