Someone on reddit called him Josh Smith with a brain LOL. The fact that he's doing this at his age, with his lack of game experience and no jumper. The ceiling is so stupidly high.
Let us all pray that he develops a shot soon. With that he will be Thanos with all the infinity stones.
Another summer practising ye olde jump shot and it isn't hard to see Amen as the superstar on the team.
Isn't having a brain the most important trait for a basketball player though? Especially for high end competition (i.e. playoffs, finals)
I have seen enough samples, my boi amen is the real deal. This dude has the potential to be a superstar if he develops a jump shot
Josh Smith with an elite BBIQ is a good comp. I also think he’s Kawhi minus the 3 ball. If he develops a 3 he’s an MVP candidate.
We got the Alperen 3rd year leap. We're hoping for Jalen's 4th year leap is for real. We want any sort of Jabari leap. Amen meanwhile with a casual 2nd year leap.
23/14/10 while playing amazing defense. Since Bari went down, Amen has put up almost 18/12/4.5. What in the hell is his ceiling? 22+/13+/6+? That's a Joker line while playing DPOY defense.
Josh never had this type of speed. Its like saying he's D-rose minus the speed and you get DJ Augustine, 2 completely different players.
Call me crazy but I think Amen has a chance to become not just the best perimeter defender in today's NBA, but in NBA history as a whole. He's not at that level yet but given what he's showing with very little NBA experience, and given his incredible physical tools, motor, and passion for improvement, and given he will almost certainly spend his entire rookie contract and more under a great defensive coach--it's totally plausible as a ceiling. What he's doing in terms of steals, rebounding, on-ball defense, help defense... It's the whole package, everything you could ask for from an elite perimeter defender plus more. With the "more" that really pushes him over the top being his weak side shot blocking, which is at the level of a legit big man rim protector archetype in combination with everything else he brings. It's like you're getting both a rim protector and an elite perimeter defender in one package, and that's almost never been seen before in NBA history. Maybe AK-47 but I think he was almost more of a big man, isn't quite in the same category as Amen.
I've been calling him a generational defender since last season. Take my crazy take, I think he's the top 2 player in the NBA right now, behind Shai
Two instances where both Alpi and Aquaman, nobody around, waited for the rebound to get to them. Amen just flew in and took it from them lol. Our bigs are going to have to attack the boards if the want those stats.
