Oh yeah? Would you have drafted Ivey over Smith, Ivey who is coming off the bench for the Pistons? Can we at least give Amen a year before comparing him to Ausar? Good lord.
To be fair, at one point Mobley, Cade and Scottie Barnes were all struggling. The only constant might be Wagner but that is too hard to pick.
And before anyone starts in I think it's pretty unlikely one twin's ankles are significantly stronger than the others, lol. Just bad luck on Amen's part.
Typical clutchfans, Amen basically has not been playing and we are declaring bust already. The good thing about drafting Amen is even if the pure PG route doesn't work out, you just play him in the Ausar role as a backup plan. His defense is already up to NBA speed
I feel like the perimeter defense with Amen and Tari would be quite terrifying with their lengths. It should theoretically cause havoc in the passing lanes
No doubt, there is also things I duly noted......the lengthy 7 game Home Series is helping the Rockets..... The Rockets do well when they practice at home a lot. Kudos to the coaching staff. On the road they cannot practice or have lengthy film sessions plus fatigue from travel, it is not the same. So they better win as much at home and under these circumstances.
This isn’t remotely true. Off the top of my head, Kobe, Harden, Scottie Pippen, and David Robinson all averaged under 10 points their rookie season. Give me some time, and I could have you a ton of examples across the generations of great players who did not excel “from the jump.”
But you eventually have to score. Amen is basically his brother with elite vision, passing and athleticism.
Comparison isn't fair to Amen. He's on a deeper more competent team that can't afford to play a fresh rookie 30 minutes a night like the Pistons. Pistons suck ass.
Notice how you listed mostly rookies from the 90s with the physical gap and Harden, who was just put on the bench because there were superior talents in front of him. Also, Harden was way better as a Rookie, no matter what the numbers say. It's different NBA right now and some of the guys will pan out but Cade, Mobley, Banchero, Holmegren, Wenbanyama Ausar etc they play right away. We had top lottery picks 3 times and came out with 0 transcendent players
I used those examples because we know their entire career trajectories. Want more modern examples? Fine. Giannis averaged 6.8 ppg his first season. Kawhi averaged 7.9. Dirk averaged 8.2. Paul George averaged 7.8. I could go on and go. Sorry, but you are just wrong.
It's not a coincidence that the Rockets got better when not trying to force the "Amen is the point guard" storyline.
I agree with the sentiment, but David Robinson but up the greatest rookie season in NBA history. 24-12 and 4 blocks a game, albiet he did it at 24.
You're obviously right, and I cannot for the life of me remember who I meant to post, haha. I probably meant Kawhi.
