Amen got exposed

It isn’t a secret that Amen is a bad shooter. What was exposed?


He needs to be on a 10k shots a day regimen. Let everything else crater. If he could hit 30% from 3 it’s a non issue. We’re asking 3/10 instead of 2/10, it really isn’t a big ask.


Gotta have the will to fire though. Watching him ignore the basket as hard as Wemby ignored him with the ball was crazy.

 

They lost to an inferior team. Amen himself had some good games but the offense and flow was horrible for the team. The offense is even worse this year. They live and die by KD isos.

 

^LEARN TO SHOOT THE BALL.

 

Yep, couldn’t have said it better myself.

 

There was more to it before it even got to that point, and honestly a lot of it falls on Ime. The rotations were bad. We were clearly gassed, yet the bench didn’t get enough run. I still don’t understand why Clint played so little.
That Reed and Alp lineup absolutely got us killed. Teams just kept hunting it over and over — it turned into a layup line. That felt like an easy fix. He could’ve gone to Holiday for this game tbh. Or use Amen as a screener in when they wemby on amen.

Still, this isn’t all bad. It’s better to see these flaws now than for them to explode in the playoffs. At least now we know exactly what needs to be addressed and what this team has to prioritize at the deadline.

 

Sengun PnR doesn't really do anything. They just go under. He can't pull up under the screen nor is he fast enough to attack off the space. KD works but they're not gonna do it every single possession Amen is on the floor. We need someone who can create off that pick and roll.

 

This man is one injury from having absolutely 0 relevant basketball skills

Trade him while the rest of the league hasnt figured out yet

 

Give KD the ball to start, when he gets doubled it leaves a man open. Amen is better as a slasher

 

Literally illegal defense is what they got away with.

 

Amen and Sengun were lights out last year when they played their natural positions with FVV, JSJ and Dillon. +30 Net Rating

 

This is also true. The rocket were making the right pass prirornto the collapse j the second half. They were swinging the ball and getting opens shot for Okogie the corner multiple times and he jsut kept missing them. That’s why

 

Okay but that doesn’t change my point that at least trying it was better than whatever the **** ime did in the second half. ****- when we ran amen as a screen we got two good looks from it.

 

The offense is better, the rating is much higher. This team is way better than last years. You keep forgetting they were 11-11 without fvv last year

 

This has been an issue since mid-November. SA doing it better than others does not make this a knee-jerk. It isn't just Amen. The Rockets have too many nonshooters.

The Rockets are good enough to try to win the championship. Trying to solve how to play multiple non-shooters is just something the Rockets need to figure out, no matter what one thinks the odds are of a championship.

At one time, I thought Reed would provide the shooting to help combat this. Long term, I still think he'll help. Short term, I expect hot streaks and cold streaks with Reed. Reed falling apart just means the Rockets are not great without him and horrible with him lately.

This may be a knee-jerk. I don't know if the Rockets will be able to play Amen with a non-shooting center against SA in a playoff series for long stretches and remain competitive. Maybe the Rockets just bully the Spurs and win. The Spurs look like a horrible matchup for the Rockets.

 

He’s been playing basketball his entire life and he’s never been able to shoot. Some people around here thought he would magically become a good shooter if he just got NBA coaching and practiced on the summer. His twin brother is exactly the same. They can’t shoot. And they aren’t just bad shooters they are among the worst long range shooters you will ever see.

Amen has shown the ability to make some shots from the free throw line and in. But, his lack of long range shooting does hamper the offense. Not sure what the the Rockets should do. Amen is such a gifted athlete and does other things well. A true point guard on the team would probably help.

 

You can have 3 Steph Curry's alongside Sengun and Amen and they will still play 5 on 4 defense and allow no open shots because we have a wing who can't shoot. People will hope Sengun develops a shot, but lets say he does... how is our offense gonna look? Do you want to take Sengun out of the elbow to camp in the corners? What is he bringing to the table?

The only solution to this problem is for Amen to develop a shot, which would make him instantly a top 10 player in the league, but it is highly unlikely to happen.

 

Sengun with a legitimate jump shot (like real 3P range, not just wide open elbow and corners) would look a lot like Jokic, who spends a lot of time around and just outside the top of the key and had a lot of questionable shooting on his championship roster a few years back. It opens up a lot of options for the offense when you need to have a big way out there guarding him closely.

 

It really goes back to Ime. In game adjustments and exploiting favorable matchups. He does neither except revolving door rotations. If you’re going to single cover Sengun with a guard, you need to clear the floor and let Alpi punish him. They clearly weren’t going to let Reed beat them again so they shifted attention to him. Let him be a decoy and stop having him bring the ball up, wear out the defender running off screens. I could go on….

 

His biggest strength is the elbow/post play, back to the basket creating open shots for himself and his teammates. In that case, having a non shooter in the wing is always going to be a detriment to his playstyle. Of course, if he becomes a great shooter (also highly unlikely), it would mitigate some of our problems.

My point is, if I had to pick, Amen with a shot is way better offensively than Alpi with a shot. Both scenarios are likely to never happen though, which is why I don't think this pairing will ever work in the playoffs.