For the second year in a row, the must-watch NBA Finals are taking place between two teams that field 3-point shooting centers. Even before last year, the previous two NBA champions had 3-point shooting bigs as well. To be a serious contender, having a modern, adaptable stretch five is clearly ideal. At least being able to defend such a player is a strict necessity. Are the Houston Rockets barking up the wrong tree with 23-year-old All-Star center Alperen Sengun?
Can The Rockets Compete Without a Modern NBA Stretch Five?
The New York Knicks are up 2-0 in the NBA Finals versus the San Antonio Spurs. Besides an NBA Finals in New York, much of the pre-series hype was around the Spurs’ 7-foot-4 Frenchman, Victor Wembanyama. As it’s turned out, the Finals MVP so far would be Knicks starting center, Karl-Anthony Towns. His impact isn’t too surprising, as the former 3-point contest champion is just about the worst matchup imaginable for Wemby.
In the regular season, Towns averaged 20.1 points, 11.9 rebounds and 3.0 assists. Those are good numbers for a big, and with a 53-29 record, they were enough to get Towns an Eastern Conference All-Star nod. But what sets Towns apart is his 36.8% from three on 4.1 attempts per game. And those numbers are even down from his career averages of 39.7% from three on 4.3 attempts per game. Over the first two finals games, Towns is averaging 19.5 points, 12.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists, and 42.9% on 3.5 3-point attempts.
Meanwhile, Wembanyama this season averaged 25.0 points, 11.5 points, 3.1 assists, 3.1 blocks and 1.0 steals. That’s what got him to third in MVP voting and first-team All-NBA. His outlier rim-protection is what makes him such a game-changer. That’s what Towns is able to partially neutralize with his shooting threat. But part of why Wembanyama is talked about as a future GOAT is that he himself shot 34.9% on 5.5 threes per game.
What’s key about Towns and Wembanyama is that they aren’t like the NBA stretch five options of old. They aren’t stiffs who park themselves at the 3-point line on offense and in the paint on defense. They are dynamic, well-rounded, All-Star-level big men who make all of the traditional big-man contributions. But what elevates their teams to contenders is that they do that while also opening up the floor for their teammates with their threat to score from deep.
The NBA Stretch Five In Recent Finals
It seems no coincidence that the last three champions all fielded modern NBA stretch five options. The Denver Nuggets in 2023 had Nikola Jokic, the Boston Celtics in 2024 had Al Horford (and sometimes Kristaps Porzingis), and the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2025 had Chet Holmgren (they often started Isaiah Hartenstein, but he averaged just 19 minutes in the finals).
Jokic is a career 36.2% 3-point shooter on 3.2 attempts per game, Horford 37.6% on 2.4 (4.0 since 2016), Porzingis 36.4% on 5.2, Holmgren 36.2% on 3.5. Last year’s finalists, the Indiana Pacers, also had Myles Turner, a career 36.5% shooter on 3.5 attempts per game. It took seven games for the Thunder to knock them out, even with Turner playing poorly. By contrast, the year before, when Boston played the Dallas Mavericks in the finals, Dallas’ rim-running centers were schemed into irrelevancy, and the Mavs lost in five. Having a big man who can shoot makes a big-time difference.
The Rockets’ Shooting Woes
Then there’s a player like Sengun. Sengun is talented on offense, having averaged 20.4 points, 8.9 rebounds and 6.2 assists in the regular season. Perimeter shooting is not one of his talents, though. For his career, Sengun is just a 28.1% 3-point shooter on 1.4 attempts per game. There haven’t been many signs of improvement either. In his most recent campaign, he shot 30.5% on 1.8 attempts. It doesn’t look realistic at this point that he will ever fit the mould of the modern stretch five.
Sengun often gets the blame for Houston’s lackluster shooting overall. The team shot the third-fewest threes per game this season. They shot the worst out of any team in the playoffs during a six-game first-round loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. But Sengun isn’t solely to blame. Cornerstone wing Amen Thompson is a career 21.9% shooter on 1.3 threes per game. Of course, as far as non-shooting wings go, the Rockets could try to take notes from how the Knicks use Josh Hart in the finals.
But the Rockets have also surrounded their core duo with various other non-threats from three. The Rockets could work to improve upon that this offseason, including a potential Rockets-Nuggets trade to fix their woes. Even so, recent finals history indicates that the stretch five is just too big an advantage to overcome. In short, as good as Sengun is, and as fun as he can be to watch (minus the complaining to the referees), a Sengun-led NBA champion might just be a stretch too far.
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