it would be interesting to discuss whether anyone thinks Sengun has the potential to improve in the future
Let's get real folks. Scoot is gone. Amen Thompson spends more time clapping in a boot than on the court, Cam Whitmore is averaging -4.4 assists a game, FACTS HURT Time to pivot to Bryce James - Lebron's other son who will be draft eligible in 26.
If only Stone would have picked Scoot at #4 instead of Amen. Can't believe he couldn't rig the draft like Pop.
Scoot would've given us a clear leader/alpha-dog to lead the young group, but I've really warmed up to Amen's fit and upside, even if we just saw him for a few quarters in SL (I was definitely a doubter pre-draft). I'm pretty sold on Scoot being a perennial All-Star/Superstar talent, but he is just 6'2"ish at the end of the day. Amen looks like he has legit All-Star potential, but it's harder to project what exactly he's going to be. But at 6'7" and as athletic as anybody, he makes our roster more unique, and less pigeonholed...as building around Scoot would be similar to building around a guy like D-Rose or Ja -- a high-USG PG who's not an elite shooter, and needs specific parts around him. Thompson's jumper is obviously the elephant in the room, as that could hold him back, but the rest of his game should still make him pretty darn valuable for us (and hopefully the other core guys continue to improve as shooters to offset that). His size and defensive upside also makes him arguably more enticing next to Jalen long term, and should be fun to watch defensively with Tari, Whitmore and Bari.
I've been on record saying I like Amen AND Miller over Scoot for this Rockets team. Scoot is the one you pick if you are just starting rebuilding cuz he has the alpha/franchise star aura. However as we have seen with this template the Uber athletic pg gets off to an amazing start but ends up injured and washed later on. I mean just look at Wall and D Rose and even Ja Morant the last couple of years, it's basically guaranteed that's why no team that has a short pg has won a ring outside of Billups1x and Curry when he has like 3-4 all star teammates. Amen Oth is a 6'7 pg, imo that's the rarest commodity in the NBA pretty much every lotto rated 6'6+ pg has turned out pretty good Magic, Simmons, Cade, Scottie B, Giannis, Giddey, Dyson Daniels and now both Anthony Black and Amen has showed out in SL. So if you are starting out like Portland then Scoot is perfect cuz he will get butts into seats and soften the pain of rebuilding. But if you already have several pieces then Miller is better imo cuz he can complement who you have. Amen is the highest risk but also has the 2nd highest upside in the draft after Wemby. Prior to the draft I would have preferred Miller off the 3 but now I'm happy we went with Amen cuz we ended up with another wing in Whitmore anyway.
Scoot also has something that allows young players to be better earlier in their careers than young players who don't have this trait: strength. If you look at most really young players who joined at 19 that immediately contributed to winning, they all had above average strength. Having strength means you don't get pushed away from your spots. Your plan A is still in tact. When you don't have the strength you get pumped around and you have to think of a secondary move to counter being bumped off path.
As a writer who sees this particular issue often here on CF, I feel compelled to point out that "bias" is something you have, whereas "biased" is something you are. I am biased when it comes to the Rockets. I have a bias when it comes to the Rockets. Lecture over, class dismissed.
I actually think this is a tougher question to answer now I've seen Amen talk and play alongside players I can tangibly rate from seeing them in real games. To me, Scoot looks like a sure fire top-5-10 PG in the league barring injury. Amen though has something there. I LOVE his attitude and demeanour, all business but with enough wit and humour that you know he's not a stiff or devoid of creativity. His athleticism is also scary, like we've seen some special athleticism up close from the youngsters we had, but Jalen's athleticism reminds me more of a Drexler or Jordan type, it's graceful, fluid and agile. Amen's legitimately like watching a young Rose or Westbrook on steroids with an extra half a foot of height...It almost seems ridiculous typing that out, but it genuinely is that way and I was 100% a naysayer pre-draft thinking people were gassing it like always happens.
Barring injury, Scoot is more of a sure thing than Amen but it's not hard to see Amen having a higher ceiling if he can work out some of the shooting kinks AND pick up some of the hard skills that Scoot already has. I watched quite a bit of film of Amen before the draft and I liked him okay there but since drafting him I realize his soft skills are what makes me REALLY excited because he seems very smart, very good memory, very engaged, very 'even' emotionally, and very motivated. He's one of those guys who you can tell thinks about getting better constantly and he doesn't have to explicitly say it - you can just tell by where his conversations go. Then when you watch him process the game in real time you can see that he is playing chess a bit as a playmaker similar to like a Steve Nash type - where they may have identified an open player but they turn the jets on some direction to shift the defense to give a better passing angle or to give that player even more room to get an easy bucket. It's all just innate in him in a way that I don't necessarily see from Scoot even if Scoot can put a guy on his hip ('in jail' as they say)like a pro right now or use screens and rescreens like a young CP3 right now. Given how much we have struggled the last few years - Scoot would be my preference for the short term(and less risk) but I'm completely happy with Amen as our PG of the future - I just like the kid. You want to root for him and if he hits, he could really be one of the best two way players in the game - it just might take a few more years for him to catch up to Scoot from a hard skills standpoint.
