Amen needs to develop a go to floater, and become a young version shooting like the seasoned vets Kidd/Rondo who became passable spot up 3pt shooters along with handle Everything else he just needs to keep polished and is all star-ish in the other things he sticks to and excels at As of now pretty confident he will improve his shot, just glad he isn't scared to shoot it, but even better has the awareness not to over do it and stay in his lane
Agree with basically all of that. Except I’m not sure the type of confidence he’s building right now - confidence that he can dominate defensively and on the glass, and finish off-ball around the rim - is the same confidence he’ll need to be a good on-ball offensive NBA player. Amen is shooting 63% from the field this month. That’s alarmingly high! It’s because he is now only attempting dunks, putbacks, and semi transition lay-ups. He has attempted 1 non-layup or dunk in his last 80 minutes played. At a certain point he’s overtuning his game to avoid on-ball shot creation… and that avoidance isn’t a good habit long term. IMO he should be attempting a few middies in PnR or pure self-creation per game. Even if he’s 35% on them, it’s a negligible hit to our overall efficiency and helps him build an offensive base for the long term, rather than expecting him to go from zero to 1 just based on a summer of solo shooting drills.
I wonder about this too. Should we be taking some lumps in an effort to develop Amen? Amen is great where he is being used If you are trying to win NOW. But If you are trying to build a franchise PG?
Don't worry guys it will come. He has to be good at what he does off the ball and make sure the defensive foundation is set. He's getting some creating opportunities here and there and those will increase as the team builds more chemistry with him. He's our PF right now and we have 4-ish shooters around him so there are going to be easier opportunities for him.
I think the next game against Cleveland will be a big test for the Thompson and Smith PF/C experiment. Get over that hurdle, and things should get more manageable against the Wizards again and then the Bulls.
His handles looks more reliable than back in the beginning of the season but I don’t think they’ll ever be good enough to be a starting pg. he still gets loose with the ball when the defender is disciplined or pressures him. At least he aware of himself to get rid of the ball when that happens.
Going to be a learning curve if he's legitimately never set screens before, but seems like the type of skill he'd pick up pretty easily given his body control and start/stop capabilities.
Earvin Johnson, Jr. starter kit, though Amen is 2 inches shorter, for what that's worth. Just thought I'd throw that out there. Flame me. It's okay.
Amen, JG, Cam and Tari all operate best with fast pace and an open court. That style difference with Sengun might be something to watch next season. Rox should tell Sengun to work more on fast breaks and transition scoring.
I get the comparison but honestly they're pretty different. Magic was actually not super-athletic, maybe above average, but certainly not elite. Was an all right defender but wasn't really his specialty. Maybe the best passer to play the game (right up there)--Amen is good in that area but seems more likely to pick up around 7 or 8 assists in his prime than a dozen or more. I'm starting to think Amen's best-case outcome might be something like a cross between Dwyane Wade and Jimmy Butler. Absolute menace going to the rim, good at everything but shooting, functional in the midrange but that's about it. Regularly making all-defensive teams. Think I might be starting to see him as a shooting guard, honestly.
With games like today, it makes you feel like the past 3 drafts resulted in legit players, and a lot of the reservations about their future quells.
I like that you can play him all over the court, but it feels more and more to me like he's a forward. Although I don't mind him at guard, as long as he doesn't ever EVER shoot from three. He's exceeded my expectations by a lot, I love his versatility.
Enjoying seeing him set screens and act as the big on the run ala Rockets Westbrook. Other teams don’t really know who to guard him with and it’s causing beneficial mismatches for us. Hopefully we’ll see him get comfortable running some offense sometimes. It will come.
