Through nine games, Houston’s brightest young star is Alperen Sengun

From an organizational perspective, second-year guard Jalen Green and rookie forward Jabari Smith Jr. are the closest thing to blue-chip prospects for the 2022-23 Houston Rockets.

After all, there’s a good reason Green was drafted at No. 2 overall in the 2021 first round and Smith at No. 3 in the 2022 class.

But with nine regular-season games out of 82 (nearly 11% of the schedule) complete for the Rockets, it’s second-year center Alperen Sengun — taken at No. 16 overall in 2021 — who has taken a clear lead when it comes to production among Houston’s top prospects.

Here’s a look at some of the traditional numbers, by game:

• Sengun: 16.7 points (56.8% FG, 10.3 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.0 blocks, 1.7 turnovers, 3.4 fouls in 27.1 minutes

• Green: 19.3 points (37.7% FG, 34.8% on 3-pointers), 4.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 2.0 turnovers in 33.3 minutes

• Smith: 10.8 points (30.5% FG, 30.4% on 3-pointers), 6.1 rebounds, 1.2 blocks, 3.6 fouls in 30.7 minutes

“They trust me more right now,” Sengun told Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle before collecting 26 points and 13 rebounds versus the Clippers on Wednesday night. “I’m touching the ball more now. I’m starting. I feel good. I trust them all the time. It feels great.”

Most impressively, Sengun has performed consistently even as his role and rotation patterns have fluctuated — as a sixth man to begin the season, and currently as a starter at center.

Here’s how they fare in NBA.com’s on/off court numbers:

• Sengun: 7.8 offensive rating differential, 8.7 defensive rating differential, -0.9 net rating differential

• Green: -6.7 offensive rating differential, 11.3 defensive rating differential, -18.0 net rating differential

• Smith: -4.0 offensive rating differential, 9.0 defensive rating differential, -13.0 net rating differential

Finally, here’s how each player ranks in some key advanced metrics such as player efficiency rating (PER), true shooting (TS) percentage, and win shares per 48 minutes (WS/48).

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