Cam's is much trickier to work on. Right now he gets by on burst and brute strength. But once teams pick up on those tendencies and take them away, he's going to have to figure out counters. You can already see him on the court telling himself "no...don't shoot" which is sort of good. It's going to take time for him to re-adjust to working within an offense and not just jack up a shot when he feels like it. He's similar to Jalen in that he takes some dumb ill advised shots at times. Cam Thomas for the Nets is another but he lacks athleticism. Amen is completely different. He makes the right decision more often than not and just let's the game dictate what he does. And because he can help you when he's not producing on offense, it makes him an absolutely elite prospect. He's the second most impactful player in this draft class behind Wemby and I'm curious to see their development.
He has guarded the perimeter top five in the league. His only problem is confidence and muscle. Next year he will have more of both. Over the next 2 years he will be able to guard 2-4. We are set up for an incredible defensive team next year.
I suppose he'll get some burn on SGA today, should be interesting to see how he handles himself against the a guy who excels in baiting defenders to bite
little blurb in the athletic about #CAMEN: https://theathletic.com/5293062/202...lsenewsletter&campaign=9116567&userId=6559290 Amen Thompson and Cam Whitmore, SFs, Houston The Rockets have no tanking incentive with their pick committed to Oklahoma City, so even as the top 10 in the West pull away, Houston should remain competitive. However, the Rockets should also keep an open mind about the future, and that means giving their two electric rookies plenty of rope the rest of the way. Thus far, they’ve combined for barely over a thousand minutes, with the bulk of them coming recently. It’s hard to overstate the instant energy jolt when these two enter a game, generating turnovers with disruptive defense, flying up and down the court in transition and playing above the rim at both ends. I wrote about Whitmore two weeks ago and some of his areas of focus. In Thompson’s case, the pros and cons are fairly cut-and-dried. It’s pretty obvious a 15 percent mark from 3 looms as a weakness, and he also needs to cut down on the turnovers in traffic. On the other hand, he’s a ridiculous athlete: a 6-foot-7 wing with a 15.5 percent rebound rate and one of four players with a steal rate above 3.0 percent. Some of his help-defense snags are mind-blowingly quick. Look at these two clips below, for instance. He rudely dispossesses Bojan Bogdanović in the first clip after deciding he isn’t buying the Knicks’ fake handoff to Jalen Brunson; in the second, Brunson barely has time to process that Thompson has charged in from the corner to double him before Thompson absconds with the ball: videos at the link.
In February Amen is averaging 14 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 1.5 steals and 1 block…. On a usage of 18%… that’s not a typo on the usage. His TS is 61% I don’t know what the future holds, but it isn’t accurate to say Thompson would be in the G-League without his excellent defense… the last month he is shooting over 70% at the rim.
Yeah - he can defend threes well if he has the right defenders around him. He has some lower body strength issues and sometimes takes too long to decide to switch - but he is like 19-20 years old. I’m not worried about his ability to defend the 3 well with consistent defenders around him. He has Amen Thompson which will help a lot, and Adams at the 5 with Sengun at the 4 will help a lot as well.
SGA is the rare guy as quick as Thompson. Amen has the length and athletic advantage and SGA has a deep bag and experience advantage.
