Mr. Thompson has moved into the CBS Sports "rookie top 5," receiving fulsome praise in the process. Amen! Amen Thompson HOU • PG • #1 Who knew plugging Thompson in as a small ball power forward would propel the Rockets on a lengthy winning streak that was snapped earlier this week. During that win streak, Thompson was like a Swiss army knife for Houston, someone you could deploy in a variety of ways on defense and an efficient scorer on offense that you can't just put your weakest defender on him. He's also a ridiculous rebounder, grabbing 15 and 14 boards in back-to-back games this week. In fact, he ranks fourth amongst rookies in rebounds, and the three guys ahead of him are all centers. Playing the 4 spot obviously isn't a permanent thing for Thompson or the Rockets because once Alperen Sengun comes back healthy either at the tail end of this season or next year, it will shift Thompson's position again. but it does make you wonder if Houston could get away with a frontcourt of Sengun and Thompson going forward. https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-rookie-rankings
I honestly think he’s our best chance at a star. Not taking anything away from our other prospects; I just believe in Amen. He’s gonna develop a mid-range game and be our franchise player. Just have that feeling. I would not trade Amen, Cam, or Tari. Those are our 3 biggest dogs. If we swapped out Sengun, Jalen and Bari for true star players, keeping those other 3 would make it palatable.
Damn an elite future core without lead ball handling skills is going to be something. You want a elite core but still need to find a lead ball handler. What a core. Do you troll your takes?
Amen is a POINT GUARD just needs to tighten up his handles this summer….he has elite point guard traits….elite defender, elite passer and athleticism
Passing Jaime Jaquez is impressive given how huge the gap was between them the first half of the season. I will admit I was wrong about Brandon Miller, although I still think I'd take Amen long term (it's close, though). All-Rookie 1st Team for certain.
Well, Chet technically doesn't belong to this rookie class. But yeah, a lot of people thought this would be a two-deep draft, no can't-miss prospects after Wemby and Scoot. Scoot has been disappointing. But the draft is looking like a pretty deep class. Miller is better than I expected. So is Amen.
I am officially a Brandon Miller skeptic. Part of it is he is tainted by the Hornet’s losing stank. Part is that for a 6’9” wing he doesn’t create assists, rebound the ball, or play defense. He is also 6 months older than our very own Jabari Smith Jr. - who plays defense and rebounds. I take Amen all day over Miller in a redraft. Amen has a VORP of +1.1 while Brandon Millers is …-.4. Defense, rebounding and playmaking matter.
Had I known Sengun would take the leap he took, and that Jalen at least flashed something of a leap, I probably would have leaned more towards Miller over Amen (or Cam...who I think I also had over Miller IIRC). Miller actually seems to be doing more or less what I expected (maybe the high end of expectations), but I always saw him as more of a secondary guy. He can get some buckets, but he's not necessary generating easy baskets (and thus he can be a bit streaky/inconsistent, especially in situations with more defensive pressure). That's fine if you have a Sengun or (hopefully good) Jalen, but at the time, I preferred more of a home run swing (so Amen or Cam). Not that it mattered since Miller wasn't available, but that's generally how I saw it. Fortunately all 3 guys seems to be doing fairly good stuff in their rookie years (Amen doing good in exactly none of the ways I expected haha). IIRC Vecenie went gaga over his (Miller) last 30 something game stretch, but stat wise I think it was roughly on par (or worse) than Jalen's rookie year under similar circumstances (last 30 something games on meh team). And I thought we were somewhat disappointed with Jalen that year despite the strong finish.
The question was never Miller but if Portland was interested in Amen enough to let go of Scoot...... It was extremely unlikely that they would trade up to 2nd and nab Miller.
