We will see. If Scoot Henderson falls to #3, the Blazers will likely trade that pick because there is a lot of interest in Scoot Henderson, and some of those teams like the Raptors have players that the Blazers are interested in. Amen is certainly on the outside - looking in, when it comes to the top 3 picks. Personally, if I were the Blazers, I would trade Dame Lillard for good assets and rebuild. They already have Sharp, Simons and Johnson..... they should add either Miller or Henderson to that group.
Trading dame was something that should have been done a long time ago. But loyalty from a player is extremely rare in the modern era. And dame has been that. His loyalty has him in consistent conversation of trade talks with their lack of results even though he set himself up in this situation. The reality of this era is if you don’t win it all your name gets thrown into talks
The reality is that a lot of this stuff is splitting hairs and trying to differentiate between players that are in a similar class. There are some guys that are clearly under valued (Doncic) and others that become the media darling for awhile but are over-rated (Jabari Smith - like I said at the time, if you cannot put the ball on the floor and create - you are Rashard Lewis) - but most of these guys are fairly similar and success comes down to what team they play for, their ability to stay and act professional and how hard they work. IMO There is clearly a gap after Wembanyama and Henderson - then another gap after Miller. Amen Thompson is the 4th best prospect because of his high level athleticism, his body and skill set - but his shooting really is bad, and it is 50/50 whether it becomes adequate, but that is really better odds than most #4 picks in the league. Cam Whitmore has tiny hands, is a little undersized and processes the game slowly - so he is a little bit behind Amen when it comes to ceiling.
I think the 4th pick is right where you want to be if you can't get Scoot or Victor obviously; you get Amen or Miller. I am sure there are people here that like more guys than just those 4 but those are the top 4 for me
One of my biggest worries on Amen is that the league he played in is really bad. It's a lot of bad basketball. And so I'm really curious, why did he choose that league? I saw something saying "it would prepare him best for the NBA" and that feels immensely stupid to me, the level of competition would have been far higher with NCAA basketball or even more so with the G League Ignite, or even European leagues. The league he went to some glorified AAU BS, might has well have been a super super high school senior. I truly don't get why anyone who was older than 18 and has true NBA hopes would play in this league, that's a piece to the puzzle I don't get. Was it a money thing?
https://sports.yahoo.com/portland-i...-holds-interest-in-bam-adebayo-145358329.html The next legitimate trade opportunity appears to begin at No. 5. Houston has been mentioned for various trade possibilities with the fourth pick, but opposing front offices believe the Rockets, at this juncture, are more likely to stand pat and trend toward selecting Overtime Elite guard Amen Thompson.
For one thing, it pays better. It’s not as bad as the reputation is. The team can certainly beat a handful of college teams. It did win a few international games in which the twins performed well. They are not as bad as high school teams. Note that high school films are still being heavily underrated in prospect evaluations (Bam, Shaedon etc). The transition heavy play style does place substantial challenges in player scouting wrt OTE. But if one is able to rigorously contextualize the team and league construct, it’s not hard to realize how good the twins are. (Suggest you listen to the guys from Upside Swings, and Nate Duncan & Danny Leroux for example. For the opposite spectrum, the No ceiling guys are not super high on the twins, which I respectfully not agree with.) One thing to point out is that the level of talents in OTE is a double edged sword in Thompsons’ evaluation. Had their teammates are at least par shooters, their stats would have been so, so much better. I think the concern is warranted. (Though I maintain that the twins are special.) The trend is that some prospects (who’s also lured by the financial attractiveness of the league) start to explore the OTE-GLI route rather than the OTE-OTE route.
The Banchero thing is not the same for me since I wanted Bari over him. The one I didn't want was Chet because I worried about his durability (and so far, right about that) and people can check my posting history to see that if they care to. Any ways, this year though my board is more like... 1. Wemby (I have durability concerns with him too but...) 2. Scoot 3. Amen 4. Miller... So I really hope Miller does not fall to us. I feel like the top 3 there have superstar potential while Miller just seems like he'll be a really nice piece to have, topping off as a Middleton type, tertiary scorer. I think those other three though because of their starting skillset and athleticism have superstar potential and I'd rather roll the dice on them. All this talk of Amen wowing workouts does not surprise me. I remember saying from the start there is a chance some team falls in love with him. I could see that team being Portland... So my hope here is that Charlotte really passes on a PG since they have one and goes with Miller. If Charlotte goes with Miller I'm fine with whatever happens at 4 barring some surprise trade for Zion or something.
I hope all of this is a smokescreen and the Rockets arent being THIS transparent. Ive talked myself into Amen but even if he is the pick id like for the front office to be a bit more surreptitious.
based on the sharpe pick last year, would think they rate Amen over Miller. i personally would not be enthused to be picking a guy who is a possible accomplice to a murder. i'll take the other thompson twin and sign a vet PG in the FA market.
It's Bryce Young all over again. We lost Bryce the last game of the season. We lost Scoot on draft night just as certain we lost Wemby on draft night too. They're both gone and we all need to move on.
If or when the rockets draft Amen Ben Sullivan and Cam Hodges are going to earn every penny the rockets are paying them. Both learned and worked under Chip Engelland
How good can this team be with the addition of FVV + Amen Thompson + 20th pick + a Brook Lopez while keeping most/if not all of the core? I can't predict any trades tbh but that's a play-in team right? Ime addition has to matter? Progression of our young guys?
