I gotta say, from a bystander standpoint, the over the top, black and white, all or nothing posts are the most fun. "So and so is gonna be the 1st team All NBA year 2" or "they SUCK and Stone should be fired!" If everyone qualified every evaluation with "it seems to me so and so...but I could be wrong" would make CF the most boring, though intellectually reasonable, board in the NBA. Gimme the Homers and the Haters! But hey, I could be wrong. We might benefit from a little more humility in our takes. Maybe so maybe no.
I dunno who else gave him a chance besides you and @OremLK @carl_herrera @yixiixiy @BaselineFade Most if not all wrote him off but now dick ride him.
Why couldn’t Shaq hit FT’s? Why can’t Bron hit 75% of his FT’s? Kobe wasn’t a great 3 pt shooter. Every player has weaknesses or areas they need work on.
Writing off any rookie is stupid. We saw the same thing this year with people writing off reed after literally 200 minutes.
I don’t know if anyone wrote him off. Many including myself said he wasn’t good which he wasn’t. He’s had a couple good games but still filled with mistakes so wait and see. If anyone said he couldn’t improve then that is stupid.
I mean people said he’s a worse shooter than castle and has been worse than guys like sarr (who for a few months was probably the worst player in history) or castle or salaun.
He was not totally wrong, OTE made them their poster kids but their stats were meh....... And you have to really ball out to ignore the non shooting part. The risk was not tiny. It is a great story though......no doubt.
Yes he was. As I said there are so many misconceptions about OTE. OTE signed many 4 and 5 star recruits who decided to either delay or skip out on college. Amen’s team played the Dreamers in the 2023 finals. That team alone was stacked with 3x 5 star recruits and 4x 4 star guys who would have been freshmen in college. 1 pro europe guy and 1 FIBA U18 guy. It also had Alex Sarr. Did you watch the games? Amen showed he was well rounded avg 14.4 pts 9 assist 6 reb 2 stls and 2 blocks in 3 games He finished at a 75% at the rim for the season which he avg about 17 pts 9 ast 7 reb 1.5 stls against OTE competition. Those are great numbers. OTE had an exhibition game against Serbian pro team Mega Basket in 2022 where he dropped 18 points on 5-for-14 shooting, 10 rebounds, five steals and four blocks.
so what i gather, in a redraft, the order would go: 1. amen/ausar thompson (can't tell the difference) 2. wemby's mama 3. jarace walker 4. brandon miller 5. reed shepard 6. podz
Lol this is why I never get into the draft fights. No one knows a damn thing. I do think a players mindset gets undersold a lot though, players come in all the time with the right builds and skills and flunk out because they are not tough enough and driven enough to live up to their hype. I'll never forget Jalen on George's podcast saying at the start of his rookie season he started to doubt himself, started to wonder if he even belonged in the NBA, and I can't help but think how many other actual busts were destroyed just by that alone. Realizing that the talent level is magnitudes different and just folding under the weight that they might not be good enough. I was for Amen at four though, I thought he had the highest upside of players remaining because of his athleticism and I think when you are drafting top 5 you ALWAYS draft for potential. You don't take someone you're content with being a role player at 4, you draft someone you hope is worth the supermax. None of those other guys seemed to have that potential outside of Cam Whitmore and we end up getting him too anyway soo...
You bring up a really good point about mindset. I believe Altuve’s mindset is what drives the Astros success. Honestly, all these guys are athletic freaks, so it got to be the mental game that sets them apart. And that’s probably why players like Chuck Hayes, or even Chucky Brown, will always remain my in season favorites.
I have been by far the most adamant Amen fan from the beginning. Just saying. Comp was Magic, HOF, DPOY, all-team defense this year. Starting Point whatever next year, preferred him to everyone in the draft other than Wemby.
I said this before with the way stone had drafted . I trust him and his decisions so if he liked Amen enough .. then I trusted it was the right decision!!!
I also wonder is having a twin who is just as athletically freakish at the same game could be behind his mindset as well. It has to be.
I honestly remember reading this as my fav opinion when reading through this thread way back then ! Always remembered the name and paid attention to the name Ben Sullivan after that
