The Houston Rockets look like a team that can achieve a lot with the talent they have. While Kevin Durant leads the team, Alperen Sengun is easily one of the most popular names when it comes to rising young talents in the NBA. The Turkish center has the skill set to lead the new European wave in the NBA. However, one aspect where the youngster needs massive improvement is his defense. Sengun has been criticized for slacking off on defense time and again, and yet little has changed for the 23-year-old.

In the latest episode of the RoadTrippinShow podcast, former NBA Champion and analyst, Kendrick Perkins, raised serious concerns over his defensive contributions, saying:

“He makes my f—— skin crawl. He’s nowhere close to what I expected talent wise. Offensively, he has that, but it’s a mindset bro! Dylan Harper said they went at him 15 straight plays. You know how f*cking disrespectful that is? They know that you’re not going to put your feet in the ground and be willing to slide your f*cking puppies for TWO STEPS and take pride in defending.”

In the past, Perkins has given his flowers to Sengun multiple times, but the Rockets’ youngster has disappointed him with his defensive frailties. Recently, after the Rockets’ defeat against the San Antonio Spurs, Dylan Harper highlighted that they ran the same play 15 times, capitalizing on the slow-footed Sengun in the pick and roll and handoffs throughout the second half.

For a young European center who has aspirations of having a similar impact as Nikola Jokic, Sengun desperately needs to work on his defense. He is the primary defensive liability for Ime Udoka’s men, and when the opposition points out in such a manner, then it’s a major problem.

” No Steven Adams, at some point you’re gonna have to say ‘I have to anchor this defense.’ You can’t give me 110% offensively, and give me 40% on defense,” Perkins added. Against the Spurs, Sengun allowed 1.76 points per possession, the worst mark ever recorded by a Rockets player in a single game.

On paper, though, he’s averaging 1.2 steals and 1.1 blocks per game, and his defensive rating of 111 is an indication that he may be a reliable defender. However, his recent performance suggests otherwise. Over the last 10 games, Sengun has a defensive rating of 118.3, while opponents are scoring 16.3 points off of turnovers, 32.8 points in the paint, and 11 points on second-chance opportunities.

Despite these issues, Houston has found a way to cruise through. Houston is 8th in the NBA for defensive rating (112.2). Plus, Sengun’s offensive production is able to offset some of the defensive concerns. Currently, he’s averaging 20.2 points, 8.9 rebounds, and 6.1 assists per game.

However, even his offensive contribution has come under the radar recently. So far this season, he is shooting 27.9% from three-point range, which is the second-lowest shooting percentage for him over the last four seasons and the second-lowest shooting percentage for him as a starter with the Rockets.

So, as the regular season heads toward its final stretch, the Rockets will likely be looking for a bit more from Sengun. However, amid his slump, he has developed an injury concern.

Could Sengun’s drop in performance be injury-related?

The Rockets posted a 3.2 points worse defensive net rating when Alperen Sengun was on the floor between the start of the 2025-26 season and early January, compared to when he was off the floor. However, since returning from an ankle sprain on January 11, his return appears to have resulted in a much larger drop in defensive performance (16.1 points worse than his previous 30 games).

The Rockets have been even better defensively (99.5 defensive rating) in their last 30 games without Sengun on the court, which is currently the best defensive rating in the NBA if extrapolated over an entire season.

As expected, with such a large drop in performance, many theories have been proposed for why the drop happened. Some have suggested that Sengun’s ankle sprain never fully healed; others have suggested that teams have begun attacking Houston differently since he returned. Another possibility is that Sengun has experienced fatigue from playing a large number of minutes for Turkey at FIBA EuroBasket 2025 in the offseason.

Also, it is possible that a new injury is responsible. Ahead of Friday’s home game against the New Orleans Pelicans, Sengun popped up on the injury report, listed as questionable with lower back pain.

Either way, Sengun and the Rockets need to turn themselves around quickly. Currently, the Rockets are fourth in the Western Conference (40-25), with home-court advantage at least through the first round of the playoffs.

However, Houston’s lead is far from secure. Recently, the Phoenix Suns have been playing well (39-27) and are only 1.5 games behind Texas, which is now in seventh place overall and would only have to play one game in the Western Conference’s play-in series to qualify for the playoffs.

With the tightly packed Western Conference, Houston’s best chance at sustained success over the next month is to have its All-Star center perform at peak performance.