I LOVE Amen but he needs to come off the bench

Ohh man. Not sure if you guys saw Amen’s presser just now but he got real salty when he was asked about his shooting.

He did get asked like 3 times in a row though and he was like okay we are done here.

 

Good job on the reporters. Start demanding accountability

Anyone got the interview? @J.R. @TimDuncanDonaut

 

Unless Reed turns into Steph Curry or Sengun becomes Joker, this team will be 1-and-done in the playoffs, and then everyone will have to answer questions whether they want to or not.

 

Didn't see the presser. But 3 times in a row is a bit much. I'd be annoyed if I were him.

 

All I heard was Amen is not our franchise player and that cant be true. Too many clutchfans said he was.

 

Well he needs to get his a** in the gym them and get to it.

That is the only thing holding him back.

 

I don't believe this at all. A professional is better than us as a whole body of work. Every season people here make single specific predictions and assessments that end up being more right than a GM. That is to say: we're not GM's but that doesn't mean every single GM assessment is gospel. GM's make mistakes just like everyone in their job. Our current GM was the driving force behind a trade of CP3 plus picks for Russell Westbrook > a trade the GM and Coach knew was a disaster. So please don't sit there and tell me that I can't question his opinion after a decade of defending most of his opinions.

There is hardly anyone who believes FVV was the best player on last seasons team. Not Steve Kerr or the warriors defense. Not the scouting report of the other 30 teams. Not AI. Not the public. Not global fans. Not GM surveys. Not teams with FA money who would be very interested in the best player on the second seed in the West available for "only" $25m. No one. There's no magical thing about FVV we don't know - we're well aware of his intangibles. FVV is an average starting point guard - that was quantified over 10+ years of data across multiple metrics, tanking teams, winning teams, multiple coaches, multiple teammates.

It's just incompetence and nepotism > and that's the nicest thing you can say. If I were back in my investigator role, I would be looking at FVV and Udoka's bank accounts for shenanigans.

More relevant to us though: it must be a motivation killer while our players are hearing from other experts (surprise, there are other GM's and coaches) about how good they are at basketball. You can pretend in the press the you believe in your young guys but you can't hide that day in day out. That Sengun and Amen are being GM'ed and coached by guys who fawn over a 6 ft defensive guard who shot 39/32% and dished out 5 assists is a disaster waiting to happen.

It's ridiculous. Fred Van Vleet was as important to our team as any average starting PG without a competent backup. Of course his absence would impact the whole team systemically since it's a fulcrum role just like rim protection. That doesn't mean he's the best player.

The best player on the team brings the largest volume of offensive plus defensive production. That's simply not FVV. FVV is just a role playing connector.

 

Yes and I don't know if the doubters heard the clippers announcers declaring like clockwork: if you argued Amen Thompson is the most athletic ever, probably no one would argue with you.

It seems like the only place there's resistance to this idea is among Rockets fans.

 

last year he wasn't the best.

but he wsan't the worst either.

https://www.nba.com/stats/players/a...5&StarterBench=Starters&dir=A&sort=NET_RATING

 

You seemed confused & discouraged by the San Antonio strategy. Where have you advanced in that defensive coverage over the past couple weeks?

I don’t know.

At times it seems you’re hesitant to shoot the three but earlier in the 2nd Q, KD threw you the ball in the corner and you rose up. What do those plays do for your confidence as far as your shooting?

I’m confident in my shooting always.

Teams sagging off, is it a problem you guys are looking to attack or defensive strategy you welcome?

I welcome it. Teams can do whatever they want.

 

Not an easy feat

 

I'm sure Amen is very aware of online discourse about his (lack of) shooting. Dude lives and breathes basketball. I don't know what else he can say honestly, if he says "I'm not a jump shooter so I have to do blah blah blah" he's just giving up. He expects himself to make those shots. He probably does make them in practice.

 

Amen pretty buthurt at those questions.

 

Here's the link to Amen's press conference from yesterday.



I don't think he's particularly annoyed about questions related to his shooting. He seems to be having an off day in terms of mood. The way he spoke during this interview reminded me of Jalen Green.

Typically, Amen has a strong tonality, posture, and a pretty confident communicator for his age. I like that about him.

 

I dunno, I think that they're allowed to ask as many questions in a row as he has missed 3pt shots personally. For a PG.

 

LOL. You are as salty about his shooting as he is about the questions.

I get what you are saying. It's fine to ask a question. But continuously beating the dead horse in a presser is annoying, not just to that player but to everyone.

For that matter, I am all for asking Udoka some tough questions about his coaching decisions. But if you keep asking the same kind of thing over and over again in the same presser, it gets old quickly.

 

It was genuinely just a joke tbh, but yeah I do feel like you have to take those lumps if you're historically bad at something whilst hyped as a future superstar.

 

Out here they wanna bring him off the bench lol