Amen Thompson is the Rockets' REAL franchise player

As long as we never see videos of legit stars standing around laughing at his shot we should be fine. No wonder Simmons barely plays anymore, I'd die of embarrassment if that'd happened to me lol.

 

A lot of y’all are sleeping on Amen.

I don’t have the stats with me, but Amen averaged 13 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists per game in 23 games as a starter and fourth or fifth option on the team.

I could easily see him average 20,10,8 as his floor.

He has the potential of being a 6’7 westbrook with better defense and bbiq.

He doesn’t even have to develop into a good shooter. Just shooting around 25% from 3 is enough to get by for him.

 

Some of you are taking these comps too seriously. When we say Reed looks like Mark Price or Jalen plays like Kobe, or Alpi is a smaller version of Jokic, it's not saying that they will definitely reach that level. Just talking about how the style can succeed in the NBA.

Amen is not just standing around at the dunker spot. You are implying that he is nothing more than a faster Capela. Watch how he plays. He goes full speed from the perimeter to the basket, just like Giannis does. The difference is that Giannis get to the rim by brute force bullying his way. Amen does it by finesse sidestepping with speed.

 

I disagree. Defenses will dare a 25% shooter to beat them all day long in a playoff series.

He’s got to get to at least 34-36% from 3 & 70% from the line. These are not high bars at all. He’s got to put in the work physically and psychologically to get there.

 

I don’t think there is a specific number from 3 he has to get to. He absolutely needs to develop at least a mid level jumper and absolutely needs to get to 80% or better from the line. He is going to be going to the line a lot. He can take years to figure out the three and still be a superstar.

 

I just honestly don't see any resemblance between him and Giannis at all if I'm being honest about it, feels like a massive reach just because they're both athletic. Their shot charts aren't even similar either tbh. There are a lot more differences than just "Amen uses finesse" especially when Giannis arguably has more power AND more finesse on his drives.

 

This is very true. Westbrook was a superstar when he was shooting over 80% from the line, as his ft% dropped, so did his stardom.

 

I think Amen can and will get better as a 3pt shooter. However, I dont think it is as crucial for his game as people suggest. Teams will DARE Amen to take a 3, but Amen will end up getting an open 6-8 ft jumper or layup, finding a cutter for an easy layup, or collapsing the defense and passing to a wide open 3pt shooter.

Amen is different than most players in the way that he pressures the defense with his speed and quickness. If you give him 5ft of space behind the 3pt line, he will quickly use that space to either blow past you or to set you up for a pick in the high post range. He will then freeze 1 or 2 help defenders with a change of pace, change of direction, ball fake, or some combination of the 3.

There is a reason that although he shot under 14% from 3 he still had the 2nd best shooting percentage of the team's rotation players, and Alperen only beat him by 0.1%.

 

I mean Jalen is more skilled in using his speed and quickness because he combines that seed and quickness with creative ball skills, more coordinated feet and even though he's streaky opposing teams won't play off him because they know he can get hot

 

Nobody is comparing Amen to Jalen here. He was just pointing out Amen doesn't need to be a good 3-point shooter to be a legit threat on offense with the ball in his hands.

I will add to his comment: Amen's handle must improve to the point it matches his insane athleticism.

 

Absolutely nothing in that post was about Jalen Green and that dude still somehow made it about Jalen Green.

 

mission accomplished

 

I think Amen and Reed are a near perfect combination.

 

70% from the FT line, sure, very doable.

I don't think he needs to be 36% from three though. Let's take Jimmy Butler as an example--been to the Finals twice, arguably a top 10 player in the league over the past 5-10 years or so. He's only cracked 36% from three a few seasons in his career, and his overall career average is 32.9%. He also only takes about 2 three pointers per game these days so you know opponents aren't that worried about him shooting anything that isn't WIDE open.

 

Exactly, that's why WB and Simmons' careers folded early and rapidly. That archetype is not viable anymore.

 

Simmons' career dying has nothing to do with him being a non-shooter, it's all about injuries & mental problems. He was an effective player and a three-time all-star when fully healthy a few years back. I think he would still be effective today if he wasn't such a trainwreck physically and mentally, but it appears his issues in both areas have pretty much knocked out his career.

Westbrook also was still effective in the pace-and-space era until age and injuries caught up with him, as they eventually do all players (and he's still a decent NBA player, for that matter). In terms of his inability to achieve playoff success, I think a lot of the problem was that he would take tons of three pointers and long midrange jumpers even though everyone knew it was a bad shot for him. If he'd at least been more willing to pass out of those situations I think he'd have been a lot more efficient and could have had more success despite causing some harm to his teams' spacing. He also was never the defender Amen projects to be.

And again, we still have a counter-example playing in the league today: Jimmy Butler, with two Finals appearances as the best player on his team in the past 5 years. He is barely even a 3P shooter going by his volume numbers, and has had a number of seasons below 30% from three. You can also kind of use Giannis as an example, in that, like Amen, he's a very perimeter-oriented player, although he's on a whole different level in terms of his height and strength (maybe Amen can get a lot stronger through NBA training programs?).

 

Westbrook had a long star level career before he started declining physically.

Amen actually has more promising factors over Westbrook. (1) He doesn't have Westbrook's hero complex that compelled Russ to do dumb things. He will very likely be a lot smarter in playing within his own strengths. (2) He is bigger, longer, and arguably more athletic in terms of body control. (3) He actually likes playing defense. (4) Did I mention he's smarter?

 

this struck a nerve

"he still had the 2nd best shooting percentage of the team's rotation players, and Alperen only beat him by 0.1%."

 

Appreciate the well thought out posts guys but I do not believe this. There's too much evidence with decade long team performance with both of them.

I know there are narratives for every player that went through this but that's different than the overarching thread that connects them. The decline was too rapid to blame age or mental issues and there was a wave of non-shooters who's roles got downgraded in the NBA. You can literally see there are fewer such players than any time before in NBA history. Old Russell Westbrook should be worth more than the minimum 2 years ago. Simmons is a minimum signing. Amen is not a better athlete than Westbrook, you are even scaring me about what happens when there's wear and tear on Amen. Are we saying he might be worth the minimum as early as age 31 if he spends the next 5-10 years getting to the line prolifically? Reminds me of DWade. Giannis is a monster and he is looking exhausted, pretty clear he will not age well because of all the bumps and bruises.

I do not include Jimmy Butler in this category. He's a two way player who gets a decent number of assists and hits 1/3rd of his 3PTers. I do believe such a player can succeed in the NBA, we agree there. If Amen gets to 33% on more attempts than Jimmy (to adjust for era) he will be a superstar in the NBA I have no doubt about it.

There's also the Ja Morant route where you're so efficient at tearing up the interior with points and assists in massive volume even though you're not a good defender. This is possible too but this is not the category I was discussing. I'm talking about when they say "Amen doesn't need to learn to shoot, he can just improve midrang. I don't believe this has any chance of working. No matter how explosive and powerful you are at attacking the rim, if you can't beat it with brute force (like Giannis) you are not going to get to the line the requisite 8-10 times required for this archetype to become a star. They will never foul you that much.

I hope he is not wasting time training anything else. Just work on the 3PT shot and stop listening to the myth that some people can't improve at it. The people who don't improve at it are combative about it in the first place. Amen is coachable I don't think we'll have that issue.

Looking at how they coached Green to take the right shot even if he's bad at that type of shot gives me a lot of confidence in this coaching staffs style. I don't think they will allow someone to pass up open 3's in favor of forcing something.