So I’m guessing y'all are not ready to talk about Amen Thompson.

The most hilarious post for me here was dissing him by saying his box score is like Russell Westbrook lol

Westbrook's stats were "empty" only because he sucked as a defender. If Westbrook was 75% of the defender Amen is, he would be in the conversation for top 20 player all time.

Haha I can't believe someone thinks Amen's stats are empty. Now I've heard it all. There's hardly a handful of players in the NBA who's stats have a disproportionately large impact on wins.

 

I will say though since I've been defending him so much, going by the board's standards:

Amen will be 23 years old and in year 4 next season. At that point, "he is what he is" right? That will have been 2 seasons playing as a point-forward and 1 full time as a PG. We'll test his PG skills under playoff pressure, full court press, traps, elite defenders, etc later this season. The shooting has to show up by next season too, at least a below average shooter. The huge improvement in FT% keeps me optimistic.

His development this season as a PG is critical for us, more important than any other individual development. If it doesn't work out, then we'll move him back to SF/PF and a secondary playmaker. That's why it's so important for us to invest in it this season. We have to accelerate that development in order for it to dove-tail with Durant's retirement. If Amen is a point forward then he and Sengun won't be enough as cornerstones, they'll need a big scorer with them to take over a lot of usage.

 

He’s a slow starter, he normally gets going towards mid season. He’ll be ok, he’s averaging good numbers. He just have to make most of his layups and he can boost his ppg average over 20.

 

It would Be a great thing for us if he can turning a Lamr Odom/ Iggy type of player with elite defense. Just play to his strengths and stay terrorizing

 

The only thing I want from Amen is less 3s and more drives. He’s doing well enough.

 

I cringe EVERY time he shoots a 3. I just hate it. It’s not his game.

 

I agree with this. I personally don’t see Amen as the point long term because of the lack of shooting (which I think will improve but may never be a plus skill for him), and the ball handling (which I believe can get there but will take time). Either way, the experience is really good for Amen and it will help his passing and ball handling. I worry playing Amen at the point undermines dome of his near-term impact, but there’s no question that it will end up being valuable experience for the long term. That said, by mid-yr if Reed looks like the better point guard, we should strongly consider moving Amen off ball and letting Reed get comfortable at the point so he’s ready for playoff basketball.

 

Keep riding Amen at PG as long as we're winning. When Reed's ready to start, Amen slides to backup PG and gets back to his natural game in the dunker spot. Plus, he's developing ball-handling / PG skills that'll pay off down the road anyway.

 

good thing Alpi didn't stop working on his shot and shooting threes when last year it was "not his game"

if Amen stops working on his shot and shooting threes he might as well be Ben Simmons

Amen needs to continue shootiing threes but limit them around 2 per game, When he starts hitting consitently then he can gradually increase his attempts

 

Alpi and his 5th year now has a reliablle

never say never

 

Seen on another board for those who are oh-so sure they know Amen's ceiling. They would have been saying Lebron can't be a primary playmaker lol

Lebron (and Flagg) struggled a lot more than Amen in their first go at the PG spot:

Struggling at this thing early is NOT a sign that we've reached a ceiling.

Further perspective:

Andre Iguodala was 5.7 assists to 3.4 TO's in his 3rd season (one year older than Amen). Amen is already better than that in his 3rd season. Because they shoved Iggy into a small forward role, he ended up being a role player which is shocking considering he was on a star trajectory (18 points on just 13 shots in year 3 plus elite defense and good passing). He peaked at 6 assists and didn't reach that again for his final 12 seasons. He would remain a role player for the rest of his career. That is to say: giving up on this can go sideways. You can end up becoming Iggy - which would be a major disappointment for us.

Amen has exceeded everyone's expectations in just 12 games. If it took him 30 games to get to this point everyone rational would have been happy anyway. When you say "it's not going to work" I'm sure you didn't mean "he's going to be slightly lower assists than FVV and the team will win at a 70% rate while having the best offense in the NBA." Surely, that's not what you meant by "it's not going to work".

Just watch how fast he learns.

 

Paging @J.R. for his in-depth research of forum threads to see if "we were ever ready to talk about Amen Thompson".