This is the most exciting clip of the offseason. If Amen is confident enough to take it personally when defenders sag off him we can actually be a top 10 offense and hence a title contender.
This guy is a basketball savant. He is dedicated to basketball and has a humble confidence off the court and supreme aggression on the court. Superstar is written all over him.
We have been saying this for a minute now....I believe in Amen's commitment to improving his shooting but Alpi I'm a lot less confident on.
Why do you doubt Alpi's commitment to improving his shooting? Didn't we see some videos of Alpi practicing 3pt shooting? And he did shoot more 3s in EuroBasket.
I just saw him defer on too many open 3s last year. He takes them very reluctantly and teams know that so there is never a defensive call to action when Alpi has the ball at the 3pt line - it's not even a "will he or won't he shoot it". Most defenders when they see Alpi with the ball in his hands at the 3pt line are either preparing to play the screen or are trying to be in position in case Sengun does one of those spinning dives to the basket. Even when Alpi does take one of those, unless its at the end of the shot clock, he takes too long to think about whether there is a better option on the court - 3-5 seconds with the ball fake pumping a shot no one thinks he is going to take. I don't doubt he will work on it - but that thought process says he very much thinks its a bad shot for his team when he is taking it. Hopefully that will improve but it can't continue to be a "last resort" for Alpi if he is going to be succesful at it to the point where it raises the ceiling of our team.
That's last season. You can say pretty much the same thing about Amen last season. He was also reluctant to shoot from beyond the arc even when wide open. In fact, their 3pt attempts last season were almost identical. Defenders didn't bother to close out. I hope both of them change this season. If they can shoot around 33% without hesitation, we are going to be a huge problem for the league.
Let's be honest, Amen and a respectable 3 ball might actually be higher than that. Who else in the league would be able to compare on both ends of the court? He wouldn't even need a mid-range because he's pretty much #1 athlete, you might be quick enough to keep up (Fox etc) but you're not strong enough, or you might be strong enough but you're damn sure not fast/explosive enough either. He's not LeBron (who is tbh?) but he's got the same level of athletic superiority in his own era. If you have to guard him on the 3 point line, you actually can't genuinely guard him to shut him down with one defender. Nobody in the league could guard that. You could genuinely be talking top 5. (Jokic, Giannis, Luka, I even think Shai may not outrank him if that was the case.) You don't even need him to be a playmaker either (which he is.) If he can shoot a 3 at 35% I genuinely don't see how he isn't top 5 when there's literally only Giannis who'd be close to being as good a 2 way player and he's nowhere near the defender he was now he's coming to the end of his prime. That'd be a serious consideration and I don't even think that's with my considerable Rockets bias being factored in, I think that's fairly objective.
And bigger. We genuinely are talking a top 5 player and I don't even think he needs to be any kind of sharpshooter. He's already efficient on the drive and has barely developed his dunk and layup package, if he can hit 34-35% from 3 he genuinely only needs either a floater or a bog standard mid range shot (which he's already shown glimmers of) and that's a top 5 player.
I just checked their measurements. They are about the same size. Amen is an inch taller but SGA has a little longer wingspan. Standing reach and weight are practically identical. Like I said, if Amen has a reliable jumper, he will be a faster and more athletic SGA. In other words, he's the rich man's MVP.
