He averaged 26/4.5/4.3 on 41/36/100 splits. He struggled against most of the team but cooked Fred. Jock 0/2 0% Cam 0/3 0% Amen 2/10 20% Jalen 3/11 27.3% Jabari 5/14 35.7% Jeff 3/7 42.9% Dillon 7/16 43.8% Sengun 8/17 47.1% Aaron 2/4 50% VanVleet 8/11 72.7% Tari 1/1 100% Tate 2/2 100% Stats are from nba.com. It seems some of these shots are double-counted.
I counted 3 that don’t bother me. One was falling to the ground on a rebound and the ball rolled loose. You could say he never had possession. Another was really a Tari turnover as Amen hustled to try to save an errant pass from going into the backcourt, when Tari drove into a crowd and passed to no one. And another was that bs charging foul when Wells wasn’t set yet. and a 4th wasn’t really about guard play, he shuffled his feet upon receiving a pass along the sideline.
Want to know what's worse? Let me take you back to 2015, when our starting point guard, and highest paid player James Harden commited 12 turnovers in a do or die game 5 of the Western Conference Finals, and shot 2-11 on FG%. Then we had to watch those smug Warriors go on and win the Championship.
Also the establish inbound possession turnover that wasn’t really his fault when none of his teammates reacts to him being off balance under the basket
It certainly wouldn’t be acceptable if it was happening repeatably. Amen is tasked with creating havoc on the court. On offense, it looks to be trying a little too hard to create instead of taking his opportunities. He will be fine as he gets more minutes. It is no coincidence that the Rockets domination in the second half was largely when Amen and Tari were in the game together.
On defense he can guard 1-5 as evidenced by him shutting down Morant. If Ime hadn’t been a fool in the first game, he would have shut down Lamelo and we would be 2-0. I think he should start for Brooks and as the season progresses get more time initiating the offense (call it point forward if you like). On defense he should take the best perimeter player for the other team as much as possible.With Jalen’s new found defensive intensity they will make a tremendous backcourt defensively. Offensively Jalen, Sengun, and Amen will share the initiation role when FVV sits. Amen and Sengun will be eventually be dominant in PnR situtations as they both can be great interior scorers and both are great passers.
Not a point guard. Swiss Army knife. Reed is the future point guard. Reed-Jalen-[choose your forwards]-Sengun
Yup. Exactly how I see it. Reed = Point and spacer Green = Primary offense from guard Amen = Swiss Army Knife (TBD) Sengun = Offensive hub
Jalen? We'll see. To be proven. 38% so far. And yeah, Amen not looking like a guard so far, neither like a star caliber player. More like a super glue guy.
On defense he should be on the focus of the other teams offense, except maybe Jokic and other dominant centers. If that is a guard, he is at least a guard on defense. He will get more and more chances to initiate the offense and will be dominant in PnR situations. Call him what you want. If Jalen, Jabari, and Tari continue to progress this team’s major contributors after FVV is gone will be Amen, Jalen, Sengun, Tari, and Jabari with Sheppard, Cam and Adams in support. If they trade for Giannis that might change. If this is Jalen consistently they won’t even bother with Booker.
Honestly the more minutes we can get from a Jalen, Amen, Tari, Jabari, Sengun lineup, the better. If Tari’s 3pt shot can hold up that becomes a possibility and defensively that turns into mega switchable chaos lineup with enough shooting and smart cutting to give both Sengun and Jalen room to create offense. If you have that lineup you can supplement it with Fred, Brooks, Cam, Reed, and Adams and then you can give the vets night off on back to backs with Landale, Holiday, and Tate. That’s a deep team with a TON of positional flexibility and ways to play different styles.
This is exactly how I see things. It is situational. If FVV is killing it from 3 then you can play differently part of the time. Part of what is being built is a team of maximum flexibility. Ime does need to adjust his philosophies and be willing to take advantages of matchups and the hot hand on offense. With Amen, Sengun, FVV, and maybe Sheppard we have a glut of high IQ guys that can take advantage of matchups. it will take time and Ime will have to get rid of his vet-itis to accomplish, but I have high hopes.
They were using Jalen as the PG with Fred playing off ball for a lot of possessions. Looks like Udoka is experimenting different backcourt combinations.
Just want to say I believe Tari will level up this season. However, everyone should be patient because there will be ups and downs early in the season before he “gets his legs”.
What's his actual basketball skill? He literally can't score if it's not on a fastbreak. How did he regress? He was already a zero.
