Rockets' Alperen Sengun Ranks as NBA's Third-Best Center

Alperen Sengun has put the world on notice this year. Granted, the Houston Rockets big man has been trending upwards for the last two years (and possibly even longer).

Heading into the 2025-26 season, the masses viewed him as a top-10 center, which wasn't much of a debate after last season's All-Star selection. He'd raked in a million All-Star votes the year before in 2023-24, even though he didn't make the final cut.

Over the summer, Sengun quite literally destroyed everything in his way during the EuroBasket tournament, as he sought to put his native Turkiye on his back, even racking up triple-doubles.

This season, the Rockets have leaned on him as the point-center, which was their only hope for any semblance of a good offense without Fred VanVleet (and Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks, to a lesser extent).

The results have been astounding. The Rockets rank as the league's top-ranked offense. 

Sengun is the team's leading facilitator. And has been the fulcrum in the halfcourt.

And according to The Ringer, Sengun ranks as the league's third-best center, behind only Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic and San Antonio Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama. 

"No point guard? No problem. One of the major early-season developments has been how comfortable the Rockets have been in empowering Sengun to bring the ball up the floor.

It’s been the right call. How many players are as densely built as Sengun but have the kind of lower-body flexibility that allows them to literally dribble circles around a defender? He’s consistently been one of the more prolific driving big men in the league, but he’s ramped up his playmaking load to a new level this year.

What has helped a considerable amount is his newfound confidence and accuracy from behind the arc. Opposing centers are often caught in no-man’s-land, faced with the decision to drop back in preparation for the drive or step up to defend an increasingly plausible pull-up jumper.

In year five, Sengun is reaching a sort of modern big man enlightenment: If you can beat them down low, beat them with the pass, and beat them from 3, there’s nowhere left for them to hide."

All told, Sengun ranked as the league's 14th-best player. And with averages of 22 points, 9.4 rebounds and 7.1 assists, Sengun could be in line for his first All-NBA selection.