“The guy who stood out to a lot of people was Amen,” Udoka said. “His pace is real, his size and athleticism, and he has that burst. He really ignites the fast break on his own. He’s been great. “He’s just scratching the surface. He’s getting up to speed. He’s learning on the fly. He already has some natural ability and instincts that you can’t teach, and the IQ and the passing ability that stands out immediately. But he’ll learn as he goes. He’s done a great job.”
1:47 - somebody (Jabari?) better block Cam out. Jabari almost got him back on the next play. 2:22 - Dude X (is that Nate Hinton?) was making shots and plays throughout the action I watched. This looked like a 10-15 foot teardrop. lol. 3:31 - Dude X gets a steal (terrible pass, though) 5:07 - Sengun gets put on Amen Island after Amen calls for a screen to force a switch. The only thing Amen didn't do is convert the layup. 7:00 - Cam sends Jalen into orbit with the fake and pops a deep jumper. Spoiler 8:59 - Cam skies for a block against 5'9"/7'3" Alpi. It looks like they may have called goaltending on it, but it was close. Nice to see Cam looking to play some good D. 19:46 - Amen goes to sit down on a chair. Is he walking kind of weird here? He may just walk that way or could be hurt. 23:15 - Amen gets up and walks away waddling. lol. Hopefully he's not hurt.
I thought Cam got him but it was close - regardless that was the iso play I was talking about earlier where Sengun got the mismatch and went straight to the post - solid job on Cam to not give up despite being overpowered. I thought whenever there was chaos, Eason was around poking at something, making shots harder, etc. He really has a bit of that prime Kawhi thing where he is trying to make his player uncomfortable nearly every second of the shot clock while on ball. I guess several were called fouls but the persistent effort is admirable and I feel like him and Jabari maybe feed off each other a bit which is nice to see. I know Udoka praised Amen’s showing today but I thought he was largely deferential in the limited footage we have - would be interested in seeing more of practice though. He can definitely beat anyone to the hoop but at times it feels like he nearly loses control himself when he gets there but I expect him to find his pace with more reps. …appreciate that some footage was shared but it was tough to watch from so far away without much of an overhead view. It made it difficult to follow.
Yeah, it's a shame we only seem to get to see the tail-end of these practices. With regards to Amen getting praised by Ime, I think Ime was talking about the entire camp as a whole. So not only could it include today's scrimmage/practice, but the entire training camp. Amen usually doesn't play out of control from the OTE stuff I've watched in the past and he usually blows by defenders and does crazy Eurosteps, sidesteps and bizarre layups, so him doing that isn't really him out of control per se, but rather him just doing what he does. I was worried he wouldn't be able to get by people as easily or get to the basket and have a suspect jumper. I'm still waiting to see what he does in real games against NBA players and defenses in the pre-season and early in the season. I agree on Eason. I'm hoping to see what kind of disaster Brooks and Eason could wreak together, but at the same time, I hope they can hit a jumper. So far, I didn't see FIBA Brooks. But then, I also have to admit we hardly saw much of the camp. If that other guy I saw was Nate Hinton making plays, I thought he did pretty well as a disruptor and shooter, too, in the footage I've seen so far. I'm hoping Amen turns out to be what I hope he can be and gets paired with someone like Jalen in the backcourt. Assuming Jalen can evolve into a decent defender, it could be fun to watch that if somehow Cam makes his way into the lineup. Here's to hoping all the recent rookies make the Rockets' job of deciding who to ship out really difficult over the next few years.
Amen Thompson needs to get experience and improve his shooting - but the athleticism/explosion really stands out as elite, someone like that comes along every 5-10 years. The smooth movements, strength, burst…. Off the top of my head guys like Zion, Westbrook, Rose, McGrady, LeBron, Wall come to mind… there is more to being a special basketball player than elite movement/athleticism but it is a lot of it.
Leave them alone. That's all we got right now. Feelings will readjust after the first few weeks of the season.
No. It’s a bit much when these guys see Amen miss a layup, and then armchair GM that Amen needs to “work on his finishing”… GTFO here dorks.
Watching these clips, it can't be a good sign that our second team keeps beating our first team. Not to mention the team still has no ball movement. I don't think I've see Jabari touch the ball in 2 days worth of clips.
yeah, I get it, but they shouldn’t be doing that. This is not a development league. Ticket prices are too high, salaries are too high for them to put out a garbage raw product like the last three years. Development should be: 1. in the offseason, on their own dime 2. within the context of a team that is putting out an honest basketball effort on the court
Green is a very talented athlete and may end up being a better basketball player - but he is a different type of athlete, he is quicker and springs in his feet but he isn’t as powerful… Green as an athlete is similar to SGA. Green will have a chance to make a big leap this year as a winning player. I’m not so worried about how many points he scores but I want to see more efficiency and more consistent effort on defense - and I think that will come this year. He is still very young and is very talented - but he is older than a lot of the other kids and this will be his opportunity to emerge from this group as the top option at least on offense if not just the best player. Green, Smith, Sengun all really talented guys. Eason is going to be good but not quite in that group. I think Amen Smith is the most talented but he is really raw and not a good enough shooter - at least not this season… maybe in 2-3 years.
A smallball lineup of Bari, Tari, Brooks, FVV and Tate could wreak serious havoc on defense in certain late game situations.
Elite players all need a secondary skill besides scoring, either defense or playmaking. That’s the difference between Amen and Green, Amen comes with both elite playmaking and potentially elite defense (but a broken jumper). So Amen has both the secondary skills but his primary scoring is the question mark. Jalen at best will be a neutral defender so that’s not his secondary skill, his ceiling will be solely determined by how much his playmaking develops.
