I LOVE Amen but he needs to come off the bench

Fair - you are right that was an era of supreme athletes. I think Amen is significantly better than people realize but he's not Mike Tyson in a basketball jersey like Westbrook, an NFL linebacker playing the SF like Lebron, or a 7 ft muscular spring(with about the same intelligence) like Dwight....but I still think there are these plays Amen makes that literally no one in the league can make - where he glides through the air trying to figure out what to do with the ball while others rise and fall, where he jumps, lands, and manages to jump again before his opponents, where he chases down balls he should't have even had a chance to. He's not elite in any one thing - he's not the fastest, the quickest, the most explosive, the most powerful but his combination of skills put him a different type of elite category where he has a combination of high level things that give him functional athleticism that very few athletes can access. It just doesn't look the same when Lebron is barreling down the court with a full head of steam vs Amen kind of gliding through the game like some light footed puma - you don't have an appreciation of the size and power until they are already bearing down upon you and Amen kind of makes it look effortless rather than terrifying like other athletes.

 

Oh for sure, like I say, he's definitely right at the pinnacle of the modern game. It's just that unfortunately because he's more of an all round athlete, the only place he's managed to truly weaponize it so far has been on D. Both him and Jalen have the same problem on the drive where they should be so athletic you can't guard them, but because they're agile and graceful rather than just raw explosion they can't seem to just jump over their defenders the way a much smaller Ja Morant can, or a young D Rose or Westbrick as other examples. Amen on the drive with 3 steps should genuinely be unguardable with his speed, hops and size, ****, Jalen should've been ****ing unguardable because he was a ridiculous athlete and Amen's even more ridiculous, but still very stoppable. Stop 23 year old LeBron with a head of steam? Jordan? Shawn Kemp? Athleticism can and does do most of the work for a lot of players, for some reason, just not ours.

 

I don’t know if you guys have a morphed view of Iggys athleticism due to recency bias with him playing to 39, and the highlight period of his career starting at 30 with the Warriors

Or if I’m just not buying the hype of Amen being the best athlete in the NBA enough

But I remember Iggy in Philly and he was an absolute freak athlete.



Amen is probably a little bit quicker but Iggy had more vertical pop

 

This was my opinion about the team, too. Tari earned his starting role. But what's better for THE TEAM is to not have the bench sucking a** with Tari starting

Its slightly better allocation of minutes with Tari as a reserve as well. Ime now has play the starters 35 minutes a piece since the backups aren't viable. It puts more wear on everything

 

It’s better to have Eason starting over Smith Jr. if you are inserting Reed Sheppard into the starting lineup. Kevin Durant is best used guarding power forwards, and Sheppard would be hunted on the perimeter. Jabari Smith Jr. is great at guarding power forwards and centers, but he’s a liability guarding wings. By having Thompson and Eason together, they can cover Sheppard’s defensive weakness with Durant covering power forwards and Sengun centers.

It also allows Smith Jr. to be the focal point of the offense in the bench unit and gives him an opportunity for more shots and touches like he got at Auburn.

 

Iggy was top 3 in his draft combine results. Not the highest vertical. Still, he outperformed that in the NBA. It's not a surprise that his athleticism is memorable. Like a Vince Carter, his athleticism shines in vertical jump and agility. He was not exceptionally fast or strong for his frame. His forward explosion or quickness was good but nothing special. Probably top 5 athletic player of his generation.

Amen is argued to be #1 out of 5,000 players all time. Like if there was an athleticism competition among those 5,000 Amen is in the running for #1 in the combination of all athletic traits. That includes relative strength, jump, explosion and speed. All the players who can match his speed are half his size (Rose, Westbrook). All the people his size are half his speed (Iggy, Kobe, T-Mac, Vince). He's just an anomaly.

 

The starters need Tari's shooting, transition energy and defense more than the bench needs his scoring. Obviously starters are more important than the bench their needs come first.

Jabari can fill that scoring gap for the bench perfectly. Offensively he's below average at shooting and doesn't have any other redeemable offensive skills. Tari can pay better defense and grab the rebounds. Playing Jabari out of position guarding 2's and 3's is dragging his defense down.

 

He can't shoot. Bringing him off the bench doesn't make sense. Need him to create shots

 

The spacing will be even worse with that lineup - two non shooters, too inconsistent shooters, and KD. There's a chance Tari beats out Jabari to start next season, especially if he keeps shooting well.

 

Meanwhile, here's Lebron comparing his own prime to Amen:



If Michael Jordan came out and said "now I've done some things in my career but Lebron is just different than the rest of us" > we'd be brushing that off? No chance.

Not sure how it can be argued Amen is not close to that. Lebron has strength on Amen and nothing else.

 

He really isn't close to last year's Amen on defense, and that is really the biggest disappointment for me this season.

 

Watch the videos side by side, it's not close at all. Amen's supposedly within an inch of LeBron, he may be faster, that's about it. LeBron had way higher vert with way more explosion, literally you can not stop it in motion, it's going over or through you in a way nobody ever has before or since. Anybody who actually saw young to prime LeBron knows it's pure cap to say Amen's got him beat. LeBron was superhuman.

 

I’m glad somebody pointed this out. The defensive impact isn’t there anymore from Tari and Amen.

 

I've said this in multiple threads in the last week or so. I just don't think you can play the two non shooters together.

I think he'd still get his minutes and maybe he's part of the group that's closing games. He's your super sub that can play any position on any given possession.

I also wonder if you can play Amen as a small ball 5, so when he is on the court, you can hide him without putting more bodies in the paint and cluttering it up. Which is the whole reason we're having this conversation, it's not like Capela is a 3 point threat.

It's been said that without an improved shot, the closest comparison is Draymond Green .... While Amen is much more athletic / dynamic, I think it's a fair comparison in how the team uses him.

 

I remember when Manu Ginobli came off the bench back in the day... WOW the impact. Amen could possibly do that.

 

It's worth a shot. He would run circles around winded starting players or backups at the end of the 1st quarter. He would have to buy-in though.

 

Amen is baffling, in this regards. At least with Tari it might merely be attributable to him playing without a contract. He might be playing cautious, and it will return when he has guaranteed money, again.

 

Tari has also been in and out with injuries. Amen has only missed one game.

Amen is playing 37 mpg, 5 more than last season, with a higher USG too. Perhaps fatigue

 

I think it baffles Ime , honestly. Feels like this year I’ve seen him talking and grilling Amen more about his defensive possesions and how he chooses to defend his assignment.