Amen Thompson is the Rockets' REAL franchise player

Love the Rockets but if that's your core, we're in trouble

 

His floor is Aaron Gordon...

he's going to get so many leak out dunks this year from Reed.

 

Why would you say that?

 

They are all just avg to good players. No star

 

Well one of them is the best player on the roster and 3 of the 4 have all star upside. Maybe none make it, but those guys are the best the Rockets have to offer and at minimum are a very solid core even if they are a star away from contention. That's a pretty good floor.

 

the way I see it, Sengun is our best player and best prospect. You hope he can be more of a 4/5 by improving his shooting and stretching the floor. People forget how young he is, and he had an all star level yr in just his 3rd season.

Amen might have the highest upside on the team, and can play forward or guard. DOPY guy. He can defend 5 positions. He can get to the rim at will. You hope he develops a good mid-range game. He’s one of the most unique players I’ve seen athletically with a high IQ. You don’t trade this guy.

Tari has the best motor I’ve ever seen in an nba player. He’s criminally underrated; he has an all around game. The shooting is not far away. If he can improve his finishing and court awareness, the Kwahi comps are not crazy. Has a chance to be elite on defense. Heart of a champion. Tari gonna break out in yr 3 and won’t cost near-max money to extend.

I’ve only watched Reed at Summer League, so putting him on a core 4 list is projecting quite a lot. But he has skills and abilities that are truly rare. The shooting, and on-ball facilitation is rare. The ability to force turnovers at a high level is rare. The Mark Price comps are not crazy. We need to keep this guy around and find out if we have the beginnings of an all-time point guard on our team.

I love Cam, Bari and respect Jalen’s upside. I’m not saying we should trade those guys. But if forced to pick 4, those are the 4 I pick. It’s a very high motor, high IQ core. Yes, we need another stud on Sengun’s level but maybe Cam Bari or Jalen take that leap. Or maybe a combo of those guys gets traded for a stud.

I continue to believe that there is little chance we keep Jalen. We aren’t maxing 2 guys in our first wave of rookie extensions. There’s too much talent behind them and Jalen isn’t that guy. Maybe he becomes max worthy in yr 4 but until i see it consistently over the course of a season I’m not there. Also it’s clear the org is willing to trade him as the rumors of packaging him for an over-the hill Star seem to have legs. Regardless, losing Jalen for nothing after investing a #2 pick and all that playing time, would be dumb so that’s the outcome I most want to avoid.

 

To me, if you're not a 2-way player, you can not.be considered the best player on the team. Which is why I think people are shortchanging Jabari Smith.

He is the only one I can definitely say that is a 2-way player; he defends at a high level and he can score. Obviously, we want Sengun or Jalen but it just may be Jabari

 

Jabari has a sneaky mentality about him that just screams improvement every year.

 

Let me ask you this, where would you rate Sengun as far as players in the NBA?

 

Jeez I hope so…

He seems to be lacking any sort of creativity on the offensive end. Sometimes he reminds me of Shane Battier out there. Valuable to be sure, but with his lack of lift and creativity, you are putting a lot of pressure on his jumper having to be historically wet.

 

Luka and Jokic and Harden and Steph.

Not one defends at a high level.

Also, the defense was worse with Jabari at the 5 after Alperen got hurt.

Also, I think your “analysis” vastly underrates creativity, and the invaluable ability to make your teammates better than they really are.

“Alperen is our best player” - Jabari Smith Jr.

 

Probably top 50 overall, top 10 for his position.

Not bad for a guy who just turned 22.

 

Im holding out hope for Bari. I think this is a big year for him. I’ll flag that while I think his defense improved last year and that he has a ton of defensive potential, I wouldn’t say he defends at a high level right now. It’s coming, but there’s still a lot of improvement that must come defensively. In general I do have some concerns about his overall feel for the game, and his lack of ability to create for himself. But given his size, he’ll get batter at just shooting over people so I don’t think his ball skills are that much of an issue. I also think it takes bigs a little longer. He’s so young and still growing into his body. I’m a betting man that Bari takes a huge step this year and makes it really hard for the front office to let him go.

 

A taller version of Battier is probably a good comp for him at this point. I am hoping a taller version of Klay Thompson if his shooting can get to a higher level.

 

They are 22 and younger, nobody saw SGA as a star when he just turned 22. Jalen, Bari and Amen are all top 4 picks they wouldnt be picked that high if they didnt have star potential.

 

Steph Curry, Carmelo Anthony, Allen Iverson, James Harden...yeah this is just flat out untrue unfortunately.

 

So many of them were self-created off the dribble

That's the thing about Amen--his handle might not be great (yet) but his quickness is so elite that it functionally provides him with many of the same advantages a "bag" would.

 

Godzilla ATW vs Kong Trigonum.

 

Top 20 very soon.

 

I see Amen currently as westbrook minus ball handling plus bbiq/actually defending