Rockets’ Alperen Şengün Has Lost His Touch From Inside the Paint

The Houston Rockets have started their 2026-2027 NBA season in very impressive fashion, winning each of their first three games. This is actually the first time they’ve done that in nearly a decade. It’s not just against subpar competition, either.

They’ve outlasted the reigning conference champions, and already overcome many of the challenges they face last season, as covered on Roundtable. Numerous players have been stepping up and having big performances, validating all of Rafael Stone’s offseason moves.

The Rockets have increased their three-point and free-throw percentages drastically, with the future stars of this franchise seeing the most improvement.

Amen Thompson is shooting 50-percent from beyond the arc through three games. He’s also making 86.7-percent of his freebies while attempting five per game. Alperen Şengün has increased his free-throw percentage all the way to 77.8 on six attempts nightly.

He’s attempting more than twice the amount of threes when compared to Thompson, and has drained 62.5-percent of them for 1.7 makes every game. However, there still is a concerning issue, despite his incredibly hot start from outside.

Even with his elite long-ball percentages, and him scoring 23 points per game, his overall field goal percentage doesn’t look as great as you might expect. While 53.2-percent isn’t bad by any means, it should certainly be higher .

If you simply remove his three-point attempts, he’s only made 20 out of his 39 shots from inside the arc. Barely over 50-percent, and it’s been noticeable when watching the games.

It seems like Alperen Şengün traded all of his touch in the paint away for a three-point shot, and I’m not sure how to feel about it. Where did the touch go? Where are the post moves? It feels like if he’s not directly under the rim or beyond the arc, it’s almost a given that the shot will miss.

This isn’t just the eye test, either, as the stats fully support my feelings. Şengün has made 14 out of his 19 shots in the restricted area. Nobody can complain with that efficiency, but hold your breath for the drop-off that happens when he takes one step away from the rim.

When he’s still in the paint, just outside of the restricted area or charge circle, he’s only made four out of his 17 attempts. That’s right, from an elite 73.7-percent, all the way down to 23.5-percent. On almost the same amount of shots, too.

I thought I might just be overreacting to a few missed bunnies inside —— but after looking at the numbers, Şengün is genuinely struggling in the paint.

It’s honestly baffling considering most of those shots are from less than 10 feet away. A lot of them would still be considered layups. Hopefully he can get closer to where he was last season: