Rockets' Alperen Sengun gets well-deserved All-Star nod

Houston Rockets fans have gotten used to watching the All-Star game.

They've usually got a representative. Hakeem Olajuwon. Yao Ming. Tracy McGrady. James Harden.

Alperen Sengun.

It's official. Sengun is going to the midseason dance. He'll be putting his deft footwork and flashy passing on full display for fans around the league.

If you're reading this, you likely feel that he deserves it. Your love for the Rockets brought you here. That's not necessarily the consensus around the league.

Some feel that Sengun took someone else's spot.

Rockets' Sengun is a controversial All-Star selection

There's no denying it. In terms of individual stats, Domantas Sabonis has been better than Sengun this year.

The Kings' big man is averaging 20.9 points, 14.5 rebounds and 6.6 assists. Sengun is dropping 19.1, 10.4, and 5.0. Sabonis has a True Shooting % (TS%) of 68.0%, and Sengun is at 54.0%. Sabonis is even ahead of Sengun in Box Plus/Minus (BPM) at 6.3 vs 5.4 .
That is a comprehensive advantage. Sabonis is beating Sengun in practically every statistical measure.

How can anyone justify putting Sengun in the All-Star game over him?

Rockets' Sengun has impact beyond the stats

How about wins? Do wins count as a stat?

If so, Sengun has a comfortable advantage. He's been the most productive player on the 32-15 Rockets. They're the second seed in the Western Conference, while the Kings (24-23) sit 10th. They'd be lucky to participate in the play-in tournament.

Part of what's driving Houston's success is Sengun's defensive improvement. For the first three years of his career, Sabonis was the player he was most aptly compared to. That partly owed to his defensive struggles:

Now, Sengun is better in that area than Sabonis has ever been. With his ability to defend at the level, he may be more reasonably compared to a supercharged Al Horford.

OK, fine - Al Horford is you shaved some of his defensive ability off and added it to his offensive package. Sengun won't be an All-Defensive candidate anytime soon, but he hasn't been a liability throughout most of 2024-25.

That deserves a reward.

Rockets' Sengun deserves his flowers

Sorry, Kings fans. It's this simple:

The second seed in the Western Conference gets an All-Star.

Keeping every Rocket out of the league's biggest exhibition game would have set a strange precedent. Sure, the Rockets are winning with depth, toughness, etc. I even argued that they didn't need a representative at the All-Star game. It still holds that a team this good is always going to get the nod, and nobody deserved it more than Sengun.

Rockets fans will look forward to watching him - however you feel.