The Houston Rockets were one of the league’s most active teams during the offseason, shipping Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Kevin Durant. Durant will make his team debut tonight when the Rockets open the 2025-26 regular season with a 7:35 p.m. ET clash against the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder.
Arguably, the most important player for Houston’s chances tonight and this season isn’t Durant; his production isn’t variable, regardless of what jersey he dons or what team he plays. Instead, if the Rockets truly want to challenge for a title this season, they’ll need center Alperen Şengün to take yet another leap in his age-23 season.
Houston is a 6.5-point road underdog for tonight’s clash at DraftKings Sportsbook, with the total is set for 227.5. Below, I’ve highlighted my favorite prop bets centered around Şengün.
Best Alperen Şengün Prop Bets on DraftKings Sportsbook
Alperen Şengün O14.5 Assists + Rebounds (+102)
With Fred VanVleet likely out for the season after tearing his ACL in an offseason workout, Şengün will likely be tasked with an expanded role as a jumbo playmaker tonight. He’s certainly proven himself capable: last season, he was one of just five players to average at least 10 rebounds and four assists per game, and during Türkiye’s run to the EuroBasket final during the summer, he averaged 16.7 combined rebounds and assists. He probably won’t be the only Rocket to bear playmaking burden this season — Amen Thompson is starting as the nominal point guard, Durant is a capable playmaker, and second-year pro Reed Sheppard is a promising prospect — but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Ime Udoka lean on his post initiator in the early going.
Tonight, Şengün will start alongside a fellow big in Steven Adams, and that duo was dominant in the postseason, recording a plus-18.2 net rating in 93 minutes of action in Houston’s first-round defeat to the Golden State Warriors. With that arrangement accounting for nearly one-third of Şengün’s minutes, he recorded 15 or more assists and rebounds in each of the final six games, and now his supporting cast is even better. The Thunder didn’t allow a lot of assists last season, but they were sloppy on the glass, allowing the 11th-most rebounds during the regular season and the second-most in the playoffs. Plus, All-Defensive Second Teamer Jalen Williams is out tonight as he continues to recover from offseason wrist surgery.
Alperen Şengün O.5 Blocks (+103)
Getting plus-odds on the six-foot-11 Turk to record a block — something that he did in 42 of his 76 games last regular season, two of his seven playoff games, and six of nine in the EuroBasket tournament — seems fairly friendly, especially since Oklahoma City has the league’s most prolific driver in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Şengün isn’t an elite post defender, but opponents shot 1.2 percentage points worse than usual when guarded by Şengün last season, which isn’t a terrible mark. He could also spend more time roving in open space when he shares the floor with Adams.
Without the more physical Williams, he could have his way inside against the slender Holmgren, who was blocked at the 18th-highest rate among players to appear in 30 or more games last season. As a team, the Thunder conceded the 17th-most blocks in the regular season and the fifth-most in the playoffs, one of their few weaknesses last season. Though Şengün only recorded one block in his four games against Oklahoma City last season, he recorded one in each of the team’s three games in 2023-24.
