Ugh....I was so high on him in the draft and it's been a rough year for him since to say the least. I even found myself in Portland the other day and caught a Blazers game right behind their bench and frankly, he wasn't very good then(when Brunson put up 45 on them). He's definitely shorter than what he is listed at and while he is obviously a strong guy and plays smart at times, I haven't seen him materialize any athletic gifts to give him an advantage over anyone else and that's a problem because he doesn't necessarily have the length he was supposed to have and frankly he spends more of his motion offensively in trying to physically clear out players over actually drawing content to create separation...and the shot is pretty broken as well...and the defense isn't anything special. I still think he can be an NBA starter, but it feels like he is a long way off from being any type of all star.
Do you think he can be a starter on a playoff team? I just can't see him as much more than a journeyman player.
"With how many ball handlers we have, we've asked Amen to more things. And he has been great." Udoka on Amen.
He might still be eventually. He reminds me a lot of a young Kyle Lowry - physically imposing and aggressive, but lacking a shot and the type of length to help him finish over taller players. Lowry wasn't really a guy you could trust to be smart with the ball earlier in his career but eventually he calmed down, made the smart play, and found that jumper that made him a perennial playoff PG later in his career....so I wouldn't say it's completely unrealistic for Scoot, but he has to show improvement as a ball control style PG similar to guys like Lowry and FVV because it doesn't appear that he has the physical tools to impose himself as a star despite that. ...but he does seem to already have a decent grasp of some of the individual PG skills and techniques - he makes decent reads, he does smart PG things using a screen and keeping a defender in jail but much like a lot of the younger guys on our team before this year, he doesn't seem to get his place of where to be both offensively and defensively for the sake of his teammates. It will be interesting to see if he gets there. I was close enough to see/hear him from the bench and the dude cares - he seemed very frustrated with himself for a series of bad fouls and bad shots from being too aggressive....just gotta channel that into something positive.
25/15/4 That's star numbers. That play in OT when Jalen beat 3 defenders for the acrobatic layup, Amen was right there for the put back in case he missed.
He makes things look effortless. Amen, Jalen and Cam are all top 5 athletes in the league but very different types of athletes Amen - pure and effortless Jalen - fast and springy Cam - power and explosive
still don't get all the love for Scoot. Although, I was all about that fraud Ausar over Amen. *I still really like Ausar. Don't want the other 3 twins angry at me.
Amen did well tonight but he also left a lot of meat on the bone missing some finishes at the rim. Fortunately, his line-drive turnaround jumper cutting the lead to the 3 was more important than any of those misses. His rebounding instincts are uncanny. It isn't just his athleticism.
