The "franchise player" debate has been settled. It's Amen.

No, it’s not the “end,” because people like you don’t seem to understand the debate.

Is Amen currently a franchise player? No.

Do I think he will develop into our franchise player? Yes.

I have no idea why this is difficult to understand.

 

5 - 9 foot shot are absolutely relevant, because many of those aren’t dunker spot baskets. Amen generally gets those from driving and pulling up.

 

He's not laughed at 5 feet from the rim, here's laughed at being 10 feet from the rim. The reason he's AIDS to spacing is his shooting 10+ feet from the rim, let's not pretend that everyone doesn't realize that. Let's at least attempt some honesty here.

 

a full 5 ft away from the rim is still dunkers spot? LOL

 

Again, the stats from the playoffs show he shot around .46 from 10 - 24 feet on 4.3 shots per game from that distance. Are you saying those are bad percentages?

 

Yeah LA was daring him to shoot in this past playoff series and it hampered the offense. The Magic and Rockets playoff series were some of the worst offensive basketball I've seen from this modern version of the NBA. Absolutely nobody respects amen from 15ft out and that is an issue unless you build a team of shooters (which we haven't done) around him.

 

I'm saying your small sample of 2 dozen shots are irrelevant. Those shots were largely wide open because no one respects his shooting.... which is the entire problem.

Now if he managed those numbers over the course of a season and teams stopped laughing at him, then we're on to something.... but a tiny sample while he was being laughed at isn't really anything to go on.

 

if you were watching the games at the end of the year, and watching the playoff games, you could clearly see that he hit the jump shots when he needed to and he clearly got better over the last year. It’s all related to form.

I’m actually surprised more of the corner three-point shots did not go down, but I largely expect that they will going forward. Most of the time it was a very clean looking shot.

I never ever remember thinking this guy is as inefficient as Jalen Green. not to mention he is doing literally everything else on the court and leading the league and minutes played.

if his free throw percentage in remained dog **** I might have some cause for concern. after actually watching the games and seeing what the 17 footer began to look like, combined with the free-throw percentage and just the overall there is zero concern in my brain.

you could tell that he was super uncomfortable when he was taking shots from the top of the arc. the shot was forced and the form was eh.

I do not think he is anywhere close to his final offensive form and that is why we need to allow him the space to grow this year.

 

I don't know if Amen is going to become a franchise player, but I do think he's our best shot.

 

Exactly. Anyone with two eyes and a tiny amount of basketball knowledge should have been able to see how much smoother is jump shot was in the second half of the year /playoffs.

 

Now I don't understand the debate .... LoL. Quit moving the goal posts around.

What do you really think the odds of Amen becoming a respectable shooter are at this point?

 

Of course that’s been the discussion. No one that I have seen in this thread is arguing that Amen, currently, is a franchise player, and the title is clearly in jest. The whole reason we traded for Durant is to have a #1 while our young guys develop.

I don’t know what “respectable” means. Here are my predictions - in the next few seasons, Amen’s line will increase to around 22 - 25/7 - 9/5 -7 while maintaining good efficiency, he’ll improve his 3 ball to .3 - .33, his midrange game will continue to improve, and he’ll remain one of the best defenders in the league.

 

For the sake of conversation, we can define "respectable" as meaning good enough that opposing defenses respect it enough to guard against rather than just laugh.

Per that definition, he was not respectable beyond 10 feet from the rim.

 

My favorite part was when he missed the entire rim and everything wide left on a wide open corner 3 in the playoffs lol

Amen is my favorite player on the team....I hope y'all are right about him.

 

I’m starting to get the impression that people who don’t like Amen don’t really watch much basketball. Here’s a random Lakers’ game - point to one time the Lakers did not guard him tight when he had the ball. Yes, teams currently sag off of him when he doesn’t have the ball, but the idea that teams just aren’t defending him until he gets into the paint is just dumb.

 

Not that I'm pessimistic on Amen, I've loved him since the draft myself. But it's sad to read this because it's pretty much described every Rockets prospect to this point. Some good, some bad, part of the season playing well, others not so well. Things that look good but haven't translated into game production. To this point Jalen and KPJ went through this phase and now are gone. Sengun is also kind of in this boat as Amen. Jabari looks to be kind of settled in the middle between his draft floor and ceiling. And Reed I guess is the next in line of potential upside since he was essentially a rookie last year.

At this point, I'm not projecting any Rockets player going forward. I'll just assume they are who they are until they show me in actual games that they actually made the leap.

 

howbout the part in the playoffs where Amen's TS% was 55.3% with a Net Rating of 2.4
while Jabari had 54.4% -1.2, Alpi had 51.9% -1.4, and Reed had 40.7% -2.4

no wonder the Rockets org, Stone, Ime, and majority of CF believe Amen is the most untouchable on the team

and now I know why @Bobbythegreat is discounting the playoff numbers LOL

 

You don’t think going from 14/8/4 last season to 20/8/5 All Star Break this season on incredible efficiency while improving his FT% from .68 to .78 is a “leap?”

 

try watch Amen's 5 to 24ft jump shots after the all star break and the playoffs

 

I agree he should be the most untouchable player on the team. I love the guy.