A smokescreen most likely. The Rockets want Henderson to workout for them. They aren't likely to be successful at that.
I still think Amen has more physical gifts, has a higher upside and fills a greater area of need as a playmaker. But if they call Cam's name on draft night, I won't be mad at it. I think Cam is kind of the in-between prospect with high upside but also a high floor. And if they take him, they still have options to take a veteran point guard in free agency. Plus, you've got TyTy still developing in the background. If it's between Cam or Ausar, give me Cam. My preference for Amen is solely the point guard potential. But if I have to take a wing, I'd prefer the surer thing, and I think Cam is that guy.
What i mean is that if there's hope for one of them to get better, as he should, the other one can be better too. That is not something that is exclusive to specific players unless your last name is Nix.
People who say Amen has better physical abilities, yeah, maybe, but Whitmore is an 18 year old tank who, by the way, also happens to have a 41 inch vertical. He's a beast in his own right. The dude has monster potential.
I'm kinda split with the age argument. It is 100% true that younger prospects *generally* end up better than older prospects. And for sure if all else is equal, it makes 100% sense to go with the younger prospect. Having said that, I wonder if some of these stats might be polluted with some confounding factors. It seems to me these 18/19 year olds that get drafted end up being pretty good because...they're pretty good. Otherwise, they'd stick to college, their international league, or end up undrafted if they have a terrible agent. It isn't the age that is the factor, but more so their skill set. On the other end, a 21-22 year old (having spent multiple years in college/overseas/etc. because they weren't good enough to be drafted when they were younger) doesn't have much chance of getting better to improve their draft stock, so if they want to make it to the NBA, they push for that and settle with being a role player. So guys drafted at younger ages on the whole end up being "better" than guys drafted at older ages, but I'm not sure that's a statement that can apply to specific players (or direct comparisons between a few players). I think some NBA teams have drafted guys that honestly just weren't that good. But they were young. So teams spent a high draft pick on the player in hopes that they'd make huge strides in a few years. I think most of those guys ended up as huge busts. Some might say they ALL were busts depending on how you evaluate their pre NBA play. I won't give any names, but surely we all have an example we can throw out. Guys like Sengun, Jokic, Luka, etc excelled in their leagues. Guys like Zion did the same in college. Whitmore stat wise (PPG, offensive/defensive/net rtg, BPM, WS/40, etc.) seems much closer to a Kevin Knox than a Zion or even a Jabari Smith. Of course, if Cam had Zion numbers, he'd probably be up for debate with Wemby for going #1, but I guess the point I'm making is that hopefully there are more factors involved when drafting young guys than just the raw age. To add to all of that...this seems like weird draft class in terms of raw age. You have GG Jackson and Cam Whitmore who will be 18 on draft night. Then you have the Thompson Twins and guys like Brandon Miller who are *already* 20. A fairly big difference in age, but I believe each of these guys are getting drafted as soon as they are draft eligible (correct me if I'm wrong). It isn't like one of them played an extra season of college ball or anything like that. I don't know if this is due to COVID or other factors, but I'm curious if overall number of "reps" (however you want to define that) is more relevant than age per se. Strongly correlated factors that are difficult to pull apart. I'd be curious to see if anyone did an analysis of players drafted at different ages, but similar pre-NBA experience. Ultimately, I think age is a big factor, but just one of many factors. I don't know if I think it is right to overvalue a player just because they are younger, especially without many other factors in their favor. But I'm also just some guy on an internet forum who picked the name RC Cola for his username, so I wouldn't put much stock in my opinion when it comes this...or anything.
I think Orem already hit on this, but if you're projecting a guy to be a top 20-30 NBA guy and preferably your best or 2nd best player (on offense)...you probably want some basic-level playmaking. If you just want him to be a role player, then fine, but that's putting a pretty low ceiling on a guy with a lot of talent. For sure it *could* be done (with success), but I'd probably put it on par with having a primary playmaker who can't shoot or a big man who can't protect the rim or do well in switches. FWIW, I'm not super in love with Jaylen Brown for similar reasons, though I think he projected better as a playmaker than Cam. If you told me Cam's playmaking floor was Jaylen Brown, I'd be *much* less worried (that's analogous to saying Amen will have a 33% 3pt floor for his career IMO). I think this was touched on as well, but I think some of us are just very skeptical that you even *can* develop/improve upon poor feel/decision making/playmaking. It is *hard* to become an adequate shooter if you're a terrible shooter. But it is at least possible, and we have examples of guys who did just that. I struggle to come up with good examples of guys that were as bad as Cam in this area, and they were somehow able to turn it around. Conversely, I've found *plenty* of examples of guys who were just as bad....and were huge busts in the NBA. It is hard to judge and compare this (vs raw shooting), so perhaps the criteria I use is heavily flawed. But I'm open to other people giving examples in that case. Now I've said repeatedly that Cam might just end up being that special case. He's had a pretty unique journey to the NBA to this point, and I think if anyone could prove you can significantly improve in this area, I think someone like Cam would be the one to do it. Double those feelings if Rockets *do* end up drafting him. I'm definitely one of those guys that has some preferences with these prospects, but ultimately I think all of the top 10-12 prospects in the draft are *really* good. Can't really go wrong with any of them (or any combination). I'm just glad I don't have to be excited about Royce White.
At least according to Bleacher Report's Jonathan Wassermann. "New intel suggests the Houston Rockets have gone back and forth between Amen Thompson and Cam Whitmore...."league sources believe Cam Whitmore is becoming the favorite to land with the Houston Rockets." I hope this is not true, I would rather take Brandon than Cam, Cam will never be a primary playmaker, with no vision, feel for the game or passing instincts. He is not a good defender. He is 6’6?! What position is he going to play….SG? Oh, the SF position? Most of the times when he drive to the basket, it gets blocked. His main offense skill is BULLY BALL?! Bully Ball does not work in the NBA…I would rather draft Brandon or Asur or Amen not Cam.
At least you can teach a prospect to shoot?! He has the potential to be a Franchise Point Guard. In 2011 draft, everyone knew Kawhi could not shoot in San Diego State and many team passed on him because he was athletic, elite defender but could not shoot and now he is a SUPERSTAR. He will learn to shoot better.There is no defender can stay in front of him, he is a generational athlete….he do have a shooting coach now….Ben Sullivan.
I doubt we really know for certain what the Rockets are thinking, there's smoke coming out their ears right now (and every other front office). But in the end, this front office seems to pick close to consensus, so I still believe there are high odds they'll choose Amen, unless they trade up to get Scoot, which I expect will be hard to pull off.
Kawhi shot 30% threes and 76% free throws against division one college athletes (sophomore year before going pro). Amen shot 22% threes and 55% free throws against glorified high school kids last year. Where’s the comparison you’re trying to make?
I’d rather bank on Tari’s potential, not say that Whitmore is bad but as I just think that highly of Tari
The numbers you cited for Amen are just straight-up wrong dude and are far lower than Amen's real stats. You don't have to lie to try and make your point.
That's a pretty simplistic take given that Cam has some historically low assist numbers for a player of his size&position and all scouts mention how he doesn't even see completely open teammates on the same side often, as he has huge tunnel vision and also needs to stop constantly to analyse the floor. No one here is saying he needs to be a floor general or great secondary playmaker.
