Rockets' Alperen Sengun Working on Ball Handling and Scoring in Traffic

Alperen Sengun, from the start of last season, knew he would receive a lot more attention from the opposing team's defense. Going into the 2024-25 season, Sengun had begun to make a name for himself following his breakout 2023-24 season, where he averaged over 21 points and nine rebounds. Before Sengun's season-ending injury in March, Sengun had started to see teams send double, sometimes triple, teams his way in the post.

The level of attention Sengun saw on the offensive end increased throughout this past season. Especially after making his first All-Star game, teams realized that Sengun was the Rockets' main offensive weapon and did everything they could to take him out of the game.

That meant more pressure on Sengun as a ball handler and trying to go to the basket. Last season, Sengun's efficiency dropped, including his overall field goal percentage and field goal percentage inside the paint. Sengun's overall field goal percentage dropped from 53.7% the year before to 49.6% this last season.

Actually, the 53.7% from 2023-24 was a drop from the previous season. Part of that is because Sengun's field goal attempts did go up, but it also had to do with the extra attention he has received since becoming a starter.

After his struggles at times against Draymond Green, Sengun spoke about wanting to work on his offensive game this offseason.

Alperen Sengun has been putting in work this offseason. Sengun talked about working on his offense more before the start of the 2025-26 season.

“You know I got to work a lot more on my offense” pic.twitter.com/xolsMLqMgA
— Lachard Binkley (@BinkleyHoops) July 23, 2025

Sengun, throughout the offseason, has been working on his 3-point and free throw shooting with Fred VanVleet in Türkiye, and recently we saw Sengun working on ball handling and scoring in traffic with some of the Houston Rockets and Türkiye national coaches.

Alperen Sengun working on ball handling and scoring in traffic. That first move was 🔥

🎥 IG ertanbedir1 pic.twitter.com/1C8NwvbE6J
— Lachard Binkley (@BinkleyHoops) July 27, 2025

Sengun needs to perform these specific drills because, even with Kevin Durant joining the Rockets this coming season, teams will still send additional help to try to keep Sengun out of the paint. Even though the Warriors did not send as much help as most teams do, that is not usually the case because most teams don't have a player like Draymond Green who can guard Sengun one-on-one for long stretches of a game.

If the Rockets want to take the next step and become a championship contender in 2025-26, Sengun has to become a more efficient player, especially in the playoffs. It starts with being able to handle double teams and a crowded paint as teams become more and more aggressive guarding the up-and-coming superstar.