Every sport has certain types of athleticisms that are more conducive to being successful in said sports than others. As far as athleticism that allow a person to become successful at the highest level of basketball is concerned, Vince Carter clearly had more of it than Amen, especially relative to the peers of his generation. Put it another way. If 2nd year Vince Carter is on this current team, and Amen is playing in Toronto right now, is there a single person on Clutchfans who would vote for Amen as being more athletic?
I feel like VC is great/elite at dunking and that's it. AMen is great/elite at defense, blocks, steals, rebounds, driving and scoring at the basket
Vince carter is 10th on the all time 3 pointers made charts at over 37% for his career, he was much better than you'd think.
2nd year VC who put up 26/6/4 back in an era in which teams average 97ppg, on above average league efficiency and 40% 3pt shooting? And making All-Pro? And also he had 3.5 stocks per 100 possessions to Amen's 3.9? I get most fans today would only know VC from his dunk contest highlights, so I don't begrudge you for thinking he's a player in the vein of Zach Lavine. But again if you teleport VC after his 2nd year to this Rockets team instead of Amen, the hype for this team would be much, much higher.
See I'm not entirely sold. McGrady played in the street ball era where they were all heavily incentivized to be as dominant as possible in an isolated offense as I think the league was looking for the next Michael Jordan to market. Defense was important but nowhere close to the offensive output. I think McGrady had the length and athleticism to keep up with nearly any position player out there but his offensive talent was so great that the coaches didn't want him to expend that much energy on the defensive end in order to maximize his offensive output. Amen on the other hand came in with almost 0 offensive creation outside of fast break dunks and put backs which forced him, especially in an Udoka system, to prove his time on the defensive end if he was going to get any burn. If McGrady were forced to be a lockdown defender and utilize his athletic gifts there I think you would have seen some absolutely incredible results. Again, a ton of his energy was exerted in 1 on 3 isolation offense to generate points for his teams. Shaq even talks about this. He said "McGrady was a bad dude" and Kobe never had the defensive attention that McGrady had when he played with Shaq and won his Championships. He thought McGrady was better and was over worked.
