The third-year Houston Rockets center Alperen Sengun has been a pleasant surprise for the Rockets. They are outscoring opponents by 10.7 points per 100 possessions when Alperen Sengun is on the court. When he is sidelined, the Rockets are outscored by 5.1 points per 100 possessions. While his offense makes him an All-Star-caliber player, the same cannot be said about his defense.

However, head coach Ime Udoka, who came to Houston in late April, believes that these “deficiencies” are easy to overcome if you have a high basketball IQ. He justifies his theory by using the Denver Nuggets’ center Nikola Jokic as an example.

Coach Ime Udoka on Alperen Sengun’s defense

In an interview with The Athletic, Udoka disclosed his advice to the young center, “If you?re one of the smartest, cerebral, high-IQ offensive players, you can learn to play defense with your deficiencies. OK, you?re not an elite rim protector, (but) we?ll put you in a position to be better and use angles, use your hands, and start to bait guys. You?ve seen (Nikola) Joki? and other guys who end up being decent defenders because they have high IQs.”

Sengun averaged a defensive rating of 118.5 and a negative net rating of 9 from his rookie year till now. However, this season, Alpi has a defensive rating of 108.7 and a positive net rating of 5.6. Moreover, his assist percentage has also soared by a staggering 12% along with nearly doubling his assist-to-turnover ratio since last season. These impressive stats make him less of a defensive liability this season.

Alperen Sengun under the tutelage of head coach Ime Udoka

Alperen Sengun is nicknamed “Baby Joki?” for a reason. His incredible passing and basketball IQ are reminiscent of “The Joker”. He is already delivering All-Star calibre performances, averaging 20.9 points, 8.8 rebounds and 5.7 assists with an efficient 58.8% from the field and 34.6% from beyond the arc. Sengun’s performance has noticeably improved under the tutelage of Ime Udoka. Despite their third consecutive loss during the recent 121-116 defeat at the hands of the Golden State Warriors, Sengun had an exceptional outing. The Turkish phenom mustered up a season-high 30 points on 13-of-23 shooting from the field, 13 rebounds, five assists and one block.

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This is only because Udoka has taken the initiative to set Sengun up for success by putting him in the best position on the court. The third-year center is also more aggressive with his shots ever since Udoka joined.

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