Yeah Amen has an unrealistic list of duties: - learn and run the point - drives to the basket more than anyone - guards the most active player on the court - help defense (steals and blocks) - offensive rebounds - Ime wants him to run one man transition Not a realistic workload and so much effort expended to score. Coach just doesn't seem to care about wings much, he seems to almost hate star wings in general (not just Rockets). Might be reflective of his career and Spurs experience.
I’m not sure why this post popped into my head, but it did. Mind you, this comparison does not take into account that Amen is also 3 years younger and in a different stratosphere as a defender.
After an awful shooting start, Amen is shooting .43 from 3 in November on 2.3 3pa. Now, I don't think he's a .4 3 point shooter even on limited 3s per game, but hopefully his start was an anomaly and he'll settle into to .33 - .35, which should be good enough to keep defenders from completely sagging off him. He's also averaging nearly 20/7/6 this month on 52/43/70 splits. That's pretty fantastic.
I've seen some people saying they're not seeing a leap from him, and I'm like, are we watching the same guy? To be fair I think some of his overall leap did happen late last season and into the playoffs, wherein he averaged 15, 8, and 5 on 59% / 33% shooting after the ASB and in the playoffs combined. But I think he's visibly taken another step forward even from there. I think he will end up averaging between 18 to 22 points and 6 to 7 assists this season and I expect his efficiency to go back up close to his career norms. His 2P% may be a little lower than last season due to his change of roles but if he can improve his 3P% and FT% / rate that should mostly make up for it. Basically, I think he's already going to be giving us prime Jimmy Butler levels of production in just his 3rd season in the league.
Watching Amen this year it feels like he's neutered by his role. He doesn't exhibit nearly as much of that force of nature quality from last season, most likely due to trying to fit in as a PG. I feel like he's too good at the big/wing stuff to be pigeonholed as a guard, and honestly if Reed can improve enough to take over that role, that will likely truly unlock this team to compete with Denver and OKC for a title. Until then, it just feels like a sub-optimal fit.
I've always thought Butler is a great comp for Amen. Similar sizes, elite and versatile defenders, alphas who don't really care about being the team's leading scorer, etc.
For me, With Reed, his career (and stats) started game 1 against OKC. With Amen, his 3-point shooting calculation started in game 5 against the Celtics. Since then he's 6/14.
Agreed, but I think this will be worked out during the season. Not worried about it in the slightest. The Rockets offense is still evolving. Amen is very unselfish and he has another level to show us.
Amen's shooting has turned up. Good sign. I was disappointed earlier when he bricked most of his shots anywhere.
Yeah, I've come think it's probably the best comp, except that Amen is more athletic which does give him a higher ceiling and more potential to possibly stay in the backcourt whereas Jimmy mostly ended up being a SF.
It's just a matter of time until Amen moves back and Reed has the ball in his hands more. We likely need a bridge at the deadline. Not a huge move like Kyrie, but someone more in the Brogdon (retired) mold...a hybrid guy. I agree that playing the 1 takes away from Amen's natural impact.
He shouldn't be pigeon holed into the dunker spot either. He is drinking from a fire hose so far this year, but is slowly adjusting to playing the initiator role about 50% when he is on the floor. Last night he had 8 assists with 2 turnovers playing 35 minutes and made 6 perfect passes to wide open 3 point shooters who bricked the shots. People not seeing his progression have already made up their minds. At least give the guy until the all-star break before pigeon holing him as a forward. Reed is best coming off the bench for now and picking his moments as a pg or sg depending on the flow of the game and matchups. By the way, our offense is magnitudes better than last year where we had a "true pg".
Well, yes, if your young players have improved a ton, you shoot 45% from 3, add one of the most efficient scorers in the game, get Adams healthy, and remove a high usage low efficiency player...yes, the offense will be more efficient than with the true PG the year before.
It feels like you stopped watching Amen mid-season last year, because you are describing my interpretation of Amen as the guy in his rookie year that just took over for Sengun late. But he was clearly a much more versatile and had a much bigger role to end last season. But he did it by being a bit of everything. He was a huge force on the offensive glass, more prominent in transition, shared ball handling duties, etc. If you want to tell me he is doing better PG stuff this year than last, I agree with you. But if you watched his play you'd know he had to sacrifice other parts of his game to make himself into a better PG.
Whatever he is I’m glad he’s on my team. There is no team ever in any parallel universe or whatever that wouldn’t want this dude on their team. He fire.
I think he's definitely improving. I think more it's just that his bigger supporters made it out like he was going to be an unquestionable superstar this season, and he's just not there yet. Incredible where he is already, but definitely not the clear superstar on the team. Insane to think he's probably our 3rd best player. And he's this ****ing good! 3rd best. I actually can now say it was worth the pain of the WOW year to end up here. INSANE.
