It's crazy, my perception says "oh he had a bad night offensively" and indeed the efficiency was poor (by Amen's standards)... but it's still all-star level numbers
Yeah, he's not ready yet for guard duty. Just because he was a guard for OT Elite because he had slightly better handles than his brother does not mean he has the makeup of a NBA star guard (or even starting quality guard). He's our budding star forward until I see otherwise.
Don't be so sure about what Amen can't do guys. We have a filter on our eye test, we've never seen these guys in average spacing like most people have seen their teams. It's a very odd situation we've probably rarely ever been in. I think the bigger question is when can we have the appropriate shooting around and including Sengun/Amen/Green so that we see whether they're capable of doing such and such thing on a big stage. You don't want to make excuses but anyone would look worse if they were surrounded by like the 25th shot making team in the NBA. It clogs everything. Jabari, Brooks and FVV maybe rounding into a good enough temporary trio for surrounding Sengun/Amen/Green. Whitmore, Sheppard and Eason all with great potential to elevate. The core of the core trio will have to work hard again this summer on their 3PT shot as they're nowhere close to where we need them to be. Jalen is close, a little more selectivity and a little more work on his mechanics and I think we're there, he could shockingly end up a big volume above average shooter for us which is huge - we need it so bad.
Yeah I brought it up on the trade thread, Kyrie may very well be furious about this even though he is friends with AD. How can you trust your front office after that? He would fit so nicely on our team. Sengun/Adams Jabari/Tari Amen/Brooks Green/Whitmore Irving/Holiday/Sheppard Try a zone with Irving and 40%-Jabari lurking. Even Green can't be ignored by defenders at all now, his PPP ticking up on 3pters you can't afford at all. Those 3 guys can collectively average 7-8 attempts each. Underrated option. He's not a big net positive value guy. He's a sniper and a playoff closer, good guy, tries hard, great championship experience. Respects our young guys. If we face a serious veteran team in the first round like Lakers or Warriors, it will be great to have him. I would not pass it up if it's an option. Totally against giving up prospects. I think Whitmore is better than we can guarantee with almost any pick we have. Let them have picks, it's worth it. I'm confident developing the guys we have with what we know about them right now. Whitmore and Sheppard even if we don't want to keep them we can first develop them into being worth 2-4 picks.
Every game is a learning exp for Amen. Tonight's game against NY is the most I have ever seen him use spin moves on drives. Looking forward to the day when he puts everything together. I feel the Rockets are also learning how to use him.
Man sounds like he got chewed out for his defense on a night he had an impressive triple double against a contender with 3 starters out. Come on Ime. Who's comfortably guarding Brunson in the PnR without a C who can protect the rim while putting up 27/11/11? Sometimes Ime is unrealistic about the defense. It was a good effort by the guys shorthanded against a legit great team in the road. Came down to the final minute. Not like starting Tate is a brilliant idea Ime. I don't know a coach who's team gets beat up without calls and then blames the close loss on the guy who had the triple double. Even in the post game, Ime made it a point to mention that our usual good defenders got toasted. Yeah Ime, because Jasean Tate is protecting the rim lol. Even if he were a no-defense player, we would have appreciated a triple double tonight. 5 more exhausted games to go. We did this to ourselves by choosing a strategy of leading the league in rebounding and defense. Injuries came because of that (since, you know, I called it) or unluckily. Logically, they should be absolutely exhausted right now going into the break - moreso than other teams. They're young and the guys off the bench are shaking off some rust so I think if we can go 3-2 the rest of the way - we're sorted after ASB.
Tonight's first half should have put to rest all the Amen can't run a half-court offense. He absolutely dominated even though we have no real 3 pt threats to dish to. When Amen is running the point, the ball never gets sticky. It made no sense that Ime decided to park Amen in the corner and let Jalen sh*t the game away. I think Jalen is part of our core, but Ime needs to adjust when he is getting man-handled. It's always been crap that Amen can't create his own offense. Amen will be a triple double machine on high efficiency, if Ime gets some help on the offensive end with his coaching and Stone gets off his ass and trades for some shooters.
I would actually love to sit Fred cautiously and rest him heavily before the ASB to see what we can do without him for 6 games of building chemistry with Green/Amen but I'm not confident Udoka will extend the rotation and the guys are just so tired. We would need him to start giving some more serious minutes to two of McVeigh, Sheppard, Uncle Jeff or Landale for extra spacing and to give the guys a breather.
Oh while I'm here: Amen is a freaking beast man. Big games against Boston and New York will put people on notice. We need his dynamic so badly on the team.
