The Myth of “There is Always a Better Twin” and Thoughts on Amen Thompson

Streisand effect ftw

 

Your stats don't matter to me, as long as Amen Thompson is a Rocket he will always be superior to his brother.

 

But which one of our twin b****es is hopping off of jet skis?

 

In seriousness @Medicine N Music I think what most people fail to realize is that Amen Thompson is accelerating relative to the reference frame of Ausar Thompson - who experiences no acceleration and accordingly does not experience time dilation.

You are right in that the "paradox" is not really such, if not technically a myth, just a hypothetical that omits key details

 

I’m bullish on Amen.

I don’t think 4 was too high and I think he’s going to be an elite pg. I think his shot will be good enough to where if he gets space he will make them at a good rate.

I think he’s going to be really special.

 

The Collins brothers were really both pedestrian......

 

A) The sample size is far too small. 2 if the 8 cases you cite are incomplete grades, and should be excluded (Murray's and Thompson's). Of the remaining 6 cases, twice one twin is superior to the other (and arguable perhaps in some of the remaining 4 cases).

B) If one Thompson twin IS to be superior, there exists no evidence to suggest it would be Ausar. Rather the evidence tells in favour of Amen (to date) - see scouting and projections prior to draft. Their time in the NBA is far too short to currently assess.

C) Should Amen follow the projections of being the superior twin, we now have a baseline of Ausar from which to project forward. Imagine Ausar with legitimate PG vision and skills? Wow!

 

Horace Grant was definitely a better player than Harvey Grant and it wasn’t close.

Robin Lopez had always been a cut above Robin Lopez as well. One is an energy reserve and the other is an elite defender and starter.

Honestly the only one that has really been close is the Morris twins.

As for Amen and Ausar - I think watching them, it’s evident that Amen is the better athlete and lead guard as a passer.

I think we will likely have a gap between the Thompson twins because what they are being asked to do, how they are being used and coaching philosophy are so very different.

I would take Amen at #4 again based on what I have seen. The shot is the reason he didn’t go #2… and it is still a question, but he has quietly been okay on long 2’s… I’ll give him time to get his 3 pointer in a range good enough to not kill his game… even at 32-33% from 3 and he will be able to use his other skills to be very good.

 

I understand the concerns for Amen but athletic 6'6+ PGs are a little similar to 18 yr old Euroleague mvps, majority of them pan out.

Cade Cunningham, Dyson Daniels, Scottie Barnes, Anthony Black, Ball Bros, Tyrese Haliburton among others. Hell we even got former busts like Dante Exum blowing up. Ben Simmons also achieved success, although his work ethic eventually destroyed his career for a time he was a multi all star in his early 20s.

At the time Rox were searching for a star so to me it made sense to get Amen cuz he had possibly the 2nd highest ceiling in his class. Even now since we got a capable pg in FVV I'm happy we ended up with him cuz it might pay dividends later on.

 

Yeah, most of the people complaining about him not having a shot sound odd because he never had a shot. Neither of the twins did. Despite that, they were considered top 5-7 picks before the draft. The only disappointing thing I've seen from Amen is that his handle is a bit questionable inside and in traffic. I never would've guessed that. Hopefully that's just a transition from pre-NBA to NBA thing. On a side note, I saw the same issues with Cam on drives getting past guys early in the season, but he picks and chooses his spot to drive better nowadays. Amen also doesn't seem to use all of his athleticism on drives or know when to jump and jam on somebody or just go for a layup. I think he's adjusting to the speed of the NBA and seeing when and where he can use whatever skills he has. In OTE and high school, he was easily more athletic than pretty much everybody, but he's going to have to pick and choose his spots in the NBA. Jalen has/had to do something similar.

I don't think Ausar is that much different than Amen except for the ballhandling/PG work. Ausar is 98% as athletic, slightly bigger, etc., and neither has shown one is all that much better than the other yet. Hell, it hasn't even been half a season yet, and I doubt anything about the "better twin" is going to be decided before another 2-4 years.

 

I'm going to disagree with you about Amen's floor. If he doesn't shoot above 30%, I don't think he will be a winning starter in the NBA. We think that he'll still get his points at the rim, but once he's an established sub 30% shooter then like WB (and Ben Simmons to some extent) teams will constantly force him into a net negative position by refusing to let him enter the paint and let him get anything else he wants. What happens here is his finishes at the rim will be the most difficult ones in the league and his defender will always be tasked with double teaming on our best scorers. This is bad offense for a playoff-bound team. We can only sustain it off the bench for now.

IMO Amen is All Star or bust depending on his 3pt shot. There's no in between. Luckily, his 3pt shot looks like it's improving at a steady pace. For the ceiling that this guy provides, I'm willing to give him 2-3 years to develop that 3pt shot. It's great that we can bring him off the bench and not be in desperate need for him to be ready right now. With Udoka being a strong development guy and Amen being such an obsessed basketball nerd, I think it's fair to be optimistic about the formula we have in place.

 

I still think Amen can be the best player on this team. His jumpshot is as bad as advertised and his handle is still a bit shaky but the raw tools are all there and he seems like a good kid overall. He's still really young and unfortunately wasted a key year of development by playing in a glorified YMCA but there's still plenty of time for improvement.

 

Not sure how you forgot about these guys



Confirms the myth lol

 

Amen is a fascinating athlete with some innate feel and skill, but knowing he was a bad shooter pre draft and now watching it unfold in real time hoping it gets better is bittersweet. Nobody else was really worth the pick at 4 though. Im just starting to wonder how necessary a 'pure' PG is next to Sengun. Finding some viable shooting defenders seems to have moved to #1 on the priority list.

 

Solid post as usual.

I have seen glimpses of decent mid range shooting, so that’s at least some reason for a bit of optimism. But agreed that we just don’t know if he’ll ever become a good shooter…which is a legit concern. With a guy like AlP, you ideally want players around him that can shoot from long range at a high clip. Right now are starting 2 guard doesn’t fit that bill so Amen’s lack of shooting is going to be a bigger problem in the near term.

fortunately Amen is just a rookie with amazing work ethic, IQ, and talent. So anything is possible

 

Jose and Ozzie Canseco.
You suck Alex Rodriguez!

 

Not trying to mock the thread. But I just can't resist posting this picture.