I think that’s so crazy - you would think with his skills and his competitiveness he would be looking for opportunities to dunk for the poster - it just shows he is wired differently from a lot of those uber athletic competitive types which is super positive given how many of those uber athlete archetypes come and go. Think about how dominant Dwight was early in his career blocking shots but he could NOT resist the urge to send every shot into the stands when controlling the ball(tipping it to himself or teammates) would have been the smarter play for his team. This feels like the same for Amen - he’s more comfortable knowing he has two points than hoping he can nail a difficult dunk. The fear of losing the points is stronger than looking cool.
Yeah, but in Amen's case, I think he's gotten blocked at least 2 times when he thought just laying it in softly would've gotten the two points. Of course, that hesi move he did in the last game where he blew by 2 or 3 guys for the dunk would've probably gotten blocked from behind had he tried to pull back behind his head and dunk it. In OTE and high school he may not have needed to know if others were nearby because few would jump with him. In the NBA, he's more of a marked man and players can jump with him. One thing different from Amen and Dwight is that at least Amen takes the game seriously. Dwight's probably going to be 70 years old and still making fart sounds at the back of the class. Huhuhuhuh.
Yeah, I'm not too concerned about it - there will definitely be an adjustment period for Amen to compensate for playing in the NBA. I felt like Jalen Green had a similar experience his first few months in the league. I think more so than athleticism, the real place Amen is struggling is that NBA defenders are SO much stronger than what he is used to. I think he is used to jumping into guys and being able to craft a finish around them and that is a lot harder now that he is bouncing off those defenders or now that those defenders get a small part of the ball and it's just flying out of Amen's hand from the force. He will learn how he is physically going to navigate around that and frankly his body will get A LOT stronger over the next few years at the same time.
Amen signing with Nike signals the end of the Dark Ages for these Rockets. For 25+ years it was always scary knowing we were running up against the shoe mafia. First Yao and T-Mac with Reebok, then Harden with Adidas, you always knew if push came to shove those refs knew they would be supported because Nike was pumping the most money into the NBA's marketing machine and would always do so. Watch for Amen to be the face of the franchise by his third year, if not his second.
That he did this in his 3rd game is insane. He really plays with full confidence too. Will be starting next year. Someway somehow.
Why did we draft this guy? Whenever he’s on the court he just stands in the corner and doesn’t initiate the offense.
He has missed a majority of preseason and regular season. Perhaps give him a handful of games to get going in regards to usage? ahh never mind b*tch and moan about him to i guess.
