The Evolution of Alperen Sengun
From a passive observer to an offensive superhub
After having a shaky rookie season (and even sophomore season), Sengun is becoming a centerpiece of the Houston Rockets in terms of both playmaking and scoring. At the time of writing this piece, Sengun is averaging 21.0 points per game, just 1.4 more than his draft classmate and teammate Jalen Green. In addition to that, he’s dishing out 5.6 assists per game, both of those numbers are his career best.
The interesting thing about Sengun is that his shot profile is quite different from his sophomore season, which is vastly different from his rookie shot profile, as the Rockets kept searching for their identity, and through that, Sengun’s role.
Rough Beginnings
In his rookie season, Sengun was a bench player and had a very passive role in terms of how he played on offense. He mostly played through pick-and-roll/pop with an emphasis on popping. All of his C&S attempts in the rookie season came from the 3-point range. As that Rockets team was a mess, there was loads of freestyling so Sengun had the opportunity to play in the post a bit as well.
Polishing as a Sophomore
Sengun’s role changed significantly in the second season, and the Rockets were still a mess and everyone played to their tune, including Sengun. However, he got more comfortable and started to operate a lot more from post-ups and under the rim instead of camping on the 3-point line. He also patented his first signature shot in sophomore season, a turnaround hook shot when spinning to the left. He shot 72/129 (56%) on such. Those 129 turnaround hook shots also represent a 1/6 of all of his shots.
The efficiency and volume both increased significantly inside the paint, and Alperen already started receiving some really serious comparisons.
The Final Form?
In addition to this last chart, here is how Sengun’s offensive game changed through the seasons depending on play type. I kind of already interpreted this chart in the previous two sections when talking about the previous two seasons, so let’s focus on the last and the most interesting season of Sengun’s career so far.
Alperen’s play style took a complete 180 from his second season. The addition of a true point guard in Fred VanVleet caused Sengun to flourish as an offensive beast. He is operating a lot more as a screener/DHO hub.
Because of his involvement as a DHO hub, he gets a bunch of assists in that way (similar to the way that the Kings play around Domantas Sabonis, or the 76ers around Joel Embiid this season), you can see that third of all of his assists come from Above-the-break 3-point shots.
Signature Shot(s)
Turnaround hook shot
I have already talked about his turnaround hook shot, which was often compared to a 2-time NBA MVP and reigning NBA Finals MVP Nikola Jokić.
He still turns to his hook shot most often when posting up, however, he goes into the shot from pick and roll as well. And even though that was a shot that he got really comfortable with in his sophomore season, the number of hook shots dropped significantly this season. He has taken 40 hook shots so far which is less than 15%.
One-legged fadeaway shot
The second one is a ridiculous fadeaway shot in the style of Dirk Nowitzki, which happens both from a stand-still or post-up move. He often goes into this fade, even if he has enough room in front of him
Floater
The last one is a running floater when rolling to the hoop, also in the manner of Nikola Jokić. It actually looks more like a push shot than that classic floater that most guards shoot.
A look into the future
Even though we have seen big changes in his play style, Sengun is shooting career-high FG% across all 2-pt zones (restricted area, paint, mid-range) but his FT% decreased compared to previous seasons which is odd since he is taking a lot of shots (in-game) around the elbow, and with solid efficiency.
Sengun is often called baby Jokić, both because of their shot profile/scoring similarities and even more of the passing and vision that Sengun possesses. But there’s still a long road towards the heights that Jokić reached. He has to polish his moves more, get more comfortable around the elbow (Jokić is a master at that range, and shoots very efficiently from both the FT line and elbow), as well as facilitate even more than he is now. With the way the Rockets are built currently, it very well seems like Sengun is heading down that road.