I think amen Thompson is the franchise player as he is homegrown and high potential. KD is a hooker / assassin / hired gun for a quick job. He’ll offer instant gratification then be done, who do you think is franchise player and why? How do you define franchise player?
If Alpi comes to the NBA with this Eurobasket level of play then it's him tbh and it's on Amen to improve to take it. Amen's never been remotely close to that level so far in his career, and being a dominant lockdown defender isn't a star role, it's a roleplayer unless they're also putting up scoring numbers. I'd absolutely love for Amen to come in and blow right past Sengun's level because we'd probably be odds-on favourites if he did.
Amen is going to be a nga all over the court this NBA, not euro. being a springy nga matters - all over the court
Sorry, I can't rank people based on "is going to." I rank people based "has achieved" and right now Sengun's a proven superior player and it's actually not close yet. I had enough "is going to" supporting Jalen for years. I'm not making the same mistake again, until Amen proves it his potential is just hypotheticals. Sengun's actually realising his potential there's no need for "is going to" so right now he's better.
Alpi is 1A with Amen 1B. If Amen becomes a good shooter that might flip. The good thing is they are both extremely unselfish and play well together. We are poised to be competing for a title for at least the next decade with these two guys.
Amen was first team defense in the NBA and if starting all-year might have won DPOY. You underestimate that side of the floor. As a starter Amen’s stats are very close in rebounding 9.4 to 10.3 not demonstratively different in assists. Amen was better at all the shooting % except FT% and that was about the same. He had more blocks per game, steals per game and his effective fg% was much better. Sengun averaged 4 points more per game. In summary, I think your assessment that he isn’t anywhere close to Alpi is hyperbolic at best and outright wrong in reality. When starting Amen was a better player than Alpi last year. Whether that is permanent or not is debateable.
I gladly will wear that banner. Of course, you can’t really dispute the numbers so all you have is my “eye test” is better than yours.
Basketball is a team sport and best chance of winning comes with optimizing the game according to playing group's skill sets against each opponent. Building around 1 guy and setting everything according to his strengths and weaknesses would work if there is extensive difference between players' talent levels (like nuggets, bucks, Luka's Dallas etc) We have a young core and good vets rather than a unicorn and fillers. Therefore rockets staff needs to define best plays possible and those need to be executed flexibly in each game accordingly (mismatches, defensive schemes, hot hands etc) Glorifying a springy guy and let him dribble forever or do tunnel vision kamikaze runs to rim is no good basketball. We've seen it against GSW last year.
Sengun ain’t prove more than amen - did you see the playoffs? pls tell me it isn’t only euro ball you care about
Have you seen playoffs yourself? Just check the stats. Tell me how 25% 3pt and 15ppg 3apg makes a good showing for franchise player?
