Mature beyond his years, Houston’s Alperen Sengun is already must-watch TV

In an ever-changing era where unicorns are being heralded, the role of your traditional big man has continued to evolve. Houston center Alperen Sengun has thrived this season, Year 3 of the Turkish international’s NBA experience and his maturity translates on the court – particularly in games like yesterday’s dominant display against Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs. 

Perfect game: Udoka hails Sengun’s superb showing

• “If he got switched on [Wembanyama], he did a great job guarding him in the post. I think he was perfect helping off Sochan and [Blake] Wesley, played the perfect game,” Udoka on his growing star big man vs. Spurs
• Sengun posted a new career-high 45 points, alongside 16 rebounds and five steals – both personal season-highs – to help Houston evade capture against a sneakily improving San Antonio team, headlined by rookie phenom Victor Wembanyama, who he wanted to impress against
• Improving all the time: 21-year-old is currently averaging 21.3 points, 9.3 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 1.2 steals per game in 60 regular season contests

FOR all the fanfare, and rightly so, surrounding the limitless potential at Victor Wembanyama’s fingertips, it felt pointed that Alperen Sengun produced another highlight reel performance during a season packed with them against one of his contemporaries. Someone he’ll be judged against, over the coming years.

You could tell the culmination of all his best bits in this game felt a long time coming for Alpi, evidenced by comments from the man himself. Per the Houston Chronicle’s Jonathan Feigen, he said postgame:

“I didn’t play that good last game against him and didn’t see that much double-teams. They just leave me one-on-one with Wemby, I just did what I do.

When you score, score and score at some point, you get some emotion… it was great for me, he’s really tall but not that strong yet, so I was going at his chest and put him under the rim.”

It’s easy to forget he’s two months younger than Chet Holmgren in Oklahoma, who missed his entire rookie year after a freak pro-am injury that summer and has quickly proved a surefire contender to Wembanyama for ROY honours this term.

More analysis to follow shortly…