Rockets may have 3 future Hall of Famers on current roster

Former Houston Rockets star Dwight Howard was recently inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The Rockets have three players on their current roster who may join him when all is said and done.

Let's get the obvious out of the way - Kevin Durant. He's a first ballot Hall of Famer. Basketball Reference has his Hall of Fame probability at 100%, and rightfully so.

What does it think about Alperen Sengun?

Rockets big man should find his way to the Hall

Trick question.

Basketball Reference doesn't quantify Hall of Fame probability for players' Sengun's age. Some might argue that it's a silly question in its own right:

They sound like they're fun at parties.

We can all agree that Sengun's future is unclear. Nobody can make a strong empirically-driven case that he's a future Hall of Famer. That said, we can look at his trajectory.

It's looking good. I once published a piece ranking Sengun's third-year Box Plus/Minus (BPM) relative to the career-high marks of other Rockets' legendary big men. His 4.9 mark ranked higher than Ralph Sampson, Dwight Howard or Moses Malone had ever managed.

Howard just got inducted into the Hall. Nobody's saying Sengun is the better player - BPM doesn't capture Howard's elite defense as well as it captures Sengun's offensive brilliance - but this is noteworthy. By advanced metrics, Sengun is easily on pace for a future Hall induction.

Is he the only young Rocket?

Rockets' Amen Thompson has Hall of Fame potential

If BPM is your measure, Thompson is right there as well. His 4.1 BPM as a sophomore easily puts him on the same trajectory. Recall that BPM doesn't capture defense as well as offense. If anything, that impressive 4.1 mark doesn't properly reflect Thompson's impact.

There's been much debate over whether Thompson is a guard or a wing. For this thought experiment, it may not matter. If Thompson can solidify himself as the best defensive wing in the NBA for a decade while providing secondary ball-handling, he may punch his ticket to the Hall.

Does it matter?

Young Rockets are focused on the present

No. It's just a bit of fun.

Sengun and Thompson are both hungry young players who want to be great. That's excellent news for the Rockets. It doesn't assure them a spot in the Hall of Fame.

Yet, nobody should be ruling out the future induction of either. The Naismith Memorial is a notoriously lax Hall relative to other sports. Both of these young men are on pace to have the types of careers that get enshrined among the greats:

Sengun and Thompson will hope to join Durant again one day.