Alperen Sengun's debut proved he is ready to leap into this category

The Houston Rockets' season opener was a heartbreaker.

A 17-point lead is typically safe. It wasn't safe enough. The Rockets squandered that advantage in the second half and collapsed. They'd drop the contest by a final tally of 110-105.

It was difficult to watch. Yet, there's a silver lining. Alperen Sengun turned in a generally dominant performance.

It looks like he's ready to take the leap.

Sengun dominates for Rockets in first half

Sengun finished with 25 points, 18 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals. That's a gaudy stat line. Still, we should get the difficult part out of the way:

This was not a perfect game for the young Turkish big man.

Sengun had 19 points and 13 rebounds in the first half. It doesn't take a statistician to figure it out: as prolific as he was in the first half, he fell short in the second.

The Hornets' defensive coverage changed. In the first half, they mainly let Nick Richards try to contain him in single coverage. Unsurprisingly, that didn't work.

In the second half, Grant Williams was Sengun's primary defender, but there were deeper structural changes. The Hornets started sending multiple bodies at Sengun.

That's going to continue throughout the year. Sengun needs to improve his processing speed. When the double team comes, he needs to look more like Nikola Jokic, and less like Joel Embiid.

At least he looked a bit closer to Embiid on the other end of the floor...

Sengun turns in strong defensive game for Rockets

Enough negativity. The Rockets lost to the Hornets in their season opener. That stinks. Let's move on.

Sengun came away from this game with 4 steals, but that doesn't tell the whole story. He was contesting shots at the rim throughout much of this game.

Nobody will ever mistake Sengun for Chet Holmgren (or Embiid, for that matter). That's fine. He doesn't need to be among the best defensive big men in the NBA. The Rockets have a plethora of young wings who can cover any mistakes he makes.

He does need to be competent. Defense has been an issue for Sengun throughout his young NBA career. Last night, it was refreshingly unproblematic. Sengun used his advanced feel for the game to routinely be in the right position.

This trend must continue. It's also encouraging that Sengun connected on two of his three attempts from long distance. Concerns about building around a big man who can't protect the rim or space the floor have plagued Sengun. Last night, he looked like a player who can do both:

That's a player who's ready to make an All-Star team.