Maybe you aren’t lurking enough. These pages are full of Amen haters and trade Amen gospels. Amen is going to be a role player. Amen is worse than Ben Simmons, etc.
amen needs to earn that max by being more aggresive on offense. shoot, drive, draw fouls, whatever puts the ball in the hole. almost more importantly he needs to become THE leader. i mean, defer to no one. if he does that i think it'll all fall into place for him and us.
He's actually getting a little bit worse at shooting % as he expends his game outside of of the 0-3 ft range. I think his free throw improvement indicates he has the potential to improve his shooting outside of free throws. I think a 33% 3 point shooter is more optimistic than very likely. https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/t/thompam01.html#all_shooting
Hasn't gotten more than 4 free throws in the last 5 games. Nothing is certain about player development and we will see how the rest of the season unfolds, but the likelihood that he is a primary ballhandler on a playoff team feels like it has dimmed a bit. He maybe be a 2020s Andre Iguodala type, in his prime peak he wasn't a franchise player to carry you to the playoffs but he was still a very impactful player who eventually developed into GSW Iguodala.
He is definitely a better defensive player, rebounder, and passer than Iggy. Like, he already is, let alone if he stays healthy and continues to develop. The rest of his game, jury is still out.
You maybe surprised if you look at their first 3 years, especially the advanced stats. It's definitely me picking a somewhat arbitrary measure to compare two players in two different eras (2004 v 2023) but Iggy had 21.8 WinShares in his first 3 seasons and Amen is currently at 18.6 Winshares.
I just read something interesting about the Pistons and Ausar's contract extension. It says that the Trailblazers signed Camara to a 4/$82M contract and that he is "an elite defender who made second team All-Defense last season and had a good year shooting the ball from long range." The author hopes that the Camara contract will set the market for a player like Ausar. Source: https://pistonpowered.com/trail-blazers-detroit-pistons-massive-favor-ausar-thompson-negotiations Another good article: https://fadeawayworld.net/nba/houst...ompson-a-massive-252-million-deal-this-summer
Gotta sign him below the max. Need the flexibility in case they flip him. They should sell high on Amen imho
His ppg is lower than Amen, but it will be interesting to see how the contracts play out. It would benefit us to wait until the Pistons extend Ausar before extending Amen. If Ausar gets something like 4yr/$120M, then maybe Amen would take something reasonable.
Ausar is playing 26mpg. Even though he's technically a starter, it's been more like 6th man minutes. His defensive/rebounding impact is similar to Amen's. He's not any more of a shooting threat, having only taken 21 attempts all season (Amen has taken 93, so at least he's trying to figure it out). Ausar's assist numbers are far worse, and so is his FT percentage. His scoring efficiency is comparable aside from the free throw issue. It seems fairly obvious to me we chose the better twin, although they're both good players.
Both of them dont deserve rookie max. The way Amen gets ignored and taken out of games Jabari money should be his rate IMO. Anywhere from Jabari to Jalen is ok with me. But max? No way man I also doubt he will get a max extension from other teams if he cant shoot.
Giving him max would be criminal at this point. He ain't getting it. Role player floor, offensive liability. Reed will take the bag once the time comes.
Gonna be an interesting off season for Amen. Despite what some think, he's still an extremely good player being asked to do something he doesn't have the tools for right now. He is a much more functional player in a dunker spot with other ball handlers, something we lack. Its basically impossible to understate how much an average 3 ball would do for his game. Defenses right now just don't have to respect him with the ball in his hands whatsoever. He has improved his ball handling and playmaking but defenders can give him so much room it's hard to actually do anything with it. The fact that he's often played with multiple non shooters around him only compounds that issue. He would be better in a 4 out lineup, but still not nearly good enough to be a focal point like that. I highly doubt he gets an extension this off-season unless he is willing to settle for quite a bit less than the max. The Rockets will likely play hard ball instead of just assuming the 3 he desperately needs will appear.
I think everyone is overthinking this. Right now, it's pretty clear we have three high-level young prospects: Sengun, Amen, and Sheppard. They also seem to fit well together, balancing out each others' weaknesses. Eason and Bari are also great fits between those three. At the end of the day, we're going to pay Amen a ton. Max or sub-max, it frankly doesn't matter all that much. His contract won't kick in until FVV comes off the books. Sengun is signed long-term, and we won't have to worry about Sheppard's extension for a couple of seasons, which won't kick in until KD is likely off the books. We should be fine cap-wise. What will be interesting is Bari will likely be out for a bit, meaning our starting lineup will be Reed / Amen / KD / Eason / Sengun. I do think this lineup will allow Amen to play more into his current strengths.
Bari might lose his starting job after the injury like last season. This time to Reed. I don't see Amen being benched... if ever.
