Because he's playing incredible defense and brings good intangibles. He's having one of his worst offensive seasons ever. That's where he can't handle the pace. Whenever we run - like late last season, early this season or when FVV sits - he can't do anything on offense. We're speaking only about offense in this analysis. On/off is a collection of everything in basketball, not really relevant here anyway.
He had 8-14 shooting for 18 points 10 rebounds, a steal, two blocks, and iced the game with a block, jump ball, and dunk. Eason played against Clippers starters in his rotation, reversed the early LA lead with Amen, and iced the win. Star talent, consistently. He'd be near 17-20 and 10 a game and high two-way impact as a starter imo.
I don’t really care if he starts, but he need to be averaging 30+ mpg and closing games. Amen didn’t start but logged 34 minutes.
Jalen + Amen + Tari + Brooks on the floor at the same time is crazy. At one point Ime had this lineup out with Jock and we could switch everything.
It's not even close. Eason is literally better everywhere. Tari might be best defender in the league right now too.
I mean Thompson is really good. But the only players in league history to get more stocks per game than Eason are Wemby and Hakeem at their absolute peaks. Tari leads the NBA in DBPM. He's a monster right now on D.
I think he was recovering from injury and Brooks had a good game last night so got a little more burn. But yes, if we end up with the league's best defense Tari and Amen should be all-defensive team and DPOY candidates to be honest. Statistically, and eye test wise Tari is better defensively than Amen right now but I love the competition.
Fair argument, he's a beast too. I just love Thompson's one on one defense. Metrics show Tari has higher steals, but he gambles a little more. Tari might be the better defender on paper, my eye test tells me Thompson.
I tend to agree. Taking nothing away from Eason but he's a monster on the nail, surprise attacking the offense on help defense. Amen is a premier on-ball defender. The kind of stuff he's doing is crazy-go-nuts.
Brooks was god-awful tonight and he seems to be the only player immune to the coaching strategy of benching late when they are not playing well.
Yeah there is just a difference in how people get steals. Look at Iverson's steals vs Hakeem's steals. Iverson cheated a ton, where Dream just had quick hands and great timing. Eason loves to reach around when a player is receiving a pass and sometimes gets burned. Eason is really good at it, and I want him to continue, but Thompson doesn't gamble nearly as much. Even if Thompson is the better defender, it may not be by much. It's crazy to think we may have the two best perimeter defenders in the league.
Depends on the stats. EPM loves Amen slightly better than Tari on defensive side. 4 Rockets in Top 15 in defensive EPM not counting centers.
To be honest, I don't think folks are looking as closely at Tari's man defense as much as Amen's, in addition to his outstanding help defense. And the mentioned steal and block gap for help defense is pretty sizable advantage for Tari as well as a league leader. Love both of them
A Kirilenko was also an elite defender and got in that elite status of stocks. He is also a good model for Amen and Eason to try to steal some from AK's game because he was a similar build, though AK47 was a bit a taller with longer wingspan.
they are not going to change the starters while they are consistently winning and the no. 2 seed in the West. Dillon has not played well in 3 out of the last 4 games and Tari had a couple of stinkers as well. Dillons worth is good defense and his 3 pt shooting has been good. If the 3 pt shooting continues to regress and we start losing some of these close games, Ime will finally change his tact. Settng up a 3 point shot for dillon in the 4th quarter when he was already 0-7 was idiotic. His foul to send us to overtime was also idiotic. Dillon is a very useful role player on this team, but Ime needs to quit being so stubborn about his rotations.
