Starting center may rotate by task at hand
The Rockets’ ability to avoid a starting center conundrum will end this week.
In Bruno Fernando’s first game back from a knee injury last Friday against the Hawks, Alperen Sengun was unavailable to play due to a groin injury. The following night, when Sengun returned, the Rockets sat Fernando in the second half of a backto-back against the Thunder.
Both Fernando and Sengun were available for Monday night’s game in Denver as the Rockets began a four-game, three-city road trip with the first of two games against the Nuggets. Coach Stephen Silas designated Sengun to be Houston’s starting center while also looking at Usman Garuba as a less likely third option.
After he started and scored 21 points with 19 rebounds in the Rockets’ win over the Thunder, Sengun dismissed the notion that he would be affected by a possible return to the bench.
“I’m ready every time for everything,” Sengun said. “It doesn’t matter for me.”
Controversy may exist only in the eyes of fans who would prefer the Rockets either commit to the 20year-old Sengun as the franchise’s center of the future, or call on Fernando to shore up a Houston defense that ranks fifth-worst in the NBA.
“He’s a better defensive player than me. I’m a better offensive player than him,” Sengun said. “When I’m getting in the game, I’m playing more offensive. When he comes into the game, he’s playing more defensively. We do both.”
Silas might opt to platoon the centers based on matchups, as he did in the first three games of the season when he started Fernando to wrangle Atlanta’s Clint Capela and Memphis’ Steven Adams and started Garuba against Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The start of the road trip saw Sengun, nicknamed “baby Joker” by his teammates, match up against Nikola Jokic — a challenge Sengun relishes. Sengun had 18 points in 23 minutes Monday night in the Rockets’ 129-113 loss. Garuba and Fernando each scored four points in 11 and 8 minutes, respectively, off the bench.
For Friday’s game in Phoenix, it would not be unprecedented for Silas to put Fernando’s big body on Suns 7-footer Deandre Ayton.
Saturday’s trip finale against the Warriors presents a different challenge because of Golden State’s highly switchable smallball lineups, and because the Rockets have yet to address how they will continue to manage Fernando’s playing time in back-tobacks as he progresses from his knee rehab.
Whether addressing the center position or Eric Gordon versus K.J. Martin, Silas has often repeated that his lineups are fluid. But his decision is somewhat complicated by how Sengun and Garuba excelled in their increased playing time afforded by Fernando’s knee injury.
Of the 15 consecutive games Fernando missed from Oct. 22-Nov. 25, Sengun started the last 12 in a row after an illness kept him out of two games.
In his 13 games played as a starter, Sengun averaged 27.6 minutes, 15.1 points, 8.9 rebounds and 2.7 assists with a true shooting percentage of 61.4 percent. In three games coming off the bench, he averaged 24.0 minutes, 15.7 points, 10.0 rebounds and 1.0 assists with a 61.8 percent true shooting percentage.
When Sengun started against the Thunder, who don’t play with a traditional center, he was able to frequently exploit mismatches and let the Rockets conduct their offense through him.
“He’s doing a better job of kind of letting it come to him a little bit more,” Silas said. “I think early he was like trying to get (the ball) earlier in possessions, and later is better so we can drive the ball first and then give him a little dump-off pass or drive and swing it and then get it in to him. And then I started running some plays for him just because I knew they were going to double team and we were getting some shots on the weak side, and his passing is so good.”
Fernando thrived as a rim runner, rebounder and screener in the two starts he made prior to his injury, when he also surpassed expectations with his playmaking by combining for nine assists with one turnover (including seven assists and no turnovers in the season opener against Atlanta). He played just 17 minutes in his return, scoring seven points on 3-of-5 shooting with three boards, but his presence opened up space for Houston’s guards to operate.
“Definitely,” Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr. said. “He’s our primary lob threat. Probably him and K.J., but he’s a lot bigger than K.J. so they definitely respect him more rolling. But definitely, it helps me, it helps Jalen (Green), it helps EG (Gordon), the primary creators just to have open floor and open space. They gotta respect the lob. So there’s a lot of more easy layups out there.”
Having centers with differing strengths — not to mention Garuba’s improved 3-point shooting — is undoubtedly a positive for the Rockets. Now that both Fernando and Sengun are healthy, patterns in the center rotation, if not a clear hierarchy, can begin to emerge. How they develop in the coming weeks will reveal more about the Rockets’ priorities on both defense and offense.