Is there any doubt he's the favorite? Ime has a sparkle in his eyes when talking about Amen. Hell, who wouldn't love to coach such a talented high character kid.
I love Amen and everything he does, but the finish to last nights game shows what a liability he can be in a half court game. Memphis was routinely overloading on one side of the court and having one guy guard 2 players on whatever side Thompson was on. It made for an extremely congested floor for the ball handlers. Amen is gonna have to be a ball handler if he can't develop his shot. Over 48 minutes his ability to work in transition and hit the boards offsets a lot of his shooting issues, but when the game gets late and controlled it becomes a big problem. He alone certainly isn't "the" reason we've struggled in those situations, but it's a large part of it.
I noticed this too, but it’s on the coaches / players to recognize and adjust. This can be mitigated by having Amen be the screener instead of Sengun. If they trap the ball handler then you have amen going downhill with a head of steam 4-on-3. His ability to defend everywhere and get boards in invaluable in crunch time. He has to be on the court.
If Amen is the screener than that just shifts the congestion causer over to Sengun who will be equally ignored if outside the paint. There's a lot of ways to work with Thompson as the only non shooter, but he's not the only non shooter we play.
If Amen has the ball, Sengun's man will cause congestion. Even if they are both in an action, the big will just drop. I think the Rockets need to mix things up more such that the opposing team doesn't know if Amen or Sengun will be in an action. Sengun and Amen are both getting better at mid range especially on open shots. I think if one of Amen or Sengun gets a 3 point shot, the rest of the NBA is screwed.
I think with a little more ball handling experience Thompson will be athletic enough to attack and score/create on even dropping bigs ala Westbrook. However yes, as long as we have 2 complete non shooting threats on the floor that will always be a glass ceiling on anything we do offensively. It makes half court offense very complicated.
Amen, Sengun, Green + 1,2 guys who can spot up and shoot...there should be open shots for everyone, everytime
Sure but having Amen on the floor means you have someone who can defend 5 positions, finish plays hard and be an elite rebounder. Yeah maybe you miss the shot but Amen gets the rebound, or he blankets the opponent, they miss the shot and you score in transition. Amen elite at almost every other facet of the game so what he gives on offense he more than takes back on defense, finishing and rebounding. I think we'd have won a lot of those close games if we had Amen finishing games out instead of FVV. The reason we struggle late in games is our backcourt and the lack of play calling by Udoka. We dont have a bag of tricks and our guards are shaky shooters. Amen def isnt part of that in fact on a healthy roster he is rarely there to close out games unless one of Sengun or Jabari is crapping it up. Our close out team is usually the starters.
I'm part of the crazy train. I prefer Amen to Wemby. Wemby is great and on track to Goat status but I am also not sure how long he will stay healthy just cuz there's never been a guy like him before. Same thing with Chet and Zion, people said I was crazy when I pointed out the potential health risk look at them now. Wemby is fairly lucky, he hasn't had that crazy season ending injury yet. I remember Yao Ming looked like he would have a long and durable career too with thick tree trunk legs and then somebody sat down on his ankle and he was never the same again. OTH look at Westbrook Pat Bev gave him his first major injury but he was able to recover and still extremely athletic at age 36.
Speaking of Westbrook, we should look at the way Jokic and Westbrook are playing to understand that having a guard who can't shoot 3s isn't the end of the world esp if he can do other things. Look at the magic WB and Jokic are doing even if they don't shoot 3s: Sengun is already called the baby Jokic and honestly Amen is looking more and more like a better version of Westbrook.
Im also probably crazy. Thing about Wemby is that due to his size he will never impact the game at the (offensive) level that Thompson can. He's just too tall. He will always need a PG to set him up and won't be able to break guys down off the dribble. The NBA slants towards jumbo wings and guards. Also just dont trust him staying healthy. I think Amen is a lot closer to Wemby than people will care to admit. Amen can be a hub of a team both offensively and defensively. Wemby will never be that. Not fully. Though Amen obviously still has a lot of work to do on the offensive side of the ball. Also I just like Amen's approach to basketball better than Wemby's who I low key think isn't nearly as into the game as he is into himself.
