Kevin O'Connor has always been a real one. The Athletic just put out a podcast today dedicated to All NBA Defensive Perimeter players only and there was not one mention from them on Amen Thompson. They brought up Lu Dort, Dyson Daniels, Cason Wallace, Kris Dunn and a few other guys, but nothing about Amen and it was absolutely baffling. They should be ashamed of themselves.
Amen definitely deserves some DPOY votes. I know he won't win it, but I'm super happy to see he is at least receiving the recognition.
I know I'm a homer, but that's blasphemy. You can tell who gets their info from watching no basketball and instead listening to basketball discourse.
I hope he at least gets #2 in the voting, that would be really cool for him. And 1st team All-Defense.
Honestly I don't care if Amen doesnt win DPOY. If Draymond wins this then the awards are an absolute joke like the Oscars.
I don't think they've announced the First Team yet. They just announced his Second Team today (Jalen Williams, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Derrick White, Jaden McDaniels, and Cason Wallace). I listened to the podcast and it sounded like he didn't want to release the names of all the players ahead of time, so who knows. I did chuckle when he said he wanted to have Ausar Thompson on the list, but he didn't play enough games. I was like "ok, so then you better have Amen, because he did." If he's not on the First Team, it's time to have a talk with Mr. Katz.
And like I said... he just made their First Team as "and more". You should apologize. First Team is Daniels, Dort, Anunoby, Thompson, and Camara Excerpt follows : NBA All-Perimeter-Defense First Team: Dyson Daniels, OG Anunoby and more Amen Thompson, forward, Rockets Stuffed in the middle of an all-time run from an all-time player was a number that didn’t belong: three. That’s how many points Stephen Curry scored against the Houston Rockets on April 6. He’d gone for 52, then 37, then 36 in his previous three games and had averaged peak-level production, magnanimous shooting splits that compared only to his unanimous MVP season, since the beginning of February. Then, he met Thompson. Curry had played the Rockets a couple of other times this season entering that match, but he’d never before seen this much of a 22-year-old who may, along with his twin, Ausar, have a Defensive Player of the Year in his future. The Rockets used Thompson on Curry for the first half of a December victory over the Golden State Warriors but not much of the second. When the two squads met again in February, Thompson didn’t handle Curry much until the final stretch of the fourth quarter. But on this night, from the beginning, Thompson was a blanket on the greatest shooter ever, who finished the evening with 1-of-10 shooting from the field. Thompson’s one job? Face guard Curry. The two-time MVP can drain jumpers from other zip codes. The only way to prevent him from scoring was to ensure he never touched the basketball at all. The 6-7 high-flyer took that mission to the extreme, chasing Curry around screens, walling off the sharpshooter’s side of the court so he couldn’t open himself up. Look at how Thompson didn’t even let Curry receive an inbounds pass on this third-quarter possession, then followed him up the floor without any space. Only two of Curry’s 10 field goal attempts that night came while Thompson was defending him. Both were hasty 3-pointers, rushed even by Curry’s standards. Neither went through the hoop. Thompson is a menace guarding dribblers. He’s one of two players, along with Defensive Player of the Year candidate Jaren Jackson Jr., averaging at least 1.3 steals and 1.3 blocks. He’s versatile enough to man bigs. Houston will try him on anyone. But what’s a better way to remove a Hall of Famer from a game than never letting him near the ball in the first place?
22 and the best defender in the NBA.. Between Amen, Wemby, and Mobley, that award should be on lockdown for the next decade.
