I dont see Thompson as much of an upgrade over KPJ especially when you factor in the pure shooting Porter Jr offers and the fact that this team as a whole failed any "point guard" that received playing time last year. Bringing in a hype machine "court general" wont change the fact this team cant shoot to save their lives. Id probably rather keep developing Ty Ty than to take a broken shot measurables guy.
Amen is a GENERATIONAL POINT GUARD, you cannot compare KPJ and Amen Thompson(how dare you). KPJ does not have the elite 1st step as Amen. KPJ does not have the vision and feel for the game as Amen. Finally, KPJ is just a average defender, Amen has the agility, speed and leaping ability to be a elite defender. You need to apologize…
Kind of a ridiculous take if you watched any at all of KPJ and how he failed to set up teammates for looks on a regular basis the last two seasons. If you don't think bringing in an actual playmaker to help potentially elevate teammates matters, then I don't know what to tell ya. Amen is one of the best passing guards to come into the draft in quite some time by virtually all accounts. Upgrading at PG is simply a must if you've watched any Rockets basketball since Harden.
I watched plenty of non playmakers on this team routinely hang out to dry the guys that were tasked with "setting them up". I'm going to be enthralled with how Udoka handles the position and whether he makes the super fans happy. Sorry I dont see "generational point guard" from a guy who played in a 2nd tier league and looks like Darryl Drain when he shoots. I'd much rather just let Sengun direct traffic than wasting a top 4 pick on a guy who is 2 years away from being 2 years away.
Amen Thompson is bad at defense. Go look again. Projections dont mean squat when he couldnt dominate that league as an "elite" prospect. The NBA chews up and spits out guys like Amen Thompson on the regular. His brother Ausar on the other hand is an awesome defender.
Again...the hyperbole is the thing I struggle to understand. The entire draft community, as well as the Rockets organization clearly, has said this guy is unquestionably a Top 5 prospect who's lone struggle is shooting, which is certainly a huge and legitimate concern! But there's a reason he is in the Top 5, as opposed to half of Clutchfans who are under the impression he has zero discernable skills on a basketball court. If we're comparing him to Bruno Cobolco I would like to understand why he's not a fringe 2nd round pick and instead a Top 5 lock. Gotta be a reason, no?
When most of your package is built around athleticism then its going to be a rough ride. Look at Jalen for example. Amen cant even get off his own shot. He will be relegated to a drive first PG that is kicking out to the corners. His defense is not good on tape and people just claim it will be some sort of All NBA because the guy is huge for the position. I've been up and down on the kid and ultimately when you cant shoot in the sport of basketball its really REALLY hard to make a difference for an aspiring championship level team in the modern NBA.
From Sam Vecenie's guide: Spoiler For comparison, Ausar's profile: Also has this in the summary for Ausar: This mirrors my take, and I've seen similar takes from other draft experts I follow. I think it is fair to claim that Amen might struggle mightily in the NBA (because he *probably* will), but I'm not sure why one would claim Amen is bad while Ausar is awesome. Ausar is *better*, but there isn't some huge gap between them. If you think one sucks, they both suck. If you think one is awesome, then they're both awesome. Honestly, this probably applies to nearly every facet of their games, including the areas that I think pushes Amen into a higher tier (athleticism and playmaking). I'm not sure where some of these odd narratives come from. Certainly not from watching the games.
Players have to pass a certain bar of athleticism. In the case of Pods, he has that more than enough imo. Does his lack of athleticism nonetheless hurt his overall ability? Sure. But he has enough athleticism to say this could theoretically compete in the NBA if the skills and bball iq are there. And those are there in spades. Once i think someone is at least capable of playing in the nba - which, let's be honest, is EVERY 0-100 even on a big board.... USUALLY... then i more strongly value skillset/bball iq. I like Amen because of his incredible feel, constant rim pressure and ABILITY to hit at the rim at a high percentage, and defensive potential. That he's uber athletic is than a HUGE value multiplier on all that. But because he can't shoot for ****, its a HUGE value depressor. That's at least how i do my analysis. With Cam, i thought he was mediocre at defense, just ok at shooting, and had ZERO feel. One thing i can come around on is shooting, cause mechanically he looks pretty solid, and he had a hand injury and still shot "ok" on a team that was in huge flux. His athleticism and size then is a value multiplier. It helped him bully ball drive to the rim very effectively. But still.... ZERO feel. Big red flag for me. And i didnt see any exceptional defense really. BUt there is context... and the context can certainly make you say "ok, on the court xy and z were missing.... BUT"... and its that BUT that has him ranked high for Vecenie. But (i) he's way young, (ii) he's insanely athletic, (iii) Nova was a huge mess this year, (iv) he might have had more feel previously, (v) there's more spacing in the NBA, etc, etc... and you say ok, with the added context this guy can maybe develop into all the things he's not great at and if he does that absolutely he'll be a stud, and in the meantime, in the right situation, where he can truly just focus on being a play finisher and getting up to speed on NBA-level defense, he can be value additive immediately. I don't love it, but whatever. As an aside, when i said USUALLY above... there ARE some guys on big boards where you still scratch your head about their FUNCTIONAL athleticism. This is easiest seen, to me, with really tall lanky bigs. Thabeet is the one that stands out cause i hated the idea of him on an nba team and if i remember correctly he went 2nd or 3rd overall to Memphis, which seemed insane to me... but conversely, the reason Walker Kessler didnt go higher was because of concerns about that - would he just be functionally out-athleted. In any case, I love Pods. I do not get Cam at #4 but lower sure. Amen's range of outcomes is insanely huge cause of how big a value depressor his lack of shooting is. It's a tough one. Scoot is the clear choice... but increasingly its becoming clear that ain't happening. He seems to have dominated both the CHA and POR workouts and now his agency is on a push to get as much hype video out about him as possible.
Kind of a ridiculous take if you watched any at all of KPJ and how he'd create wide open shots for teammates on a regular basis the last two seasons only for them to brick them.... because KPJ was the only competent shooter in the roster on top of him being the only halfway decent ball handler. Bringing in a guy who can't even shoot in a rec league against children to pair him with the guys who made the Rockets the worst shooting team in the entire league is an absolutely ridiculous plan... but it should be funny, so I fully support downgrading the PG spot by going with Thompson.
Danny Ainge up to his stupid ****. Give up a late future first pick for this years 2nd pick. Dude thinks he's smarter than everyone.
There has not been athletic point guard with handles like Amen since Westbrook, Morant, Derrick Rose or John Wall. All of those guys are very athletic but 6’2-6’4. Amen Thompson is 6’7. Do you know any point guard that athletic with that length….that will play defense? https://youtube.com/shorts/m8UPapeuz_s?feature=share
There has not been athletic point guard with handles like Amen since Westbrook, Morant, Derrick Rose or John Wall. All of those guys are very athletic but 6’2-6’4. Amen Thompson is 6’7. Do you know any point guard that athletic with that length….that will play defense? https://youtube.com/shorts/m8UPapeuz_s?feature=share
