I don’t know man, Ime’s love for vets coupled with FVV’s ability to still be solid as a starter for a team where he’s only 3 years into mentoring the team I cannot see him suddenly accepting a bench role. Hope he dose though because I have ZERO interest in FVV as a starter past this year.
It's all good because Ime loves Amen even more than Fred. To finish the season and in the playoffs, I imagine Fred will remain in the starting lineup while Jabari and Tari continue coming off the bench.
Why do you want to demote him from one of our 17 franchise players to "just a PG"? Seriously, though, why are y'all focused so much on position? I'm willing to bet Ime's fantasy is to have high IQ ballhandlers at every position who can hit jumpers and are great passers. Y'all are out there looking for John Stockton or Jason Kidd in an era where the elite teams are hoping they can build an 80's Lakers or Celtics or recent Warriors team. Not necessarily just based on shooting or talent, but based upon no matter who has the ball, they make the right decisions.
Sample size too small. Amen is already very good at finishing plays, but he is a tertiary ball handler at this time. I can see us playing Reed alongside amen and amen controlling the ball while Reed spaces the floor . Next year .
Granted, FVV has been horrible lately. I expect he'll come out of it like he came out of early season slump. Just a bad time to be horrible. Green looking good lately.
You position is determined by who you defend, and Amen is going to defend wings. He's not going to defend the smallest player on the court every night. Amen can defend the 1/2/3 and most 4's. It will be less than 10% of the time that the best player at those positions is the smallest player on the court. Most of his time will be spent on guys who are 6'4 to 6'9. On offense, you don't decide who guards you. The opponent does. He will also be guarded by 6'4 to 6'9 guys most of the time. It's a problem for them either way because there are no 6'9 players who can keep up with his speed on the break and there are no 6'4 players who can match his strength/speed combo. IMO we'll naturally end up starting two smaller and two bigger players than him, and we will allow him to roam the paint defensively a lot (like a mini Giannis) rather than chasing an elite small scorer through screens all night. He's not that guy this season offensively, but he will be next season. Think Michael Jordan who - if he couldn't score well - would have ended up an elite defensive player ever season of his career. But once you realize he can carry you offensively too, you get a Pippen to guard the best wings because Amen will be a $40m-$50m offensive player while the best perimeter defender in the league won't cost that much. You let Tari do that for example. Like Jordan, you'll then only call on Amen to shut a guy down in spurts or in unique matchups. You do this because you want to preserve him for points, assists and rebounds. No, he cannot be your best perimeter scorer, guard the most elite wings like Pippen, grab rebounds like Barkley, pass like Magic and have the energy to close games. We've already discovered in NBA history that obviously a human has a physical limit in each era at least. You're also forgetting that it's rare AF to have a C who can put up 6+ assists so whoever is our primary playmaker is going to have an easier gig than most perimeter playmakers in the league. Murray and Curry can turn into pure scoring guards when needed because sometimes the opponent's defense is far more geared to stop a perimeter playmaker than a post playmaker. We will have the option of inverting our entire offense and having perimeter defenders worried about what's going on both in front of them and behind them. I think Sheppard is very lucky because right now Jalen and Amen can guard the best 2/3's, while Amen/Sengun/Green will handle the playmaking duties. It's tailor made for his potential strengths and current weaknesses. That means at the traditional 1, we don't need his handle to catch up as urgently as we need his shooting and defense to catch up. We need a 6'3 guy who plays hard on both ends of the floor, can bring the ball up sometimes and murders teams with 3pt shooting. Like a shorter, quicker Klay Thompson. That's much easier than if he had to be a standard 1 in the NBA. If he can put on some muscle this summer and solidify that 3PT shot, that position is tailor made for him a la Derrick White, Chalmers, Derek Fisher, Tony Parker, Avery Johnson, Kenny Smith championship teams.
I'm out on FVV .... I think his shortcomings severely limit the team's ceiling. The only real positive is the assist to turnover ratio - He's a safe player in that regard. But with his offensive limitations - low shooting percentages, doesn't finish well at the rim or anywhere in the lane and mediocre, at best from 3 all while being targeted on defense ..... He's just not good enough. The need for a safe player is past, we need something more from that position. I'm not ready to bet an entire season on whether or not Amen (or Reed) is ready to take over at the point We saw how hard it was to win without a point guard while FVV was out with the total lack of a competent backup. I'd entertain the idea of Amen (or Reed) at the point, but they need another competent player at the position too. Holiday wasn't that guy. But it makes no sense to spend $44m on a guy who's shooting 38% from the floor and below league average from 3.
I agree that his handles aren't quite up to snuff for him to be a full time PG with traditional thinking BUT I think functionally it doesn't matter because his burst and bball IQ are both so dangerous that it is very risky to play up on him close enough to disrupt his dribble and not get burned. He get's gravity from the threat of him turning the corner because you won't be able to catch him after he turns the corner and if the defense is already at the rim, he is strong enough and tall enough to keep defenders in jail once they are behind him.
Finally someone who agrees with me.....same same and the sooner we get rid of the stop gap players, the sooner we can reach the peak of this team....and build. DD
I think we pick up the option and Fred if we can't get a superstar talent to replace him. When FVV went out this team was completely lost on offense because FVV controls the ballhandling. We can ease Fred out of the starting position next year but we definitely need veteran leadership at the 1 spot. Fred often coaches the players on the court and he is stellar defensively. He creeped into top ten defensive win shares and was doing a great job on Curry last night. He has limitations and I don't think hes worth 40 million but this team needs to continue developing with some stability at the point guard position.
