Can’t decide if this guy royally sucks or if he has true potential. Extremely worried about his awful shooting anywhere outside of close to the basket and fear it may not be correctable. As the season progresses, teams will figure him out and leave him wide open and double team others. We all knew shooting was his weakness when drafted and he hasn’t shown much to prove that analysis was incorrect. His brother has played much more and has the same issue. Both are shooting 17% threes.
I've always been concerned about Amen. I've voiced my concerns since day 1. Here's my biggest hang-up -- the Thompson twins' entire lives have basically revolved around basketball. Amen's family moved so he could enroll in high school basketball early. He signed with OTE so he could focus exclusively on basketball. So, how can you have that background and STILL have such a busted shot? And it's not just his 3-ball. He's shooting .6 from the FT line, which is marginally better than he shot from the line in OTE. I just can't understand it.
Anybody making judgment on Amen this early in the game is an idiot. The OP himself confirms this as consistently one of the worst posters on this board.
He came in with very high chances of being a bust due to his complete lack of even basic ability to shoot a basketball and he never faced any real competition. He's another all athleticism guy so it's high risk, high reward. I think we give him at least till the end of next season to start showing something before we start tossing the B word around. It was always going to take him some time.
He was possibly a reach, but way too early to call him a bust. He has bust potential for sure, but I think he has enough utility to stick around for a long time if he continues improving.
If they want him to be a PG, he should probably spend the season in the valley learning how to run an offense. He’s far from being a bust at this point. He clearly has physical talent. Let’s see how he develops. maybe he develops faster than we think.
For all the talk of Ausar being the definition of a "winning player," he certainly isn't helping his team win much. The inability to shoot absolutely decimates an offense and destroys spacing. You have to be INCREDIBLE in other facets of the game to overcome a broken shot, and even then, you can only have one non-shooter on the floor at a given time. This is exactly why the Pistons are among the worst teams in history -- they have a bunch of great athletes who can't shoot.
The poor shooting history is not a good rep for a basketball player. The Rockets aren't a track team. Shooting develops early. However, LeBron was not a good shooter early and got better and better.
Has he even played 10 games yet? Probably should wait. His handle is suspect and his shooting as well but lets see how much he improves over the next 2 seasons. To me it is more about improving. I do think defensively he's further along so he has that going for him.
At worst he’s a better version of a multi time all star? You should probably temper your expectations, Simmons is a whole lot bigger.
I admit I may be a little high on Amen but I think he will stuff the box score once he gets acclimated. He is playing scared right now. That won't last.
I stated before the draft that I wouldn't have taken either twin because of the shooting issues. These kids have lived basketball for the better part of the last 5 or so, having had professional coaching all along the way and their shots are not just needing a tweak but totally broken and in need of a rebuild. I would have traded the pick for the best player I could get at the guard spots. The idea that players who have had professional coaching for several years have a critical part of their game so broken is beyond my comprehension. Now that he's a Rocket, I hope for the best.
It was a swing for upside. If we are going to give minutes to a young player, mind as well do it with the hopes of that player being a high level starter rather than just another role player we could just sign on offseason (who most guys looked like later in the draft). I for one wanted Amen given the options available but I am also still considering this a team in transition with no firmly entrenched core just yet. FWIW, I REALLY wanted Scoot Henderson and as bad as Amen has been, Scoot has been even worse. It got so bad for Scoot with air balls, they are trying him with goggle to see if it helps. The thing with Amen is - if he can just become league average shooter, I think he can be a very good starter because his passing feel is elite, his speed and burst is still good(even though he doesn't know how to use it out there), and his defensive potential is incredible because of his length and positional versatility. He very well could be a Rondo type player without much offensive growth.
