Amen is a POINT GUARD! He is a 6’7 point guard with great passing skills, great rebounder and elite defense skills. He will work on his handles this summer and summer league and he will improve his shooting to average…the guy is a gym rat
If he wants to be a real PG, he'll need to learn to shoot. Till then, he is more of a point forward, which shouldn't be a problem if the Rockets draft correctly and run Amen next to Cam and Sheppard.
Some teams still have traditional role based guys - provided they do that role at a very high level(Tyrese Haliburton comes to mind) but otherwise building the average NBA roster has moved more towards guys who can do a lot of things decently/positionlessly over let's say a guy who is 6'10" and can rebound and enforce in the paint who we call a PF who will guard the other team's 6'10" player.....because now the other team's 6'10" player might be KD and your PF player won't be able to cover a guy like that on the perimeter...or the other team might have four 6'9"+ guys on the court at the same time like the Twolves do with guys like Kat/Gobert/Anderson/Reid/and McDaniels. To say it another way - as more versatile players have made their way into the NBA (particularly as high level shooters), it's caused teams to resort to more switching schemes to prevent open looks so you don't stick to your role assignment very much. That's forced players to have to be more well rounded to be able to guard multiple positions and to be able to take advantage of whatever offensive matchups those player might have an advantage in so if you are a big like KAT - maybe you get matched up to a smaller player and you just shoot over them before the defense has time to switch the advantage matchup. Now your ability to execute a scheme defensively and offensively is in some ways even more important than what you can do individually guarding or being guarded by your traditional matchup.
Basically Pippen with an explosive first step. That kind of Pippen would be able to play full time PG if needed. Of course Amen plays in an era where they won’t ignore his shooting for his first 5-6 years as was the case with Butler and Pippen. I’m pretty confident in Green and Sengun improving their 3PT shot so I’m not too worried about Amen eventually joining the starting lineup. What an incredible young trio we’re developing over here. We might have the perfect development staff for a roster whose number one development goal must be to improve our shooting. Adding muscle is another important goal for all three of them. Can’t wait to see them in action next season.
Kobe is known for his tenacity, relentlessness, determination, and work ethic Magic is known for his high level bball IQ and creativeness And both are known to be winning bball players
He has PG skills, but he's better in the dunker position. He would be best used as a better version of Rodman until we can see if he can improve his shot/handles. As is he's good for 13/6/5.
So far, Green resembles Kobe way more than Amen resembles Magic. He also had more accolades at this point in his career than Amen does too. Magic Johnson won NBA finals MVP as a rookie, Amen's so far off Magic that I'm even more convinced of the mass delusion on CF. Insanity.
While Kobe is one of the more overrated players in NBA history, there's absolutely no way you can make ANY comparison between young Kobe or prime Kobe to Jalen....but I do think there is a valid comparison between Kobe's final 3 seasons when he was completely washed and just out there chucking to the Jalen Green we've seen thus far.
Dude was trying to elevate Green and downplay Amen but we know Amen run fast breaks for Jalen...... It does not surprise me because this board has always been more about athleticism over BB IQ. But usually smart people win out eventually.
Green quite frankly is flat out more skilled than Amen. He has far more control of the ball in his hands, far superior and creative footwork. He also has a more effortless jump shot. Amen is the one who is the more impressive physical specimen with his length and agility combo. Amen has a better understanding of court awareness like where his teammates are. He makes quicker reads. He is better in that regard but I wouldn't even say by much. The larger difference would be in their mentality as Green just is looking to score first thus has been less reliant on awareness of teammates. Amen is someone who is looking to pass first. It's just a different mindset. Both are needed. But Green is absolutely just a more skilled ball player.
I don't think there's really a comparable player as a PG skillset wise, but I'm going to go out a limb and say probably not the greatest of all time (Magic Johnson.) The 2 things that I think limit his "superstar potential" are obviously the shooting first of all, but also (and this is from his own mouth) he has pretty much no dunk package to speak of either. He has the athleticism to be a taller Westbrook finishing at the rim, he doesn't have the aggression and dunks to weaponize it the same way Russ did. He has the vision to be a great playmaker, he does not have the otherworldly vision of a Magic Johnson, or frankly even a LeBron James, and if he does he hasn't shown it so far at all. I also don't think he's shown the otherworldly passing touch you also need if you're going to compare somebody to Magic ****ing Johnson, which is just ridiculous for 99.9999% of all passers in history. I don't think he'll be as impactful as say Harden who is a phenomenal playmaker in part because his scoring gravity facilitates his passing and vision. I don't think he'll have quite the impact as a scorer as Westbrook (dunk package/aggression) or even a young Derrick Rose (insane acrobatics and creativity - Jalen has more by a country mile and he's apparently a bust.) I think there's merit to a Ben Simmons ceiling-comp, with a lot more heart. That's still an all-star level player, but I don't consider Amen our best prospect at all, he hasn't shown anything near enough on offense to rank higher than either Jalen (literal superstar potential) or Sengun (already arguably all star level.)
Everybody gets wound up with players comps. Mostly, it just means that they have similar attributes. I do think Amen has superstar potential. My player comp for him is Magic Johnson who is my favorite basketball player of all time. Of course, Magic was the better rookie. He had the greatest rookie season of all time. The similarities are there as rookies. Both were tall multi-position players, both are excellent in transition (Magic better at finishing). Both are superb passers with incredible bbiq. Both were good rebounders (Amen better at offensive rebounding). Neither had an outside shot. Magic’s handles were better than Amen’s but not by an astronomical amount. Picking someone as a player comp does not mean they will ever be as good. Also, remember that Magic started with a team with all-star vets including the best center of all-time, Norm Nixon, Jamal Wilkes, Michael Cooper, and Spencer Haywood. Calm down, I’m not saying Amen is Magic Johnson, but it is a very good comp.
