1 New Year’s resolution for every team in 2024: Southwest Division
By Tyler Key
Rockets Resolution: Empower Alperen Sengun to embrace being the best player on the team.
Houston needs… to consistently remind Sengun (and his teammates) that he is the #1 option and go-to guy in this Rockets lineup. He has looked like an emerging star beginning last season and at this point Sengun becoming as good as Domantas Sabonis seems inevitable. The former 16th overall pick is currently averaging 21.1 PPG, 9.2 RPG, and 5.1 APG this season for Houston.
Unfortunately, the Rockets have other players on the roster that are much more experienced in the league and have monster salaries compared to Sengun, such as Dillon Brooks and Fred VanVleet. They also have other players in the starting lineup that have higher draft pedigrees than Sengun, such as Jalen Green and Jabari Smith Jr. This can make the dynamics interesting to say the least.
Sengun does have a usage rate of 27.3% which on a surface level looks and sounds great. What is not as promising for the Rockets’ playoff outlooks is that Sengun’s usage rate is barely higher than Green’s 26.6% usage rate. If Houston wants to start trending back in the right direction, the team likely needs Sengun’s usage to get closer to 30% and Green’s usage to dip down closer to 24-25%, if not lower.