Rockets’ rookies Jalen Green and Alperen Sengun betting favorites for ROY honors

The Houston Rockets arguably had the most prosperous draft of any team during the 2021 NBA Draft. Headlined by top draft selection in Jalen Green, who is coming off a season where he averaged 17.9 points for the G-League Ignite. The Rockets draft class includes two players with European championship titles in Alperen Sengun and Usman Garuba and an All American freshman who averaged 14.3 points at Arizona State in Josh Christopher.

So when the Rockets begin their 2021-22 campaign with four budding rookies, the season could end with one of Houston’s draftees taking home some NBA hardware.

According to the latest odds at BetOnline.ag, Green and Sengun are betting favorites for Rookie of the Year honors. Sengun is entering the season with the fifth-highest odds to win the award (+1200), while Green possessed the second-highest probabilities (+275). Detroit Pistons’ Cade Cunningham has the most favorable odds (+250).

While it comes as no surprise that Green has the second-highest odds to win the award, Sengun’s Summer League performance must have thrust him into the top five.

Appearing in four out of the Rockets’ five Summer League games, Sengun was sensational. He averaged 14.5 points while shooting 43.2 percent from the field and 37.5 percent from behind the arc — to go along with 10.8 rebounds per game.

If not for injuries, Green may have departed Las Vegas as the league’s MVP, after averaging 20.3 points on 50-50-90 shooting splits in three games.

The Rockets have only had two players in franchise history to take home Rookie of the Year honors. The first was Ralph Sampson in 1984, while the other became Steve Francis in 2000. Houston has had a pair of players who finished in the top-two in ROY voting — which includes Hakeem Olajuwon (1985) and Yao Ming (2003).