I shared that sentiment at one point, but guys at that size that can pretty much do everything at an amazing level except shoot still go on to be great players. You gotta think, as bad as his shot was he still went 4th and was considered as someone Portland could take at 2 over scoot. His only major weakness has been shooting. His physical attributes are amazing, he has good handles with room to get better, he can get into the lane against anyone and has good finishing, hes an amazing passer. Good defender. Is likely going to be a good rebounder and by all accounts is an absolute gym rat. I think even if hes just around a 33% 3 pt shooter he can be an all nba level player. If he gets to 35% or above i think you're talking about an mvp caliber guy. Its crazy that I was against drafting Amen at one point, because if I had to create a pg coming into the nba and they could be amazing at everything but had to have one weakness, Id choose shooting.
Name 1 great point guard that has 23% or lower percentage of 3pt shooting in last 30 years. Facts are facts. If he doesn't improve his shooting drastically, he's not a starting point guard at any point of his career.
Vecenie and Spinella recently addressed this very question on their most recent podcast. Both put Amen Thompson #1 easily. I think Spinella had Jalen #2 and Vecenie had Jabari. Cam was 5th for both I think. Vecenie doesn’t think Sengun can ever switch. He said we would probably play drop defense with Sengun. I don’t think he’s heard the Ime sound bite about how he plans to handle Sengun on defense.
Wemby is overrated and Pacers are underrated. He will get his but he is not as fundamentally sound as I thought he would be.
Not sure why you’d ask that question when you were just talking about Ben Simmons. He’s a career 13% three point shooter. But more than that he’s just simply been unwilling to shoot them which is worse than having a low 3pt percentage. Also Rondo while in Boston where he was at his best was a career 25% three point shooter. Shaun Livingston was pretty good and would’ve been better if not for the knee injury. He was also effective for a 3 happy GSW team where he barely attempted threes. And he was a career 17 percent shooter. Tony Parker was never a great 3pt shooter but in 2012 he shot 23%, went to the all star game and made it to the WCF. Andre Miller was a good pg for a long time and he was a bad 3pt shooter as well. 21 %. I think everyone would agree that Amen needs to increase his shooting, but considering all the things he should be able to do at a high level on the court his upside is still really high.
Not sure why you’d ask that question when you were just talking about Ben Simmons. He’s a career 13% three point shooter. But more than that he’s just simply been unwilling to shoot them which is worse than having a low 3pt percentage. Also Rondo while in Boston where he was at his best was a 25% three point shooter. Shaun Livingston was pretty good and would’ve been better if not for the knee injury. He was also effective for a 3 happy GSW team where he barely attempted threes. And he was a career 17 percent shooter. Andre Miller was also a good pg for a long time and he shot 21% for his career from three. Tony Parker was never a great 3pt shooter but on 2012 he shot 23%, went to the all star game and made it to the WCF. I think everyone would agree that Amen needs to increase his shooting, but considering all the things he should be able to do at a high level on the court his upside is still really high.
I think the Pelicans should be higher and the Pistons lower. Also the Pacers are quietly building a very good young team.
Pistons have a lot of talent but like Ivey or Wiseman take a lot longer or are overrated. Ausar, Cade, Duren, Marcus Sasser are very promising.
1: Sengun - by all indications a future max player 2: Smith Jr. 3. Eason - Arguably could be 2, but health has been an issue this year. 4. Whitmore - Looks to be an ideal future starting 3 5. Green - looking like an average starting 2 or above average 6 man. 6. Thompson - high potential but broken shot could make him a career backup point
In the long term Eason will be #2. At the beginning of the season lots of Houston media personnel suggested that Amen was the highest ceiling player. How much wrong this Rockets media could be and how more often. We even did not know which '23 pick would be better, forget about being best within all core.
