The Rockets have signed first-round picks Alperen Sengun and Josh Christopher to their rookie scale contracts, according to NBA.com’s official transactions log.
Sengun, a 19-year-old forward/center from Turkey, was named the Turkish League MVP in 2021 after averaging 19.2 PPG, 9.4 RPG, 2.5 APG, and 1.7 BPG in 29 games (28.3 MPG) for Besiktas. Houston traded a pair of protected future first-round picks to acquire the No. 16 pick to select Sengun on draft night.
Christopher is a 6’5″ guard who played his college ball at Arizona State and declared for the draft following his freshman year. He was selected 24th overall after averaging 14.3 PPG and 4.7 RPG in 15 games (29.7 MPG) for the Sun Devils.
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The Rockets, who drafted four players in the first round last Thursday, have already locked up No. 2 pick Jalen Green to his rookie contract as well. No. 23 pick Usman Garuba is the only one of the four still unsigned, likely due to the complications created by his expensive buyout with Real Madrid. We’ll have to wait to see if the Rockets are able to get him stateside for the 2021/22 season.
It would be nice to get Usman Garuba to sign and see what he can do. With Sengun already signed, another forward like Garuba to sign, would give Rockets to move Wood from center and forward.
They already have Garuba on the summer league roster, although he hasn’t joined the team yet since he’s still in Spain working on his €3M buyout, of which he is responsible for $2.78M while Houston will pay the rest.
It’s only a question of when, not if, he joins the team this year since it would cost an extra €1M (about $1.18M) for him to join the Rockets for the 2022-23 season. Hopefully the deal will get done in time for him to play at some point in Las Vegas next week since Real Madrid is allowing him to pay in installments. Daniel Theis will likely be their starting center, allowing Wood to move to PF, with Sengun as the primary backup. Then they will have Garuba available as a backup at both center and PF with his stellar defense.
I think Garuba is gonna be great and houston will love him,houston was really lucky to get him with 23th