The organization appears content to play the season out with Amen and Reed manning the point guard position. But longer term one of them will likely get the bulk of the minutes there. Which one is the future at the point guard spot? And where does the other end up playing the majority of their minutes?
Needs a poll, although it will overwhelmingly be for Reed. Amen is the ultimate answer, but the NBA is evolving to a positionless model and the traditional pg role will not be pre-dominant. For the Rockets our best way forward is a 3 headed monster with Amen, Sengun, and Reed in that order sharing the duties. Nothing is going to work if Ime doesn’t institute more movement and get away from the iso only offense.
Does Amen have to improve his 3pt shooting? Does this scenario where Amen is taking the ball up the floor and creating for others hurt his defense? At Reed's height if he is not taking on more PG type duties I think It diminishes his value.
"Who plays PG?" is a dated way of thinking about it. "Who is the on-ball perimeter initiator?" or "Who runs the PnR's?" are better questions. The answer is that the Rockets would love "both Amen and Reed" to be the answer. But IMO it's <50% likely that either player will develop into that role, for a high-level team. With Amen being less likely of the two, bc his shooting is so so far away for a 23 year old. But the FO will let it play out for some time to give them their fair shot at developing, while KD acts as a shot creation band-aid.
I'm not convinced either will fully become the starting PG, but if one does it'll be Reed. Amen's clearly not a PG, any more than KPJ was. Amen's still the better player, he just does not have the prerequisite skills to be a PG full time, starting or otherwise. Handle isn't close, vision isn't close, passing is kinda close but that's mostly it, can't shoot for ****.
Please repeat the premise on 2/6. Until then, hmm? I need to be sold. FWIW - I’m happy for the inseason improvement of @; however, less time at the 1 should equate to more time terrorizing. And that would maximize @ for the good of a post-season run.
Amen looks more like a secondary playmaker like Iggy than a point guard to me so far. I'm glad he's getting floor general reps early in his career but it's not looked natural. Reed will play the position he can defend best, which may be point guard.
Reed will play up top, with Amen freed up to do what he's best at. It's pretty obvious. The real question is.. What happens in the meantime? My guess is we add a combo guard that can shoot and handle the ball...a solid rotational piece....that doesn't cost much in assets.
Fair. I guess I meant on-ball initiator. But I personally don’t like 6’2” shooting guards and I wonder that if that’s what Reed ends up becoming, and not an “on-ball initiator” that he’s not gonna be as valuable a prospect as we hoped when we drafted him. I see flashes of on-ball initiation skill, while acknowledging he’s not a fully formed product. FWIW I like that both are getting these on-ball reps.
I don't think Amen is a point guard. He just lacks true point guard skills. He might bring the ball up the court after a rebound or in transition but after that, he's giving the ball to someone else to initiate the offense while he's in the dunkers spot. Yes, he averages 5ish assists a game but he's not creating those himself with rim pressure. I really think he's a 3. Reed might be the answer but it's hard to say when you don't see him running a conventional offense with lots of pick and roll action in a league that literally 50% of all offensive possessions involve some pick and roll action. The team is set up to do just that with Sengun as the pick guy, Amen on the dunkers spot with Jabari and Durant spreading the court and the lead guard handling the ball. I find it strange that last year with FVV and Jalen Green, they ran almost 60% of possessions thru some type of pick and roll action, now we're forced to watch this ISO heavy mess that has the team 29th in both turnover percentage and assist percentage. Right now, we're seeing Reed played as an undersized 2 guard .... with Point Durant or Point Sengun catching the ball at the 3 point line and the team 27th in turnovers per game. If Reed can't operate out of the pick and roll, he can't be an NBA point guard, otherwise he'll spend his career as a bench shooter / microwave. Rip the band aid off and find out.
His height doesn’t impact his offensive position. He will guard PG’s on the other end of the floor. He should primarily be a spot up shooter when Amen is on the floor and get the majority of his on-ball reps when Amen is off the floor. Amen spreads the floor by driving, Reed spreads the floor by shooting 3’s. I think at least for the next several years, Amen, Reed, and Sengun should share the initiation plays. Amen is still playing incredible defense. He cannot help as much since he is guarding the best perimeter player most of the time. I think at the first of the season his attention was very much on learning the PG position and it may have taken some focus away from his defense. Lately, his defense has been as elite as ever. Overall I think both Amen and Reed have made incredible progress with traditional PG duties.
It’s Amen and it’s just all just an unnecessary position labeling argument. He’s good at bringing the ball up quickly and getting a good look before defense is set. A simple pass off when defense is back and move off ball in the half court. If we had decent play making from the 2 other starters next to Amen, Sengun, and KD the PG listing argument wouldn’t even come up.
If I have to choose between those two then Reed. But I don't think the PG of the future is on the roster. And by PG I mean the person who is starting the action in a half court set. For instance, in the early Harden days, i would consider Harden to be the Rockets PG not Patrick Beverley.
For sure, the only thing that matters with Reed is whether he can be a high-level primary action guy leading a good offense. If he isn't that, he doesn't matter much. 6'2 role players that aren't versatile defenders are not meaningful prospects. And Reed is definitely a meaningful prospect, IMO. But still, I would not say either he or Amen are likely to lead good offenses as a main guy. Maybe the likelihood Reed gets there is 20-30%. That's still a bet we have to let play out for a while - agree with you. Elite primary on-ball initiators are that rare and valuable of a quantity.
I agree with this. There is really no need for a traditional PG in the modern version of the nba. So many wings having the ability to initiate the offense, makes the position much less important. Amen is a wonderful initiator in most situations. Currently, Reed rarely can beat his man off the dribble, which means he is best off-ball for now. The team needs to create opportunities for Reed, not the other way around. Sheppard also scores more efficiently when assisted. Amen and Reed compliment each other greatly and would like to see them share 30 mins on the floor together. If Reed needs to start to do that, so be it.
Amen is not a point guard. He's a dude who can play some point if needed, but he's really not a PG. Reed might not be either, but he has a better shot of doing it than Amen does. My guess is that neither one of them is the long term full time answer.
