{"id":98765,"date":"2024-10-01T09:38:11","date_gmt":"2024-10-01T13:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=98765"},"modified":"2024-10-01T09:38:11","modified_gmt":"2024-10-01T13:38:11","slug":"houston-rockets-budding-star-alperen-sengun-wants-contract-extension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/01\/houston-rockets-budding-star-alperen-sengun-wants-contract-extension\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston Rockets Budding Star Wants Contract Extension"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>During his media day appearance on Monday, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/28\/rockets-player-comp-a-finals-mvp\/\" target=\"_self\">Houston Rockets<\/a> big man <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/sengual01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-10-01_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alperen Sengun<\/a> spoke about his contract status. Sengun, who is entering the final year of his rookie contract, has spent the first three seasons of his NBA career with the Rockets. And, according to the 22-year-old himself, he hopes to stick around for a little bit longer.<\/p>\n<p>In talking about his contract, Sengun said that he and the Rockets have started negotiations. Furthermore, he made it clear he is hopeful they can come to terms on a contract extension.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Alperen \u015eeng\u00fcn makes it clear he wants to sign a contract [extension] with the <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Rockets?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Rockets<\/a> now<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve been talking .. I want to get the contract .. They are trying to negotiate with us [and vise versa] .. It&#8217;s been good .. We&#8217;re going to make it work .. Hopefully we make it work&#8221; <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/gWbSiU2LFE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/gWbSiU2LFE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 \ud835\ude0d\ud835\ude33\ud835\ude22\ud835\ude2f\ud835\ude24\ud835\ude29\ud835\ude2a\ud835\ude34\ud835\ude26\ud835\ude4e\ud835\ude5a\ud835\ude63\ud835\ude5c\ud835\ude6a\ud835\ude63 (@FranchiseSengun) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FranchiseSengun\/status\/1840821842442948658?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">September 30, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Sengun is coming off a career year for the Rockets. Last season, he averaged 21.1 points, 9.3 rebounds, 5 assists, and 1.2 steals per game. All these numbers are career bests for the big man. Furthermore, he shot 53.7% from the field and finished third in Most Improved Player voting.<\/p>\n<h2>Houston Rockets Budding Star Wants Contract Extension<\/h2>\n<h3>An Alperen Sengun Extension is a No-Brainer for the Rockets<\/h3>\n<p>Sengun is already considered one of the league&#8217;s best young stars. Keeping him around for the long haul is an obvious move for the Rockets. He has already made it clear he wants to remain in Houston, and he has the potential to be a top star in the NBA. Additionally, he has already received high praise from some of the game&#8217;s biggest stars.<\/p>\n<p>Basketball legend <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/o\/onealsh01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-10-01_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shaquille O&#8217;Neal<\/a> once <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/02\/28\/shaquille-oneal-compares-alperen-sengun-to-hall-of-famer\/\" target=\"_self\">compared Sengun to Hall of Famer<\/a> and two-time NBA champion <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gasolpa01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-10-01_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pau Gasol<\/a>. Additionally, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/o\/olajuha01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-10-01_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hakeem Olajuwon<\/a> sang his praises <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonchronicle.com\/texas-sports-nation\/rockets\/article\/alperen-sengun-footwork-highlights-rockets-18635520.php\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">for the Turkish native<\/a> as well.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI think he plays all around,\u201d Olajuwon said. \u201cHe moves. He drives on the floor. He plays between power forward and center. He shoots 3s. So he has adapted; he has adjusted his game to fit any style. He loves the post. If he gets a chance to post up, he finishes on both sides. And he shoots 3s, so he plays a complete game. He has good passing that he\u2019s using at the top of the key to hand the ball over, and sometimes if his player overcommits, he drives. So he\u2019s playing a very complete game that fits any style \u2014 it fits our era or this era. I think he finds a perfect balance between the old school and the new school.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>The Last Word<\/h3>\n<p>Given that Sengun will be a restricted free agent next summer, it seems likely that he will remain in Houston past this season. Last year, the Rockets finished with a 41-41 record. Despite a push late in the season, they failed to make it to the postseason for the fourth straight year. However, their 41 wins were the most since the 2019-20 season. They are not title contenders yet, but there is a lot to be excited about in Houston next season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During his media day appearance on Monday, Houston Rockets big man Alperen Sengun spoke about his contract status. Sengun, who is entering the final year of his rookie contract, has spent the first three seasons of his NBA career with the Rockets. And, according to the 22-year-old himself, he hopes to stick around for a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4631,"featured_media":98767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,2,31,62,3],"tags":[4293],"class_list":["post-98765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-featured","category-rockets","category-nba","category-news","tag-alperen-sengun"],"modified_by":"Elie Deglaoui","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4631"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}