Do you understand that Amen hasn't lost anything, he's just having to play out of position?

Playing out of position and has never had very tight handles. Goes a little too wide with his dribble and often his body goes faster than his dribble… but I’ve been saying that since his rookie reading, though I was slightly deceived when in his first preseason games he made some really nice pocket passes on the pick and roll from somewhat tough angles. Thought he was a natural point until I saw how good he was off the ball. All that to say, he CAN get there, IF we absolutely need him to.

But maybe Reed develops into that type of guard. And Amen can just do it to supplement, giving us yet another advantage over other teams.

Either way, I haven’t felt like he’s lost anything. He’s just a 3rd year player still learning.

 

Totally agree. Putting him on ball is an investment in the Rockets future. Becoming a top 3 player will require a jump shot, not playing his “natural” position. Amen is a very versatile offensive player. Doesn’t matter what position he plays as long as he gets plenty of opportunities.

 

Yeah, I’m ready to give up on the “Amen as point guard” experiment. My expectation coming into the year (pre FVV injury) was Amen would take a HUGE step forward in the role from last year. Hasn’t happened and I think he’s regressed when forced to initiate the offense. Let him get back to the dunker role with no responsibility on offense and allow him to wreak havoc on defense.

 

At the moment, I don't even care about the offensive end (although I will call a spade a spade when necessary on this end)

I just want to be able to watch Amen unleashed on the defensive end.

I just don't ever see - apart from a few minutes here and there - so far through the first quarter of the season, the generational defensive talent be unleashed on the opposition that we saw last season.

It is infuriating.

Let him hound ball handlers the entire possession for christ sake.

I have more stock in Alpi than nearly everyone, I have since day one since the trade. As a defensive guy it is Amen's defense which caused me to get up out my seat last season and force him to replace my 'JaLeN gReEn Is A gOoD dEfEnDeR bEcAuSe hE tRiEs' pic. Let me have that excitement again.

 

Ben Simmons never really showed signs of trying or wanting to improve. Amen seems to be a hard worker.

 

Instead of me telling you what I thought your post implied, I am just going to ask you:

What point were you trying to make?

That should clear things up.

 

Ben Simmons was way better early on, despite the lack of shooting. 6-10, excellent vision, comfortable at PG, top defender in the league. He got the mentals, that’s what undid him… People were saying he was mentally soft coming into the league, but that grew into a full-blown meltdown. Amen seems like a super-grounded and tough kid, so I don’t see him having the same arc.

The one arc we can hope for is Kawhi. Came in as D-specialist on a team with three HOFers, but late-bloomed into a TopDog and primary O-weapon.

 

Jimmy Butler might be more realistic, unless Amen's jump shot makes a drastic turn around, which it very well may. The flip side though is that Amen is more athletic than either of those two.

 

Amen is my favorite player and if you say bad things about him I will kick your ass.

 

Amen has been great.

would like to see a few more make from three point land and I would like to see him take for mid range jumpers. That being said, most of these missed three pointers are not off by much.

Amen and Reed Will be very complementary as they grow together.

 

Just exactly the sentence I mentioned.

Please, share what you you think it implied. I'm so excited. As you can see everyone is so interested in this subject, it's good you caught it so shrewdly.

 

Well, since you are a Jalen Green stan it sure sounds like you were trying to stan for him again, but I am sure you will gaslight me...like you always do lol. I gave you an option to just explain yourself, you prefer to gaslight.

 

Lmao

 

He’s averaging 17-7-5 on 50% from the field and great defense as a 22 year old.

Who’s saying he’s having a down year?

 

I was kinda thinking the same .... but you gotta remember that Jimmy had a really good midrange game and he shot 35% or better from 3 in 8 of 15 seasons and even had 2 seasons over 40%.

Amen's got a long way to go offensively to reach that level. He's at .191 for the season and .214 for his career.

Hopefully he works on it again this coming offseason and makes some real progress.

 

Sorry, I don't think you know what gaslighting means. What am I keeping secret or twisting in order to gaslight you? Is it a secret I'm a Jalen Green fan, do I hide it? How would it help me win the argument, what's the motivation?

Spoiler

Btw, if you think I'm always gaslighting you, you should really do some research on what that means because I've never gaslit you yet you always feel that way. I have an ex who had that and it turned out she had unresolved trauma with a gaslighting grandmother which made her suspicious of everyone gaslighting her - so much so the she couldn't detect when someone was actually doing it to her. That chick ended up committed to a psych ward. Don't make light of unresolved mental things.

I think you took a statement that was about Udoka and because of your gaslighting fear you made it about Green. It made you selectively forget that I'm a massive Amen fan and after 20+ years on the board don't need to prove that I'm Jalen-only.

I'm interested in talking Rockets as the core subject. Unfortunately I'm not interested in discussing myself or Jalen Green as the core subject so if that's what you're interested in, I think we're done here.

 

Amen is playing great, what’s with the idea he’s not in the first place?

 

he got thrown into FVV's starting PG role

took a leap from the FT line 68% first 2 years now at 80%

second only to Alpi with 5.2 asists 2 assists to 1 turnover

49% FG% while KD & Alpi is at 50% FG

leads the starters in minutes, BPM, and Net Rating

https://www.nba.com/stats/players/traditional?CF=TEAM_ABBREVIATION*E*HOU&dir=A&sort=PLUS_MINUS
https://www.nba.com/stats/players/advanced?CF=TEAM_ABBREVIATION*E*HOU&dir=A&sort=NET_RATING

needs a ton a work on his three's but at least he's not chucking and shooting us out of games
his leap in FT% makes me hopeful

his as valuable as a winning culture player as Alpi and KD

 

Very logical argument, but you’re wasting your breath. The FO and most of the league see it, so just don’t sweat it with the sky is falling fans on this site. The fact that they are writing off Amen after 20 games in his new position and elevating Reed to near-god status should give you a clue of the mindset. I’m as frustrated as anybody at Amen’s shooting woes, especially at the rim, but it’s 20 games in a new position for goodness’ sake.

Amen and Reed both have flaws, but both have shown great work ethic and coachability. They will both elevate their games over the course of this year. People should be much more concerned about Durant’s ability to fit with our young guns than Amen’s lack of a 3 point shot. Watch the rest of the team when Durant has the ball, all they do is stand around and watch, while Durant creates a contested mid-range shot or turns the ball over. That’s on Ime, but that would require he actually coach offensive basketball not just roll it out like he did with FVV and Jalen for their ISO heroics.