Amen’s shot looks terrible in that workout clip, I’m sorry that’s the jump shot u show kids on Halloween night Brick or treat!
I'm ok with a bad looking shot if it was effective. Shawn Marion's or even a Kevin Martin's release, which is odd looking, but worked. The issue with Amen is that form looks bad, AND the results haven't been good. That's a bad combo. It's common for good g-league / college shooters to dip in their efficiency in rookie NBA season, because NBA defense is better, opponent's wingspan are longer; team defense is better...etc. For that increase in difficulty, one would hope, there's a higher baseline they drop off from. Before those young players take their time to adapt and hopefully become league average. Using classes as examples: Pre-calc is not required before taking calculus, but it's nice to have. Thompsons are not coming in with pre-calculus, but we're doubting if they know basic algebra. The difficulty ramp up for them is going to be real whether they're on the Rockets or not. I'm somewhat at peace if we waste a 4th pick for a bust, because the org will do what they want. Now my mind is thinking if his bad shooting is going impact growth of other guys, if Rockets insist on having him learn on the job as PG. The passing is not going to mean much if it's 5 on 4 basketball on everyone else. It's one thing to be a bust, it's another if Rockets repeat Silas era, where everyone else are not put into a position to succeed. --- If they work out for the Rockets; and if I'm Stone. I'd invite them to a film session, and show a couple of tapes to actually test their knowledge on reading NBA defenses. Passing is a skill, but reading a NBA defense and playmaking is a genre of its own. How good is their BBIQ vs the other PGs of this draft: Anthony Black, Scoot Henderson. If the intent is to draft an 'engine', look under the hood please.
Isn't that tweet saying Amen's shot looks bad and Ausar's shot looks better? I don't see the contradiction.
Horrible news for hardcore Amen chorus - Kevin O'Connor - yes that's right THE KOC, has moved Ausar ahead of Amen on his DRAFT BIG BOARD On Tuesday, The Ringer’s 2023 NBA Draft Guide will be updated with a whole bunch of new profiles, a revised mock draft, and my updated rankings. One of the changes I’m making: moving Ausar Thompson ahead of his twin brother, Amen. Though Amen is a 99th percentile athlete and has been more of a primary playmaker so far, Ausar has made greater progress as a shooter while straight up outperforming his brother in recent years. It’s time to make the change. HUGE if true, which it is. Draft big boards run by our prominent random web bloggers are serious business - it's how Jabari Smith became a rocket!
We don't need calculus analogies for the Amen-stans. Too difficult for them to understand. Take our own Jabari. Everyone pretty much agree that he is an elite shooter. This includes his fans and detractors. Ends rookie season shooting 40% FG, 30% from 3. At times, doesn't even look like he knows how to shoot. Now image Amen 'feasting' (can we use feasting for 16 ppg against high shcoolers?) adjusting to the NBA defense. Those shooting numbers will be in single digits.
Did a quick google of Scoot and Wemby’s 3 point%… 28 and 27.5 respectively. Amen is not that much behind those guys percentage wise. Where are the Scoot and Wemby can’t shoot narratives?
One note--Scoot's numbers including exhibition games are more like 32-33 percent. But on the other hand, the 25% Amen number you see floated also does not include the OTE playoffs, where he shot a bit better (still only 30%).
Scoot does have that narrative so not sure what you’re talking about…and even then, his shooting is on a different tier than Amen’s Scoot Henderson shot 76% from the line and 35% from midrange…Amen shot 66% from the line and below 30% from midrange Wemby shot 82% from the line and 46% on his pullup midrange jumpers…furthermore, his shot doesn’t look straight up broken like Amen’s
The ‘Amen can’t shoot’ narrative is overblown and too many think the tank was a failure if he’s our pick. He made 16/63 from 3, 18/63 would have put him at the same percentage as Scoot/Wemby. His overall shooting percentage was 53% and his 68% from the line is easily fixable. It’s certainly a 2-3 project but his shooting problems can be fixed enough to make him an excellent point guard in the Association. He’s a good pick at 4 and our tank was as much a success as can be expected.
it’s not overblown at all…he is garbage in all facets of shooting right now, the same can’t be said for Scoot or Wemby if Scoot or Wemby couldn’t shoot from three, midrange, and the line like Amen, we’d all be hearing about it Scoot and Wemby were both terrible from 3, so Amen making 2 more shots to be on their level isn’t some good thing he shot 53% from the field playing in OTE were he was older and more athletic than everyone there…31% of his made field goals were dunks, something like that only happens when you’re playing against children if bad free throw shooting was so easily fixable, then Giannis wouldn’t still be trash at the line if u think he’s a good pick at 4, that’s fine…all I’m saying is there is a clear reason why Scoot and Wemby don’t have the same shooting narrative as Amen
Amen might be good as a cutter , but his lack of shooting is going to create spacing problems unless the ball is in his hands . we already want the ball in greens , kpjs, senguns , and smiths hands . I like his altheticism , but dislike his age relative to competition and level of competition . idk what stone is thinking . I DO think it strongly depends on who we plan to bring in /keep . I know it’s pessimistic and early . But I don’t like the spot we are in . I think we are praying for ping pong balls again next year and hoping we get to keep our pick
Amen’s shooting is awful because his shooting form and motion is terrible. It's hard to correct the shooting motion. It's not good that we draft a PG that can't shoot.
It's ridiculous that people comparing Amen's shooting to Scoot and Wenbayama’s...Lol, You can tell the big difference from their shooting motion. People clearly know who can improve their shooting more easily.
You know how sometimes a contestant on Wheel of Fortune will miss some super obvious answer that we’re all screaming from home…..yeah, we need one of the teams ahead of us to do the basketball version of that
Someone else posted this same workout showing Amen making 3s and noted how much better it looked. So take both with a grain of salt.
The shot looks smoother to me from base up through release. He's still bringing the ball down way too far, which doesn't bother me as much since I don't want him shooting contested jumpers right now anyway, and I don't love some of the stuff his arms are doing positionally, which is more concerning. But in any case, it's very clear he's made improvements. For me, it's at the level now where you look to improve upon his current mechanics, not throw the whole thing out and start over.
