Don’t look now, but Alperen Şengün has figured out defense. Houston’s success on that end of the floor tends to get credited to their perimeter stoppers, but Şengün has developed into quite the nifty interior anchor. He’s still undersized, ground-bound, and inherently limited in certain matchups. The instincts are starting to translate into valuable disruption, though. Şengün’s quick hands lead to steals and makes it difficult to get clean shots up.
- Chris Kline
FanSided Staff Writer
That complements what has always been an impressively dynamic and skillful offensive repertoire. Şengün’s touch, creativity, and court vision at the five spot is difficult to contain. He’s strong enough to bully smaller defenders and nimble enough to dance around more slow-footed bigs. The 3s fall often enough for defenses to think about it, which opens up Şengün’s face-up game. He’s probably the niftiest passing center not named Nikola Jokic. The Turkish big man operates comfortably at his own tempo, using his eyes to manipulate the defense in his favor.
Şengün does so many little things to keep the offense flowing smoothly. He sets thundering screens, flings passes on a rope out of the short roll, and finishes with incredible finesse around the basket. His efficiency isn’t elite yet, but Şengün’s ability to locate angles with arrhythmic footwork and an old-school bag of tricks makes him extremely difficult to contain.