The Chicago Bulls don’t need a headline-grabbing center contract to understand where the market is headed. The bigger lesson is that the position keeps getting expensive, and that makes a name like Alperen Sengun worth watching.
That matters because the Houston Rockets have created a little noise around their own centerpiece. General manager Rafael Stone recently talked about a two-week visit he made to Sengun’s native Turkey to spend offseason time with the center, and while the explanation itself wasn’t a problem, it did leave room for a bigger question: are the Rockets and Sengun completely aligned?
Sengun is only one season into his five-year, $185 million contract, and that deal includes a player option for the 2029-30 NBA season. If he’s supposed to be a long-term fixture in Houston, but communication is already becoming an offseason talking point, that’s the kind of situation other teams should monitor closely. For the Bulls, it could be the kind of opening that changes the shape of a rebuild.
There’s a real basketball case for Sengun, starting with what he brings on offense. The two-time NBA All-Star has averaged 20.1 points and 5.4 assists per game over his immediately three previous NBA seasons, including the 2025-26 NBA season, according to Basketball Reference. He can generate scoring for himself, and he can also make life easier for everybody else on the floor.
His game has also shown more defensive versatility, something Rockets head coach Ime Udoka acknowledged early in the 2025-26 NBA season. But that part of Sengun’s profile still comes with limits, and Udoka offered a straightforward reminder of that midway through the season when asked about Sengun being targeted in pick-and-roll situations.
That’s the balance with Sengun: enough growth to matter, but not enough to make every matchup simple.
The bigger issue is what he doesn’t do especially well. Sengun’s shooting away from the basket remains a clear limitation.
He’s a career 28.1% three-point shooter on 1.4 attempts per game, and he’s a 69.9% free-throw shooter. For a center, that creates obvious spacing concerns.
Rebounding is another area where his profile doesn’t fully pop. Sengun has reached double-digit rebounds in a season only once across his five-year NBA career. That’s the kind of number that would force any team to think carefully about how it builds around him.
For Chicago, though, the appeal is obvious enough. Sengun’s offensive juice could be the kind of swing skill that helps a rebuild move forward, especially if the Bulls were able to pair him with other bigs who do different things. That’s the model Houston has used with Steven Adams in its center rotation, and it’s the kind of setup that could make sense if Chicago ever found itself in position to pursue Sengun.
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Chicago will have to deal with that spotlight in Toronto before the calendar even has a chance to settle in. The opener is now part of a tougher-than-usual early run, with the Bulls facing a string of contenders soon after, which turns one October game into something closer to a tone-setter. For a team trying to get traction early, the first week may tell more than usual about how ready it is for the grind ahead. [Read more 🡒]