HOUSTON (SportsRadio 610)- Expectations were high this season for Alperen Sengun after flirting with an All-Star bid and finishing second in Most Improved Player voting in 2024, but the results have fallen short through six games.
The start of Sengun's fourth NBA season have been a struggle by his standards. Fresh off signing a five-year, $184 million contract, the Rockets center is averaging 15 points, down from 21 a season ago, but more alarming is a field goal percentage that has dipped more than 15 points.
"I feel good, body wise," Sengun said Monday. "I've missed a lot of shots, I said that after the first game too, the easy shots I used to make. I'm not worried about it, I'm gonna make those, I know it, so it's just gonna come, and I'll find my rhythm."
After shooting 53.7 percent from the field last season, 66.4 percent from inside the restricted area, Sengun is converting on just 38.6 percent of his shots this season, and his conversion rate on shots from the restricted area has dipped to 41.3 percent, which ranks 88th of 89 players with at least 20 attempts from that area of the floor.
"Those shots are easy shots for me," Sengun said. "Those are the shots I used to make (my first three NBA seasons), so I think it's just gonna come back and I'm gonna make those."
Sengun scored 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting during Saturday's loss to the Warriors, but he only played 21 minutes.
He finished with seven points and four rebounds while playing his usual eight first quarter minutes, but the Rockets were outscored by 17 when he was on the floor.
Golden State's lead grew to 20 when Sengun returned with 9:20 left in the second quarter, but he lasted just 17 seconds after his turnover led to a Warriors fastbreak bucket, forcing a timeout. He did not play again the rest of the half.
"Not handling the pace of the game, the physicality, the blitzes that they were doing when we got (the ball) to him," Rockets head coach Ime Udoka said when asked why Sengun played just nine minutes in the first half.
After playing the entire third quarter, Sengun did not see the floor in the fourth quarter or overtime, and he has scored just three points in the game's final period all season. Sengun said he had no issue with benched.
"We all want to win," he said. "We all want to go over there, play, fight with your teammates, compete with them, but at the end of the day we're trying to win, and that was the coach's decision. I understand this can happen, so we have an important game tonight. I'm going to go fight again and try to win."
So how can the Rockets center turn things around?
"Whether it's getting himself into shape to play, early season might be part of it," Udoka said Saturday. "But sometimes he's had point blank misses that he didn't have as much last year, so continue to work with him and get him the right looks, and obviously, he'll snap out of that, because the quality looks are too good. You're not going to continue to miss those."
