Alperen Sengun has caught a lot of attention with his performance at EuroBasket this summer from European colleagues who played against him, like Kristaps Porzingis and Giannis Antetokounmpo, to now, LeBron James. The Lakers star has always spoken highly of the young Turkish center, and now, he anticipates that Sengun will have a big season for the Rockets in 2025-26.
LeBron James spoke about the Turkish center on the latest episode of his ‘Mind The Game’ podcast with Steve Nash, where he admitted he was watching Sengun during EuroBasket in the summer.
“Hell of a summer,” said James repeatedly while talking about Sengun to Nash. “I think he’s going to ride that wave, you know, right to Houston and have a big year for them,” he further added. But James immediately realized that Sengun needs to step up even more now that the franchise has lost Fred VanVleet for the season due to an ACL injury.
“Oh, man. My good, my good guy Fred, man. Yeah, that sucks… Speedy recovery, brother. Um, get back, man. Get healthy. Get back. That’s going to be a tough blow for Houston. He’s like a great teammate, great player,” said James on Fred VanVleet’s injury.
“He’s like the engine to any team that he’s on, you know. And obviously, we saw what he was able to do. You know, you hear we talk about Kawhi, you talk about, you know, Pascal and all those guys that they had, you know, Kyle, you know, but Fred was such a big piece of that, you know,” said James while recalling VanVleet’s contributions to the Raptors’ 2019 championship run.
“Steps up, makes big shots, and just like that, he’s just even kill. His demeanor is always the same, and you need that throughout the course of the season. So composure, speedy recovery, brother. Get back, man. Get healthy. Get back,” said James in conclusion.
Alperen Sengun has hit the ground running with the Rockets in the preseason as the young leader of the team alongside Kevin Durant. While Durant is the superstar, Sengun remains the face of the franchise’s future. In the first preseason game against the Hawks, Sengun scored 19 points with five rebounds and six assists in just 17 minutes played.
Sengun also played in their most recent preseason game against the Utah Jazz, where the Rockets won 140-127. He stuffed the box score with 13 points, 13 assists, five rebounds, and four steals during Kevin Durant’s preseason debut. Durant already has 20 points (with two rebounds and one assist) and leads the scoring charge for the Rockets alongside Amen Thompson (19 points, seven rebounds, six assists, two steals, and one block) and Jabari Smith Jr. (18 points and three rebounds).
It will be interesting to see if Sengun steps up for the franchise now, when they need his leadership the most in Fred VanVleet’s absence.
