Amen reminds me a bit of Shaedon Sharpe in terms of the unknowns due to the competition or lack of. Obviously most intriguing aspect is the size and playmaking ability.
And no telling how much of that is just because of the league he plays in. The dude is like 1-2 years older than most of the kids he's playing against. He's a few months older than Jabari - about to turn 20 in a couple of weeks. I'd still take a shot at him with the 3rd pick, but I'm still wary.
Am I the only one who likes Ausar more than Amen? Ausar is a much better defender and shooter, and his playmaking doesn’t appear to be too far behind Amen’s. Ausar reminds me of Jaylen Brown.
I’m higher on Ausar, but no way in hell are these guys worth a first rounder. Oldest guys in the competition against some guys that are up to 4 years younger. They aren’t even dominating.
I'm not entirely sure if either of them will get picked in the top 5. I think FOs still don't know what to make of the OTE. Games against international teams was a step in the right direction, but I think the player pool and on-court structure need to be more developed. But consider Dyson Daniels was picked #8 in 2022 with similar strengths and weaknesses..Now keep in mind the twins are on another tier athletically. Not the most airtight though experiment, but I think it's an interesting comparison. Why aren't the twins dominating? While OTE is mostly 17-19 year olds, I think they're all are either 4* or 5* recruits. So its not like the players are total pushovers. And in games against international comp and in TBT, the twins looked pretty good. It's also been said that they lean more towards passing and playmaking rather than looking for their own shots. I'll throw in Amen is 64% on 2PA on 115 attempts. Ausar is surprisingly low at 55% on 108.
This is pretty false. OTE has 4 teams (2 affiliated schools), most players are unranked, a few are 3 stars and 1-2 are low 4 stars. Afaik aside from the twins being low 5 stars (rank 20-30 when they were ranked). Nassir Cunningham (17 right now) is the RSCI #5 for his class. Jalen Lewis (17 right now) commited when he was 16 was the ESPN #2 back then. The Twins just turned 20 and will be 21 before all-star breaks. They are effectively young juniors or old sophmores. The #1 point guard in OTE (Bryce Giggs) is an unranked 3 star. The scoring champ (Jordan Burks) is a #165 composite ranked 3 star. The player with the most steals + rebounds (Jahmere Tripp) is a composite #234 ranked 3 star. The competition is just really bad where 3 stars are the best players in the league. The Twins aren't bad by any means, but they aren't dominant relative to these 3 star kids (aka best players in OTE) from the 2023 class. I figure with all the media smoke blowing up the Thompsons' asses as the #3/4 picks, they should be blowing us away their basketball dominance. There is no question about it that Brandon Miller dominating SEC right now (with every team fielding a starting lineup of 3 stars or better uppperclassmen or 5 star freshmen) would be averaging 30/10 in his sleep in the OTE. (Or hell our boy Jabari last year cooking the SEC last year at Auburn, looking hell lost shooting against NBA defenders right now)
I hope Bryce Griggs makes it. I used to hoop with his dad and his boys were always in love in basketball.
Dont forget he is being guarded by kids much shorter and less talented than him. I agree with you if the Twins were all they were cracked to be they should putting up video games in the OTE. It's honestly the biggest complaint I have with them.
Huh? Shaedon was the real unknown. Amen has shown he cant shoot or dominate even against gsrbage competition.
Dyson Daniels played in the NBL which is known to be a high level league thats very physical and against grown men. No comparison to the twins playing in a joke league with kids younger than them.
Daniels played in the G-League, but I get your point. The level of comp and coaching is questionable and the production doesn't match the eye test. That's a fair reason for concern and why I'd be surprised if either go in the top 5. But it's not as if the athleticism, vision, and creativity totally disappears on an NBA court. If we subscribe to the idea that they play in a weak league with poor development, then what would an NBA team with legit coaches do? FOs draft players more for what they can become rather than what they can't do at that moment. I think scouting them is an interesting test of how much you weigh/separate production versus tape. Anyway, the twins are definitely risky picks. I'm not saying they're slam dunk all stars, but to say they're undraftable is kinda crazy. Shaedon Sharpe got drafted #7 with less information playing even weaker comp.
Sharpe was the #1 ranked prospect in his class after dominating summer basketball against top 5 star talents in his class. The Thompsons were ranked late 20's/early 30's low 5 star prospects. There is a valley of difference if we just pretend their OTE play didn't exist like Sharpe's non-existant college career.
I dont want either twin Wemby Henderson Miller Im mostly looking to trade out for a star vet or move up if we are picking 4 or 5 and Miller isnt there. I’d probably just rather convey pick 4 or 5 to OKC to settle draft debts.
I see where you're coming from. I don't think its unreasonable to say a better highschool ranking would raise draft status. Seems like a couple guys with good HS rankings and awful college production get drafted every year. And are you referring to Sharpe's UPLAY EYBL stint? He went up against a few 5 star guys but not like a special tournament or run of just blue chip prospects. He definitely showed out though, 22/6/3 on 48/36/64. I wouldn't characterize that as dominant but I'm sure that stretch solidified his stock. Anyway I'm just using the Sharpe as an example of an "unknown" with questionable data points getting drafted. It's not a 1:1 comparison for sure, but I don't think there is one for the twins. I'm not banging the table for the either of them to get drafted high, or even for the Rockets to pick them. I've just seen the perception around them swing so far in one direction that I want to re-center the discussion around what they are actually doing on the court versus dismissing them based on the league or stats. Like it's totally possible that they could be good NBA players.
I think that Amen Thompson is a lock to go in the top 5. He has very good natural court vision and is a talented passer. He is also very quick with his first step and can stop on a dime.
