Amen Thompson is the Rockets' REAL franchise player

LOL what a joke

 

This is something most posters here dont even understand unfortunately. They still worship the ground Morey walk on and hate Stone with a passion.

All things considered Stone has done an excellent job giving the Rox the third best young core in the NBA despite just 3 yrs of tanking and not being lucky to get a Wemby or SGA in the draft.

 

You come in hot with “facts not feels” and then your facts aren’t even right.

 

no facts but I'm feeling lucky

 

Wonder how many players that are Top 30 in WS/48 and averaged 18+ points did *not* make the All Star Team.

 

I actually wonder if Amen might have made all-star in slightly different circumstances, without even changing his overall averages on the season. He actually was having a bit more of a rough season at the time of the all-star game, he was under 18 points per game and his efficiency numbers were significantly down. They rebounded more as the season went on and his scoring average came up a bit. He also was dealing with a situation where the Rockets kind of had two guys "ahead of him" in the pecking order, and teams rarely get three all-stars without being right at the top of the standings.

Just as a hypothetical scenario, if he had swapped his production at the end of this season, since the beginning of March (20.7 points on 60% / 32% shooting) with his production at the beginning of the season through November (17 points on 47% / 22% shooting), and especially if Sengun or KD had missed a chunk of time or anything like that, I think he would have made it in.

Of course you can always play around with hypotheticals, but my larger point I guess is that you can be an all-star caliber player without being an all-star; circumstances and timing play a major role.

 

I don't think Stone is perfect, but there are way too many that judge him solely on his mistakes. Outside Presti and the Boston FO, I don't see a FO that has clearly been better recently. Whether he's 3rd or 12th best, I don't know. There are just way too many teams that do dumb stuff so much more severe than signing DFS for 2 years with the NT-MLE for me to think he's in the bottom half.

 

If not for the failed PG experiment, I think he's an all star this season.

 

Aside from a jump shot, Westbrook also needs a better brain.

 

I think Amen would be an allstar with a slight role change. As good as he is as our primary POA defender, Imagine switching Jabari out with a Jrue Holiday, VJ Edgecombe, or Donte Divencenzo type. Those guys don’t take Jabari’s defensive responsibilities (weak side help, late clock switch, rebound position) they take some of Amens perimeter responsibilities and then put Amen in the Jabari spot.

The counting stats go up and Amens one of the best grab and go get the ball up quickly players in the league, he’s just not getting the frequent opportunities to showcase that with his responsibility to check the best perimeter player every play. In a different situation he could be in defensive play finishing and rebounding position with fast shooters already taking off up the court heading to the corners.

Could always put him back on the best players in 4th quarter or for certain matchups.

 

The lack of a brain wouldn't be that much of a problem if he could shoot.

 

Yeah - I suggested that earlier in the thread as well when comparing Scottie Barnes defensive role to him. Ime clearly likes the idea of Amen as the POA defender and certainly he could still do that on big possessions but I too wonder if Amen wouldn't be more effective as a Draymond/Barnes type of defensive QB/freelancer help guy. I know communication and coordination is a part of that and not sure how well Amen communicates defensively but I feel like he is a fairly smart guy capable of the role - likely a lot more capable than Tari or Jabari who just don't process the game on the same level. Amen's speed allows him to cover gaps so quickly - you would think he could do well in this role if employed this way.

...on the other hand - Alpi doesn't necessarily protect the rim very well so maybe keeping people out of the paint as much as possible is part of why Udoka does all he can to keep Amen on the other team's best drivers.

 

People are constantly saying that Amen has regressed defensively primarily due to the counting stats. I said it before the season, FVV’s injury will impact the defense way more than offense. Amen played the roaming role you describe last year, because FVV and Jalen (last year only) performed well as perimeter defense. Amen has had to not only take up the slack for FVV being gone, but also the lack of Jalen who became a plus defender on the perimeter. Durant is better than advertised on the defensive end, but is not a great perimeter defender. Ime really has no choice when Reed and him are on the court at the same time. All this would be solved if we had a rim protector, but finding a guy that brings that and makes up for Sengun’s offensive impact is a real conundrum.

 

Russ with better basketball IQ / defense and a jump shot is just MJ 2.0. What could have been...

 

People that compare Amen with Russ just really don't know Russ at all.

Russ was NEVER a good defender. He was a lazy gambler who got roasted regularly because he was so undisciplined. Amen is an elite defender.

Russ is SELFISH and on an ego trip. He basically competed with KD and Harden on who would score the most. He cared more about stats than any player I've ever seen. Nobody thinks Amen is selfish. He's a team-first guy all around.

In his heyday, Russ was both a LOW PERCENTAGE, VOLUME SHOOTER. Amen is 100% the opposite of these.

Also during his prime, Russ would not even consider playing off the ball. Amen plays positions 1-4, whatever is necessary.

In his defense, Russ wasn't as dumb a player as some here think he was, but the guy just could not control his baser instincts. He was capable of playing smart basketball, but chose not to.

 

Friendly reminder. First three seasons only.
Amen age 20-23
Pippen age 21-24



https://www.sports-reference.com/st...layer_id2=pippesc01&p2yrfrom=1988&p2yrto=1990

 

Michael Beasley Falls in a faint.

 

In his MVP season Russ would often play unselfish basketball for the first half of games, racking up assists. Once he got to 10 he'd go into scorer mode, chucking up shots all over the 4th quarter. The contrast was stark. Maybe he was just trying to win games and defenses played him differently in the second half, but he was capable of playing like a floor general if he wanted to. A super talented player, just flawed.

 

Exactly. The year after KD left was Russ' "prove it" season, where it was all about him. Teammates knew they better shoot the ball whenever they could after receiving a pass from him or "else". They also backed away from rebounds when he was in the vicinity to help him pad those numbers too. That year he basically made triple-doubles a worthless stat. The guy averaged 24 FGAs per game while shooting only 42% from the field! Anybody that thinks what he did his last 2-3 years at OKC is in any way comparable to what Jokic has been doing is clueless.

Some of you may remember how closely I followed OKC in those days. Where I completely lost respect for Russ was the season prior to KD leaving, which was Billy Donovan's first year. He was a huge upgrade over Scott "Bonehead" Brooks and changed their offense to get everyone involved. Instead of Russ controlling the offense, everybody got touches (even if they didn't shoot). Their PPG and efficiency improved, but Russ' FGAs and scoring dropped by a lot. KD was beaming about how the offense was humming and was the happiest I ever saw him at OKC. But Russ grew increasingly unhappy despite their success. After losing those last 3 games to the Warriors in the WCFs, KD was fed up and knew he had to leave.