Despite career highs, Şengün's scoring and free throw percentages have dropped significantly since returning from an ankle injury. Is he truly healthy?
Alperen Şengün is averaging career highs virtually across the board this season. To this point, he’s increased his points, assists, blocks, steals, and minutes past his previous numbers in any other year, though some are only minor improvements.
Regardless, it shows that he’s been steady and his first All-Star selection wasn’t a fluke. Earning a spot there again last weekend helped strengthen that idea, as covered on Roundtable.
Despite him earning that honor, it did come a little late as an injury replacement. I’d argue that had more to do with his games missed due to injury, but this current slump wasn’t helping him much either.
Perhaps the two are related, as we’ve seen a noticeable decline in play since returning from that ankle injury on January 11th.
A precipitous drop off that mirrors the team's performance as a whole. From 18-9 with Alpi playing pre-injury, and now 12-8 since his return. 30-17 isn't a bad record by any means, but you'd still prefer to stay as far away from .500 as possible.
While the loss of Steven Adams and new defensive strategies against Amen Thompson are certainly cause for Houston’s struggles, I also think there’s more to it. Whether Şengün came back too early and his ankle is still bugging him, whether he’s just really rusty after minimal time off, or whether it’s just a mental thing, I think it’s he's not fully right yet.
I'm not sure if he will get back to that level this season, and maybe that's why we didn't see any moves made at the trade deadline. Just speculating though, still trying to make sense of those puzzling decisions, previously covered on Roundtable.