Amen Thompson is the Rockets' REAL franchise player

You are exactly correct! He has elevated. I really like his assertiveness... How many dunks last night 8, 9, 10? The turnaround fade away bank shot was the one that I liked the best though.

 

Amen is way better than OG and is approaching the peak of Mikal Bridges at a younger age (but they are different offensive players). OG and Bridges are true 3&D players while Amen is a downhill scorer who can create for others who is also an all-NBA defender. You need both types of players on your team, but OG and Bridges are on horrible contracts - Amen is worth their contracts though I hope we get him a touch cheaper - like a Sengun 20% of cap type contract.

 

Potential is always a factor with these borderline max players. There is also opportunity cost to be calculated. Losing Amen for nothing of merit would set the organization back 4-5 years. I believe the Rockets will try and negotiate a deal with him, but in this case they will be the one’s that fold and he gets the max, unless he has a real sh*t agent. Amen may not have another 30-40 point game this year, but last night’s game is going to force teams to game plan for him even more, which will open up more opportunities for Jabari, Reed, Durant, and hopefully Tari. I’ve been saying it all year, Amen spreads the floor when he is aggressive offensively. Let’s hope Ime keeps encouraging him to score. Those guys saying he hasn’t tremendously improved his offense are just locked in on 3 pt shooting.

 

Yeah, I do think that if Amen pushed for it they'd pay him the max at this point. They can't risk losing him.

I'd say the odds are non-zero that he does not push for the most he can get though, he is a team guy who wants to win, and Sengun and Jabari did already set precedents of taking a bit less than their peers.

 

You could, but Amen was just physically better than his defenders getting to his spots. It’s different than the big Alpi and Jalen Green games which feel a bit more shot making variance.

 

Now don't get me wrong though. If performances like last night actually become the norm? **** yeah give him a max contract, there's just been no evidence he can do it at that volume night in and night out so far. If he can then ****, the rebuild worked, but it needs to be seen before you pay him, otherwise you literally are the next team overpaying for a defensive specialist and limiting your potential going forward.

 

Dude balled out….if he gets a little tighter dribble and a consistent middy….he’d be special….like MVP special…

 

Amen "cant improve" Thompson scored 41/9/7 on 7/7 from the FT line and a bunch of his points coming from mid range shots and hesis where he got the opponent in the air.

Hoping he is willing to take less than the max because we have to pay Reed at the end of next year. Its going to be crowded next year unless one of Sengun or Katie sees the boot.

 

Trade reed while people believe in his potential and get a full sized regular shooter instead of a short fake generational one who shoots below league average 2 months out the season

 

The last 20 games, Amen has averaged 21/8/6 on a .66 TS% while playing All Defense level D. That’s a prime Jimmy Butler profile and there are people on here who don’t think we should give him the rookie max. lol

 

What accolades does Jimmy Butler have which made him worth a max again? How many teams kept hold of him long term because he's such a great dominant player? Again, that's the mistake you don't want to make, which is why his longest NBA tenure is 4 years. You wanna spend franchise player money on a journeyman who's won nothing?

 

I can understand being skeptical of the small sample size. I can even understand thinking there's a real chance what we've seen this season is close to his peak, even though I personally don't think it is. What I wouldn't understand is not being willing to roll the dice on him and give him the max if he demands it, because what else have we got to pin our hopes on? Either him or Sengun (maybe Reed, though I strongly doubt it) becomes good enough to be the best player on a championship team, or we're rebuilding again, unless Stone somehow pulls a rabbit out of his hat, which... if he'd demonstrated any capability to do that, we wouldn't be sitting in no-man's land as the fringiest of fringe contenders right now.

You can have a Butler-level player on a max contract, he just can't be the best player on your team if you want to win a championship, he has to be the #2.

 

New CBA means there's less to go around, it's not the same as a few years ago where everyone and their nan can have a max contract and it doesn't cripple you going forward. If Amen can do a last night every night then **** yeah max him out, if not, get a discount or find someone who's worth spending the franchise money on.

 

Give me a break. When you start arguing that Jimmy Butler didn’t deserve the max, you’ve totally lost the plot.

 

Truly great #1 option level players just aren't moving as much either, barring Luka, which is a pretty extreme exception. But you can still have two max contracts. Somehow Boston is moving forward with two supermaxes and apparently planning to keep both guys.

 

One night of magnet ball when defenses are perfectly fine with him taking 22 shots a game can only fool dumbass stans. I love Amen but let’s not get carried away here. If he wants a max he will have to wait a year and show that he can do it consistently when he’s guarded as a 1st option, otherwise with the new CBA this is a franchise crippling move.

 

Nah, when you fluff up somebody who career averages are 18/5/4 and has never won jack **** as a max player, you're the crazy one, not me. If Jimmy's so great why has nobody kept him past 4 years ever in his career? Please explain, I'm sure it'll be hilarious as **** when you do. Jimmy's probably not even a top 30 player in his era and you think he's worth franchise player money? LOL

Yeah sadly his stans are fervent to the point of lunacy at this point. It is what it is.

 

There's a big difference between the 2 players in Boston and every single one of our players - both of them have ACTUALLY produced max/franchise player seasons. You're going to have to show me where there's any comparison at all there I'm afraid. The only one of our players who's ever been in their tier is KD, and he's not any more.