Amen Thompson is the Rockets' REAL franchise player

Fist bump - and then mini ice pack in palm.

 

It usually takes at least a year or two for a young player to see the game slowed down.

 

Looks like an elite G-League player

 

Nix is better

 

Worst post of the year

 

He was talking about competitive eating.

 

Better than an Overtime Elite player

 

High time to play in Over Time.

 

Amen is going to get a lot of PT. I noticed the first sub tonight was Amen coming in for Green, not VV. If this is an indication of Udoka's rotation pattern, we may see the experiment of playing Amen and FVV together early.

 

Amen and Fvv right now makes much more sense than Amen and Green - who can both get wild with the ball and benefit from playing with a steadying hand like Fred. Amen is supremely talented, but I’m not sure I trust him running the entire offense yet, even on the second unit, at least until after allstar break. Right now I like him as a playmaking wing more, less pressure to create. Loved seeing the Fvv/Green/Amen trio lineup, which may be the path for Amen to start eventually if he outplays Dillon.

 

I think the current plan is probably have Amen backing up both FVV and Green. The 3-man guard rotation will give Amen a lot of burns, each playing 30+ mpg. The long term goal is for Amen to be the full-time PG when FVV is gone.

The SF spot is very crowded with Brooks, Eason, Tate, and Whitmore all need minutes. Cam looks to have little chance unless there are injuries, which kind of sucks. We all want to see what he can do with steady PT. I don't think they are going to let Amen add to the wing logjam.

 

The best thing I've seen from Amen is his FT% (seemingly) has improved. Hopefully that's carried over because he may need it as there's no sign yet his 3-pt shot has improved. If he hits FT's at a 75% clip, it's a blessing. Another negative from his OTE days - he was great at penetrating and passing out of traffic to open guys around the 3 pt line. I'm seeing him fumble the ball more or get his shots blocked on these type of drives in the NBA, which is kind of expected since - better athletes. Another thing is that he has the skill and power to hammer dunks, but is content dropping the ball into the hoop. He's taken the ball up and relied purely on his jumping to lay the ball up or put in soft dunks. I don't think he's had to go through people much in high school and OTE, so I'm seeing him get blocked or stripped on these type of plays. I loved how he's also crashing the boards now.

His stat line tonight of 19 pts, 7 rebs, 4 assists, 1 turnover, and 2 steals is the kind of line I had hoped for as an average once he was comfortable in the NBA, with hopefully 3 or 4 more assists and maybe a block. He's that talented.

Yeah, I don't see Cam getting a ton of minutes, but the best thing about pretty much every guy you named is that, given the situation, they can all play multiple positions. From what I can tell right now, though, it's going to be Eason and possibly Amen off the bench first along with maybe Jock. That's 8 guys. Then you may have 1 or 2 more guys in the regular rotation (if they're lucky). Is one of them Cam? Could be. When Cam's been in there with Amen, I thought they looked pretty decent.

If Cam stays with the team, I'm wondering more about how many minutes he'd get. Ime already said he'd rather give a couple of guys 6 minutes rather than giving more guys 3 minutes per game where they can't get anything going or get into any kind of rhythm since he was a player and knows how that feels. Let's face it - Cam's shot has to get better for him to get more playing time, as does his passing. So far, he's kind of been glorified on his athleticism and highlight dunks, but when you look at his pre-season performances, you can see he probably isn't there quite yet. He's just a kid (built like a tank), so no worries - he has time to improve.

 

I like how effective Amen's been off ball so far, even if he's not a good floor spacer. He can make good plays just off cuts, rebounds, and being active on D. He doesn't need to dribble excessively to create a play.

 

I didn't get to watch last night. From the box score, it appeared Amen was our best player last night. Was he?

 

That technical dunk had me hyped last night
Superstar potential for sure

 

Actually...

1a\1b. - Jalen and FVV
2. Amen
3. Sengun