Amen is going to be deadly on the middies and corner 3’s this year. 3 pointers will be expanded over the next couple of years. Please Ime don’t f*ck this up.
He looks a lot more confident shooting and dribbling. Bro looks like he got a whole new dribble package on 2k.
Child's play right there. If Amen is able to shoot mid-range jumpers off the dribble, he'll be unstoppable. I know he hit a couple of contested 3s off the dribble in the video, but that ain't happening in the NBA. We can wish though.
I actually have to admit I wouldn't be surprised if he DID hit 3's off the dribble in the league. The shooting improvement here is actually ridiculous, I genuinely did not expect to see that kind of fluidity at least for a year or 2 compared to where he was...
It's like what 2 months since we got eliminated? He looks like he's improved more in that time than Alpi and Jalen did in 4 years combined...
Please stop getting my hopes up about Amen. There's over 2 months until Rockets training camp and it's also dead time for the Texans until July 23rd. This is the absolute worst time of the year for me regarding sports. Seriously though, Amen's handles noticeably improved during the season ~January and it blew my mind. Not surprised to see him accelerating the process offseason. I'm confident enough to say a mid-range jumper is the only thing stopping him from being a consensus top 15-20 player. If he is given the keys to the offense, I already expect him to consistently generate shots for others by dishing from the paint and elsewhere. The next step is a consistent mid-range shot, particularly off the dribble. If opponents are forced to contest, he'll blow past them. The next step after that is a consistent catch-and-shoot 3-point shot. I'm not even going to consider Amen shooting 3s off the dribble.
Starting backcourt spot is Amen's to lose. I think you're going to get your wish and see a lot more of Amen with the ball in his hands, just not in the way you had envisioned. Hopefully Fred's usage is down to like 12% this season though.
I was just watching some of his old OTE videos and it just looks a little more crisp to me. Of course random dudes in a gym are nothing really to gauge against because Dwight would look like Wemby against random gym dudes but it does look a little tighter to me now. Best way to put it is if you look at those clips of Durant working out with Jabari as they go through the same moves you can tell how tight those moves are performed by Durant vs Jabari where it looks a bit slower and more deliberate. He just looks a lot more crisp, a lot of the moves he did then were just basic crossovers where he was just running past guys where here (in the tik tok video) it just looks easy and smooth. You can see earlier in this video even, does a behind the back and it looks so sloppy compared to the one he does in the clip. He was always doing these euro steps though, that's something we know he does on an NBA level at least.
Game 5 against GS he dribbled and pulled up a 3 and made it. I was shocked he had the balls to do that in a playoff game
Amen's improvement curve is extremely high. You can see it from year 1 to year 2. That said, I wouldn't put much stock on this kind of workout videos. The thing about shooting practice is that there's no pressure, no real defense, nobody to hurry you, no need to worry about play development, court awareness, etc. All you do is concentrate on shooting. I mean, even Steven Adams shoots like Steph Curry in those practice videos.
Amen? A 4. DFS? Also a 4. Tari Eason? Definitely a 4. Reed Sheppard? You bet your ass thats a 4. Fred Van Vleet? That's a 4 if I've ever seen one.
NBA on ball pressure is just too different. Amen actually tried to do those fancy stuff in the beginning as a rookie, he just ended up losing his handles or dribbling on his foot in traffic. He's actually a lot better now at securing the ball with his body and taking fewer unnecessary dribbles.
Still a lot of work to do to maximize his potential, and you have to always stay humble in the journey to get there. But when you have gifts like a high IQ and processing to learn, freakish athleticism AND the work ethic, it must have felt like adolescent Superman in Smallville growing up against his peers.
I envision Amen as our main creator and the only one on the team that can consistently get to the hoop. FVV will become the SG on offense most of the time and become a very valuable spot up shooter. What is key is for Ime to let this settle in for a while, and not panic if the offense doesn’t jell right away. Amen and FVV will need to adjust to their new roles and the new head honcho of the offense in Durant.
