<\/p>\n
Alperen \u015eeng\u00fcn enters the 2026-27 season with the expectation of more help from a healthy Fred VanVleet.<\/p>\n
Brett Coomer\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
Third in a series of Rockets player previews ahead of the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n
Perhaps no Houston Rocket \u2014 save for the injured players themselves \u2014 felt the absence of Fred VanVleet<\/a> and Steven Adams<\/a> more than Alperen \u015eeng\u00fcn did last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u015eeng\u00fcn earned his second straight All-Star appearance, but it came amid an at-times trying campaign. VanVleet\u2019s injury robbed him of a reliable point guard and the resulting easier opportunities. Without Adams, whose season ended in mid-January, Houston couldn\u2019t employ the overwhelming double-big lineup.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u015eeng\u00fcn set career-highs in the percentage of time he held the ball and in the rate of his baskets that didn\u2019t come off assists, per DataBallr and Cleaning the Glass, respectively. He finished the season with sparkling top-line stats, averaging 20.4 points, 8.9 rebounds and 6.2 assists. He was in the 99th percentile among big men in the percentage of teammate shots that he assisted on, per Cleaning the Glass.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n But it came on below-average efficiency. \u015eeng\u00fcn\u2019s points per shot attempt was in just the 33rd percentile among big men and his turnover percentage in the 37th percentile, per Cleaning the Glass.\u00a0<\/p>\n With \u015eeng\u00fcn on the floor, Houston outscored its foes by 4.5 points per 100 possessions when removing garbage time minutes and adjusting for 3-point variance. But with those same adjustments, the Rockets won the non-\u015eeng\u00fcn minutes by 9.4 points per 100 possessions, per DataBallr.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Alperen \u015eeng\u00fcn set career-highs in the percentage of time he held the ball and in the rate of his baskets that didn\u2019t come off assists last season.<\/p>\n Jason Fochtman\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n Some of that gap is explained by going against better players but the Rockets defense was notably worse with \u015eeng\u00fcn on the court: In his minutes, Houston\u2019s opponents shot better, especially at the rim, and rebounded more of their own misses.<\/p>\n The predictive advanced numbers still rated \u015eeng\u00fcn very highly. He ranked 37th among all players and second only behind Kevin Durant among Rockets in DARKO, a predictive comprehensive stat that factors in on-off, box score and tracking data. A similar stat, EPM (Estimated Plus-Minus), put him fifth on the team and in the 79th percentile among all players.<\/p>\n Entering the 2026-27 season, \u015eeng\u00fcn is locked into the starting center spot and will once again be a featured offensive piece for Houston \u2014 but one who should have to do less work by himself since the Rockets aren\u2019t as starved for playmaking.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nerd stat<\/p>\n The percentage of \u015eeng\u00fcn\u2019s shots that come at the rim has dropped every year he\u2019s been in the NBA, even as he made a career-high 68% of those shots last season, per Cleaning the Glass.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<\/p>\n What to watch in the first 20 games<\/p>\n Does shouldering less self-creation responsibilities allow \u015eeng\u00fcn to redistribute effort to other parts of his game?<\/p>\n With VanVleet, Marcus Smart and upgraded versions of Amen Thompson and Reed Sheppard, Houston should have to rely less on \u015eeng\u00fcn isolations or post-ups to generate offense. Can the big man use that freed-up energy to improve his efficiency by settling for less mid-range attempts or by being a more consistent presence as a defender and rebounder?<\/p>\n A successful season for \u015eeng\u00fcn is …<\/p>\n A season where he improves his efficiency, defense and rebounding en route to another All-Star campaign or his first All-NBA selection.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Previous<\/p>\n Kevin Durant<\/a><\/p>\n
Amen Thompson<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alperen \u015eeng\u00fcn enters the 2026-27 season with the expectation of more help from a healthy Fred VanVleet. Brett…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":911066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-911065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=911065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/911066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=911065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=911065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=911065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}