Can you beat almost everyone coast to cost in under 6 seconds and break someone's ankles on the way to dunking on him? Amen: Hahaha that's going to be in a lot of highlight reels.
I mean even then one of those was a last second heave and another was a grenade he had to shoot before the shot clock expired.
I’d trade Amen for Joker, Shai, or Luka. I think the list ends there. You’d have to do some selling to convince me to trade him for Tatum or Ant. The dude right now is on another level.
I'd for sure take Luka off the list. Terrible defensive player and is turning into an injury risk. I'm out on Tatum, but would have to think about Shai and Ant, just because I'm not sure if Amen can develop a decent outside shot. If he can, I wouldn't trade him for anyone other than Jokic.
He is growing rapidly as a playmaker. His handles are still less than ideal for the job, but given his rapid rate of improvement no reason to think he won't shore that up. There's absolutely no need for a backup PG, he should unquestionably be the PG when FVV is off the floor. He's gotten a lot of reps even with FVV on the floor, because FVV makes for an excellent super 3 and D PG even off ball. Ideally we can transition to FVV becoming the secondary ball handler. There's no need to rush him to the front as "the" PG, there's a ton of value to having multiple ballhandlers to initiate. I still think Thompson needs to grow a lot as a half court PG.
Right. Amen is still learning, but you can just see the potential for greatness. On that turnover, instead of trying to create a play, I think he should have gone straight to the basket and dunk with Brunson inside the basket. Amen is that good and athletic. LeBron was right, Amen is in the top 1% of the 1%.
My post was about a different game actually My observations last night--I thought he played really well overall, but the greater offensive load seemed to sap some of his defense (plus I think he's just tired from playing so many minutes lately). Not an all-defensive performance from him, he got beat a number of times. He looked pretty okay on the ball in the halfcourt sets, definitely more like a "real" point guard than some of our posters have given him credit for, but the handle does need to tighten up somewhat. Definitely still a work in progress, we're still missing FVV in halfcourt setups, but I think in a couple of years after some intense work on his handles and lots of tape study, there's a real possibility Amen can become our starting point guard. If that's the vision for his future, I definitely think those things take priority over his jump shot. If they're envisioning him more as a wing, then the shooting should be priority #1. Though of course he should keep working on both parts of his game either way. Transition is where he's really a monster. Very prime Russell Westbrook, John Wall, grab and go and beat everyone down the floor and anybody who does make it back you just dunk over him. That clip above was one of the most all-quadrants hyper-athletic things I've ever seen happen on a basketball court.
It was the first time I've seen a player "have their way" with Amen, even though Amen had some nice defensive plays -- even one that forced Brunson to turn it over in a key play.
Brunson is an incredible player who got hot. It happens. Sengun dropped 45 on Wemby's head. Doesn't mean Wemby isn't an incredible defender.
These last few games show just how well Amen and Sengun work together. Amen has a bag that will enhance further as his handles progress, but the way he plays off Sengun is otherworldly. I re-watched the Celtics 4Q & on 4 separate occasions in the last 5 mins Sengun passed Amen the ball (as a bailout of sorts) and while he didn't have much time to work what he did have was the benefit of no defender facing him. And this was on a night when Sengun wasn't dominating or efficient on the block although he did manage to get KP in foul trouble. Sengun draws all that attention and there's just no way people can keep up w/ Amen if there's even a slight lag in their response. It can also be said that Sengun could not dribble/post and work the clock down to 3 seconds and get successfully bailed out by anyone else on the roster - just Amen. It's rising tides w/ these 2 together. Everything and everyone lifted. Amen can probably have the same chemistry w/ a lesser offensively talented big and Sengun probably could w/ a lesser version of Amen but no need to wonder.
Amen depends on getting his defender off balance to beat them . He needs to become a lil more crafty.
Amen is a dog. The next time he faces Herro and Brunson, they will be in for a long night. Like sub 18 point type nights. The tape will help him with their tendencies.
We have seen NBA players that start off as good defenders but as their offensive game expands they become worse on the defensive side. Heck at one point Harden in OKC was getting called upon to defend the other teams best scorers. Let's hope this doesn't happen with Amen. As long as his conditioning is right, it shouldn't
