Amen Thompson is the Rockets' REAL franchise player

It's kind of "either or both of them" as far as I'm concerned. You can get away with having one non-shooter, not two. I think there is a high likelihood we go into next season without trading either of these guys, but after that all bets are off if they haven't figured out how to shoot, so they should both be treating it as crucial to their future with the organization.

I think the minute a Donovan Mitchell, Devin Booker, Ant Edwards, Jayson Tatum, whoever it might be hits the market, we will be the first off the line to trade one of the two for him at this point. I think (I hope) this front office isn't dumb enough to trade Amen or Sengun for Giannis. I could maybe see Jabari though.

 

Trading Jabari for Giannis and keeping both Amen and Sengun does not make sense. We'd have three non shooters as our top guys. It would work ONLY if both Amen and Sengun develop a jump shot.

Anyway, I really don't want to trade our future for any star at the end of their prime, especially not a star who isn't a shooter.

 

I don't think it would work either, you'd have to make further trades, but at least the value proposition wouldn't be as bad.

 

I wish he got used more as thee screeener with kd . It don’t always have to be Jabari. Or mainly Sengun. Amen is great getting downhill and making quick decisions. The game gets away fro us whe. We have hi. Doing nothin on offense especially shut sitting i the corner.

 

Literally everyone in this roster took a discount, including KD. I think if he does this it’ll be more about his belief in the chances of this ensemble winning and his level of satisfaction here. If he doesn’t make a huge leap offensively, it’s not a given at all that he gets a similarly significant role in another team, might as well find himself in an Ausar type of role.

 

If they can’t come to an agreement on an extension, stone can always trade him and it shouldn’t be hard to find a trade that appeals to both sides.

 

Tonight Amen and Reed combined to make 9 3 pointers!

 

What's scary is that he posts these numbers and still has 6–10 possessions a game in which his defender is paying no attention, on their heels, and Amen plays passively. He's putting up 19/8 with 5 assists and passing up scoring/assist opportunities that 65% of the league can convert.

All these passive possessions become hand grenade moments against the shot clock for everyone else. Once Amen figures out a few more things, he is going to really take off.

Earlier this year was pretty rough to watch, but I hope he'll keep it rolling.

 

Him and Reed are going to be a scary duo.

 

I was disappointed in Amen’s play last night. Over the last several games he has become way too timid in taking his shots in the lane. On several occasions last night, he had a clear path to a dunk and passed out of it. For a while, he was taking that jump shot in the lane with confidence and then all of a sudden he won’t even look at the rim. We need an aggressive Amen in the playoffs. Amen’s driving in the lane and Reed’s 3 pt shooting create space in the offense.

I think they loss focus against the Bucks, so I’m hoping Tari, Jabari, and Durant get it back next game. Hopefully, Amen gets his mojo back by the time the playoffs start. We need Boston Amen, not what we saw last night. Reed’s not going to see those open looks in the playoffs if Sengun and Amen aren’t putting pressure on the defense. If Tari reverts back to 17% shooting from 3, this team has no chance.

 

He has this weird ability to give you like 20, 10, and 6 and it doesn't feel like he even did anything on offense. If he were a little more aggressive and consistently had better spacing around him I don't think it would be hard at all for him average 22-23 per game, even without a jump shot. If he somehow develops a reliable 3P shot he will be an easy 25+ point scorer.

 

I don't think him being more aggressive would be good for the team though. Would he score more if he took more shots? Sure, but he has arguably the worst high volume jumpshot in the league. It's better he take the easy stuff and not force much else until he improves.

 

Amen has plenty of space around him. Using the NBA's gravity stat, the Rockets' starting lineup last night had the third-best spacing trio in the league. Eyeball tests easily can tell that Durant and Reed are hounded.

To improve the spacing, Amen and Sengun are the two likeliest spots. There aren't that many centers that create more space than Sengun, even though Sengun isn't a shooter.

 

Per Cleaning the Glass, Amen has only shared the court with Reed for 2,627 out of 5,513 possessions this season (47%). Whereas he's shared the court with Steven Adams or Clint Capela 2,085 possessions (37%). He's also spent another 1,229 possessions (22%) sharing the court with DFS or Tate, who are shooting 27% and 30% respectively from behind the arc. And, while their overall percentages are solid, I submit that Tari Eason and Josh Okogie are not that high in shooting gravity because of their long-term reputations, and in Okogie's case, fairly low shot volume.

I submit that the spacing around Amen could be a lot better when you look at the season as a whole. Obviously it's going to be good when you have both Reed and KD on the court, but that starting lineup with Sengun as well has been bad defensively and has comprised less than half of Amen's time on the court this season.

 

The more he plays the more the comparisons to Shawn Marion make more sense. Better passer and worse shooter, but overall the perfect 3rd guy on a contender. The problem of course is that those Suns team were consistently tops in both 3pt shooting and 3pt attempts. Often 1st in both at their peak. Amen would absolutely feast in that kind of system.

 

Really? You think the spacing problem is the other 4 players on the court as a whole for the season?

Using NBA.com's gravity, assuming Adams and DFS are the worst spacers in the game (they didn't meet the minutes limit), the top 8 units that Amen was in, and chatgpt for quick processing, the Rockets with Amen are 13th in spacing when compared to the Top 3 spacers + centers of other teams.

There are only 12 teams that play a guy with his teams best 3 spacers and center that have more spacing than Amen does on average for his 8 most used lineups. I would assume this number drops a lot if I treated the other teams worse non-center spacer like Amen.

Maybe chatgpt messed up, but I doubt by much. Eyeball test suggests Amen is one of the worst non-centers regarding spacing in the NBA, and he's often with only a center as a non-spacer. Okogie is the only bad spacer that plays with him regularly who is not a center. Okogie and Amen in the game allows the other team to play a Cover 2 defense.

I do agree that the defense dies when Amen is not on the court, so that he has to be on the court a lot. However, that isn't spacing.

 

I wouldn't rely on ChatGPT or other AI LLMs for anything, they're wrong a lot of the time.

I never said Amen isn't a huge spacing problem for this team. He is. He's also the guy who most benefits from having space because it gives him driving lanes to utilize his incredible rim pressure. Both things can be true at the same time! And I'm curious to see what he would look like on a team built to emphasize his rim pressure.