{"id":91806,"date":"2025-08-23T18:40:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T18:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/91806\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T18:40:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T18:40:10","slug":"rockets-fans-wont-go-basketball-cold-turkey-this-off-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/91806\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockets Fans Won’t Go Basketball Cold Turkey This Off-Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a tough time of year for the die-hard NBA fan. Discounting any personal investment in the basketball future of Russell Westbrook<\/a>, the off-season storylines are largely resolved. Either that or they are waiting for their resolution in the form of next season. Unfortunately, the 2025-26 season still lurks well beyond the horizon. Fortunately, there is something to help tide basketball fans over in the meantime.<\/p>\n

Rockets Fans Won\u2019t Go Basketball Cold Turkey This Off-Season<\/p>\n

It may be a harder time for the die-hard Houston Rockets fans than most. The Rockets put forth a thrilling campaign in 2024-25. They exceeded expectations all the way up to the final hurdle. That hurdle was another Game 7 against Stephen Curry<\/a>\u2018s Golden State Warriors, and the Rockets predictably face-planted. But a dramatic Game 7 loss involving the Golden State Warriors once again piqued the mercenary interests of sorcerer scorer Kevin Durant<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, with Durant on board, Houston is a team with expectations. There\u2019s a sense of anticipation. Fans of other teams are already labelling the new-look Rockets as overrated. Their preseason hype is undeserved. Durant is old. Head coach Ime Udoka<\/a> doesn\u2019t know how to run an offense. Young stars Alperen Sengun<\/a> and Amen Thompson<\/a> are a claustrophobic fit<\/a>. With no NBA basketball being played, Rockets fans eager to defend their team \u2013 and to vicariously prove the doubters wrong \u2013 are getting antsy.<\/p>\n

But there is good news. There is basketball being played, and being played by the Rockets\u2019 franchise player, no less. He just happens to be wearing the uniform for Turkey (or Turkiye) instead of Houston.<\/p>\n

Sengun\u2019s Turkey Squad<\/p>\n

FIBA\u2019s Eurobasket will feature some of the league\u2019s top talent when it starts on August 27th. It will also feature the Turkey national team, with its NBA talent consisting of Sengun and Philadelphia 76ers 2024-25 rookie Adem Bona<\/a>. Former NBA players Cedi Osman<\/a>, Omer Yurtseven<\/a>, Furkan Korkmaz<\/a>, and Shane Larkin<\/a> will also bolster the ranks. Sengun was an All-Star last season and averaged 19.1 points, 10.3 rebounds, and 4.9 assists per game. The expectation to lead this Turkish team will fall to him. Friendly warm-up bouts are already underway.<\/p>\n

Sengun enjoyed a successful outing versus Lithuania<\/a>. It was another opportunity for him to go against the indecisive new Denver Nuggets<\/a> reserve Jonas Valanciunas<\/a>. Those two have had their fair share of battles in the post over Sengun\u2019s first four seasons. But Sengun is an All-Star now, and Valanciunas is officially a backup. That gap showed in the friendly as Sengun finished with a game-high 25 points to go with 5 rebounds and 2 assists.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Turkey\u2019s next friendly<\/a> will be against Montenegro. They have their own post-up bruiser in Nikola Vucevic<\/a>. Vucevic was last an Eastern Conference All-Star back in 2021, but he\u2019s still no slouch on the offensive end. In 2024-25, he averaged remarkably similar numbers to Sengun: 18.5 points, 10.1 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game. But it\u2019s the defensive side of the ball where Sengun has made the greatest strides. Just like the Jumbo Rockets<\/a> next season, FIBA is all about the bigs on both sides of the ball.<\/p>\n

An absence of goaltending or defensive three-second rules makes international basketball a safe haven for slow-moving big men. They can camp the lane and prod at the hoop in peace. They\u2019re the stars of the show, and the Turkey national team is Sengun\u2019s very own cabaret.<\/p>\n

Turkey\u2019s Group<\/p>\n

The official games will start<\/a> for Turkey on Wednesday, the 27th. They will play Latvia in Riga to start the group phase. The other countries joining them in Group A<\/a> are Czechia, Estonia, Portugal, and, unfortunately for Turkey, Serbia. Serbia is the firm favorite<\/a> to win it all this year. They have the best player, Nikola Jokic<\/a>, and the best supporting cast, with multiple NBA-level contributors.<\/p>\n

The Last Word<\/p>\n

Fortunately for Turkey, four out of six teams progress per group. From there, it\u2019s on to the knockout stage. How far Sengun\u2019s team of Turks go will probably come down to how well they dodge the top teams. But who knows? An underdog EuroBasket championship would certainly be one heck of a way to warm Rockets fans up for 2025-26.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Troy Taormina-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a tough time of year for the die-hard NBA fan. Discounting any personal investment in the basketball…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[44390,35035,49,48,53963,53964,5721,6695,459,5725,18725,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-91806","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-alperen-sengun","9":"tag-amen-thompson","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-eurobasket","13":"tag-ime-udoka","14":"tag-jonas-valanciunas","15":"tag-kevin-durant","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-nikola-jokic","18":"tag-nikola-vucevic","19":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}