Teams are going to balk at Amen because he is an awful shooter. It’s like having a baseball player who can do everything except hit the ball. You can’t take a guy who has always hit .150 in single A baseball and get a good hitting coach in the majors and all of a sudden he hits .300 at the big league level. Never happens and never will because the competition is much better and you learn how to hit when you are a youngster….not in your twenties. Why is this so difficult for you people to understand???
Teams are going to balk at Amen because he is an awful shooter. It’s like having a baseball player who can do everything except hit the ball. You can’t take a guy who has always hit .150 in single A baseball and get a good hitting coach in the majors and all of a sudden he hits .300 at the big league level. Never happens and never will because the competition is much better and you learn how to hit when you are a youngster….not in your twenties. Why is this so difficult for you people to understand???
It kind of is though - if people won't guard you out to the perimeter and the defense just sits at the hoop or guards the passes to your shooters it takes away the ability to get to the skills you are actually exceptionally good at. Like - who cares if a guy is fast enough to turn a single into a double or can steal bases easily if he can barely get a hit to get on base? At some point you have to be able to get into those positions to take advantage of your strengths and if teams can easily scheme to take that away from you, that makes you a net negative on the court. What does Amen do off the ball? You going to put him in the dunker's spot? Being a slightly below average shooter can be worked around but being clueless as a shooter is a lot more of an impediment.
This is a vastly over-simplified comparison because Amen is great at scoring in the paint. A closer analogy would be a baseball prospect who is great at everything except one offensive tool, like hitting for contact. For example a great defensive shortstop with home run power, speed, and a good eye at the plate, but he swings and misses a lot. Relevant FanGraphs article from today's front page: Batting Average is for Suckers
Baseball is different than Basketball! The most important thing is too hit the ball so you can score or get on base. If you are not a good outside shooter, you can still provide 10 assists a game and you can drive to the basket to score.He will be a top athlete in the nba next year, he has elite skills. You can teach shooting, players like Kawhi and Brown from the Celtics are better shooters because of player development who were not good shooters in college. You can not teach elite 1 step, vision, elite passer, feel for the game and athleticism.
Baseball is different than Basketball! The most important thing is too hit the ball so you can score or get on base. If you are not a good outside shooter, you can still provide 10 assists a game and you can drive to the basket to score.He will be a top athlete in the nba next year, he has elite skills. You can teach shooting, players like Kawhi and Brown from the Celtics are better shooters because of player development who were not good shooters in college. You can not teach elite 1 step, vision, elite passer, feel for the game and athleticism.
Personally, I think the perfect analogy is a gold glove runner-up shortstop who often strikes out on curveballs, has a good eye for knocking sliders into the corner, can hit fastballs in the 100s but not the low 90s, and will struggle to hit a changeup out of the infield...except he might be able to make it to 2nd base if there's a wild pitch from a left handed pitcher. Amen is exactly like that, except on a basketball court. Or he's like other on-ball NBA guys who struggled to shoot. It isn't hard to figure out guys. Though yes it isn't black or white, which I think many people are struggling to understand. Just like "oh he's a big man who can't switch or protect the rim!", there are no absolutes with this kind of stuff. Just the margin for error this kind of skillset forces you to deal with. Can it work? Yes. Can it fail? Yes. The team and player will decide which way that goes. It is a player with big flaw combined with a lot of uniquely impactful skills, and you either work around it or decide it is too limiting a factor and try to find someone else as a foundational piece that gives you something better to work with. Good luck either way.
Surefire bust. The Rockets ending up with Dillon Brooks, Van Vleet, and nothing for the 4th pick. Another 20 win season.
Wow. I enjoyed reading that, RC. I don't know if the analogy fits Amen like a glove, but there's one thing I don't doubt. Whatever call gets made, there will be a heck of a lot of members arguing with the umpire.
This is a terrible analogy. The number comparisons are awful and the way hitting is in baseball versus shooting in basketball isn't comparable. Giannis can't shoot and won an MVP. You are never going to find a bad hitting baseball player that wins MVP.
I mean...by the logic, nobody should ever take a project player with upside. Just take the best college basketball player. Take Drew Timme instead of Amen, I guess. Miller can't learn to become one of the best athletes in the league. Amen can learn how to improve his shooting. I can see how teams would potentially prefer more upside.
Drew timme doesn’t translate to the nba game. That’s been obvious for years. Being one of the best athletes in the league makes no difference. The best players in the league aren’t actually out of this world athletic. The best players in the league are skilled. Folks seriously act like being able to jump super high and running fast without actual full set of skills is more important. It definitely isn t. What Miller can continue to develop on top of what he can already do is easily more realistic than building a broken hitch shot and someone who spent all his time playing against high schoolers.the modern era of basketball hates the amen’s who get exposed over and over and over. Nobody prefers amen over Miller Anyone saying that is in no position to get Miller to begin with. It’s a gimmick to act like you’re happy with where you’re picking. The rockets are in a shitty draft spot. That’s been true since the lottery
I agree. I would love to be Top 3 because then we could get Scoot. But the Rockets need a dynamic playmaking PG more than they need a low upside 3/D player that they already have in Jabari.
I don’t think so. Easy pass. Miller and Jabari together makes a great 3/4 combo and 4/5 small ball combo. The length between the two would be such a plus. Much better than a broken jumper guard
