Rockets are granting Alperen Sengun his longtime wish and it's working great

The Houston Rockets have been running their offense through Alperen Sengun in 2025-26. Fans may think his usage has spiked, but actually, it's waned a bit over the last few years.

That's right. It's surprising. Sengun's 22.3 points and 6.9 assists per game are both comfortably career highs. One may assume that means Sengun is being used more often.

One would be wrong.

Rockets' Alperen Sengun has seen usage dip

It's been a trend for three seasons. This season, Sengun has a 25.8% Usage Rate. That's almost identical to last year's 25.9%, and a meaningful drop from 2023-24's 27.0%.

It feels like a statistical improbability. His raw counting stats are increasing, and his usage is going down. Yet, that's what's happening:

And it's a very positive sign for Sengun's development.

We can partly attribute his increased productivity to Kevin Durant's presence. There's less defensive attention being paid to Sengun, which is helping him optimize the usage he does have.

Otherwise, the primary explanation is that Sengun is simply getting better. It raises a question:

Should his usage start to tick back up?

Rockets could use Sengun a bit more

A bit!

The Rockets don't need to run a heliocentric offense around Sengun. They shouldn't deviate much from their current gameplan. The team's 122.0 Offensive Rating is second in the NBA behind only the Nuggets' 123.9.

Ironically, the Nuggets are the only team running anything approaching a heliocentric attack around a big man. If you're advocating for increased Sengun usage, you'll first point to Nikola Jokic.

Fair, but Sengun isn't (quite) Jokic, and the Rockets are not the Nuggets. With Durant, Reed Sheppard and Amen Thompson on the roster, they have more dynamic offensive threats around their playmaking big man. Houston should continue to lean into that advantage.

For what it's worth, Rockets fans have had the "helio experience". James Harden seemingly led the NBA in usage every year when he was spearheading the team. It was fun, but it's time for something new.

The Rockets should maximize every player on their roster, but they could look to bump Sengun's usage back up to his 2024-25 rate. As it stands, his Usage Rate ranks outside of the league's top 50, although it should be noted that there's a lot of noise in that stat. Drew Timme is leading the league, and on a related note, Drew Timme isn't really leading the league.

I digress. The point is that while the Rockets could slightly uptick Sengun's usage, they should stick with what's working. His decreased offensive workload partly allows him to be a two-way player, and the Rockets' offense is elite:

And Sengun is arguably the first player to thank for that: no matter his usage.