He's the most exciting Rocket to watch. I really don't care as much that he can't shoot, it's everything else he does that impacts the game.
Amen needs an offensive guru to work with in the offseason. He is so young and just getting started. He needs someone to tailor his game on the offensive side. He has potential to be a superstar in this league if we truly hones into his offense potential. That is the only thing stopped him from getting to the next level. So happy he is a Rocket.
My hot take is that Amen is already giving us all-star caliber production. If he'd been starting all season and defense mattered as much for all-star consideration as offense he'd already be getting serious consideration. Even if he never gets any better than this we already got a good one... and he's gonna get better than this.
I think my weird-ass comp for Amen the way he's playing right now has to be something like "halfway between rookie Dwyane Wade and rookie Blake Griffin". (Keeping in mind Griffin was age 21 as a rookie and Wade was age 22, and also that Amen has played only 33 games as a starter whereas both those guys got starting minutes from the beginning.) He's halfway between the two of them with his ballhandling--better than Griffin but worse than Wade. Closer to Griffin on the rebounding and on being a lob threat. Closer to Wade on defensive instincts and all-around quickness. Like both of them, he's a downhill menace who finishes very efficiently around the rim with a combination of hops, length, power, speed, and touch. Like both of them, he's a bad shooter right now, probably about halfway between Griffin's atrocious early-career shot and Wade's merely bad one. What's going to be interesting is which direction his career trajectory ends up leaning more toward. Is he going to become more of an oversized guard or more of a slightly undersized but ultra-athletic big, or somewhere in between? Anyway, that's the best I can do. I don't think there's ever been a single guy in NBA history who is a 1:1 match on all of Amen's strengths and weaknesses. Such a unique player.
Butler doesn't work just because Amen/Sengun/Green need volume shooters around them. If those 3 are for sure starting, you need two elite shooters next to them in order to achieve just slightly above average spacing and shooting. Our spacing is suffocating a lot of potential right now. Our young guys are better than they've looked offensively. Can't downgrade our shooting even 1% now, in fact we desperately need a better shooter than Brooks starting with them.
Amen Thompson is that guy. Pretty excited to have him onboard for the future and we are not going to be able to avoid giving him a max contract when it's time. Hope we can get Bari and Tari for cheap, otherwise, we are going to have to start looking into moves to avoid being at the aprons. Don't want to restrict our roster building ability either. Cool problem to have, but sucks we will have to choose between people eventually.
my dream is for Amen to get to a similar-ish level to Shaun Livingston's mid-range ability. this dude was so underrated in keeping GS alive during their 3pt cold streaks. if he can do that then he will be a super star.
Amen justs gets it done man. Unreal talent and just so efficient at sticking to his strengths and not doing too much. Hes wise beyond his years imo.
I don’t disagree. My hot take is that Amen is our best prospect by a decent stretch. I literally think he has the potential to be a top 5 player in the NBA. Maybe not by scoring a million points, but by averaging ridiculous lines like 20/15/5 while playing incredible defense. I’ve said before, but I truly struggle to find a comp for him.
