The Houston Rockets lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night by a margin of 35 points. Coming off the heels of a comeback road win against the Atlanta Hawks, this was a brutal loss for the Rockets. They were missing four key contributors in Christian Wood, Eric Gordon, Kevin Porter Jr., and Jalen Green so in some way, this was predictable. Even with so many starters out, the Rockets again chose to have one of their most talented players, Alperen Sengun, come off the bench.

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Houston's refusal to insert Sengun into the starting lineup is getting a bit strange at this point. Alperen Sengun tallied 19 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, and 1 block on Wednesday. He seems to be getting better and better by the day, but Houston is tentative to play him heavy minutes every night. It's one thing if the rationale was that they prefer to start games with Christian Wood at center with a spaced floor. However, the fact that it's obvious he's one of the best players on the team and hasn't played 30 minutes in a game yet is kind of inexcusable.

The Rockets were obviously high on Sengun as they called multiple teams to try and trade up to draft him and ended up forking over two first round picks. He's also clearly played better than they could have thought he might his rookie season. They've also shown no hesitancy about playing two centers on the floor at the same time this season. If all of those things are true, there's really no reason he shouldn't be a heavy rotation player.

Even tonight, the Rockets elected to start Daniel Theis over Alperen Sengun but played Theis only 18 minutes. On the other side, Sengun came off the bench and played 27 minutes. They intentionally started the inferior basketball player for reasons that are unclear. In the NBA, offense is a more valuable than defense by a significant margin. So if the thinking is to start the better defensive player, it's based on the false premise that both ends of the floor are equal.

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Putting all that aside, it seems that Houston may internally believe Christian Wood can be a part of their long-term core. It's assumed that they also view Sengun as part of their long-term core. With two months left until the trade deadline, it only makes sense that Houston give a long look to lineups with the two players together. While the early returns on this pairing aren't exactly encouraging (-12.9 points per 100 possessions), it's based on a pretty limited sample size (164 minutes).

You can't make a major decision like keeping Christian Wood with the core of this group without first seeing if he can play well alongside Sengun. Based off the way he's playing, Alperen Sengun figures to be a major part of what Houston does moving forward so his fit alongside Wood has to be a data point Houston seriously looks at before committing the rest of the season to it. This is because Wood is currently healthy, producing well offensively, and has two more seasons before hitting unrestricted free agency. His value is high and if Houston chooses not to sell without seeing if he can get into the green in units alongside Sengun, they're doing themselves a disfavor.

This would also allow Sengun to get the starting spot he deserves while Houston sees if the pairing can work alongside each other. Sengun has been pretty adept at finding Wood when he cuts to the basket so there's reason the synergy between the two of them can work. It's really Sengun and Wood playing together in a team context that's questionable. Can the two survive on the floor together defensively? Can Sengun become a floor spacer so Wood can continue running pick and roll like he's done with small lineups?

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It all starts with the Rockets giving the two an honest, extended look together. It's probably some of the most crucial data Houston can collect this season as it should inform what they do with Christian Wood at the deadline.