Amen Thompson is the Rockets' REAL franchise player

I'm amazed by people who think Amen is on this steady upswing just because he got more shots and minutes this year. His FG% and 3pt% were both down from last year, as were his blocks and rebounds. Meanwhile, he had less total steals and blocks than Reed despite playing 10+ minutes more each night versus Reed.

I'm not saying that Amen is just no good - far from it. But the idea that he's breaking through to some higher level is just nonsense.

 

I think more in terms of Amen proving that he could be more than just a Shawn Marion type of star role player wing.

In a vacuum I actually think Amen was a valuable player in the role he was playing if the objective is winning now.

However if the objective long term is for Amen to be more Kawhi than Marion, this season was a successful growth mission in seeing that the potential is there.

 

His overall efficiency is almost identical to last season. 59.4% true shooting versus 60.2%. I would argue being able to significantly increase your role but maintain the same scoring efficiency numbers is a strong sign of improvement. His assist percentage has improved noticeably by the way, not just the raw number of assists per game.

It's when guys have an increased role and their efficiency plummets (see: Sengun) that you feel like, eh, maybe they're not actually improving that much, maybe they're just playing more minutes.

Anyway, I wasn't even necessarily arguing that Amen has shown more signs of improvement than Sengun. I was saying that when you have a player with 5 years of experience in the league and four years as a full-time starter, further improvement is less likely than with a third year guy on his first season as a full-time starter the whole way through.

 

If there is a bright spot with this season its that we actually did have a big developmental year while not sliding back at all in terms of overall wins from last year. Amen, Sengun, Bari, and Reed all did take big leaps this season. Some backsliding at times, and some iffy results with Tari's growth, but overall its almost like we went through a rebuilding year without the tanking.

My only disappointment though is that Stone didn't add more young draft talent in the past 2 years that could have taken advantage of the situation we were in this season to add to our depth, and assets long term.

Also if Cam would have been healthy this season, I could see a huge backlash for Stone giving him up when this team was so short handed this season with depth, and especially shooting. Stone acting as though he had TOO MANY young players was the height of his arrogance. Hopefully this Summer he learns a bit, and makes some moves to add more young talent to the end of the bench. Having G-Leaguers like Isaiah Crawford at the end of your bench isn't going to cut it next year. We need actual NBA prospects on the bench fighting for playing time who can take advantage of injuries to prove themselves.

 

In the last two drafts, Morey left the Rockets' cupboards with just the backend of a potential swap with OKC in 2025. Stone through draft pick management was able to get Reed Sheppard in 2024 and swapped the potential swap for a pick that was traded for Durant. I tend to think going from Danny Wolf to Reed Sheppard, and Durant is a lot.

Imagine how awesome the Rockets would be if the Rockets weren't down 2-3 FRPs and 2 potential FRP swaps when Stone took over.

 

Yup. The dream of course is a rim protector who can shoot. So when they set the pick for Amen, they pop out for a 3 and leaves the paint wiiide open for Amen to go downhill.

Sengun does neither. I said before this season, it can never ever work if at least one of them doesn’t learn how to shoot. We’re seeing that unfold. Love both guys but it doesn’t seem to be a fit, especially with Udoka discouraging them from shooting rather than taking the lumps early and getting those reps in.

 

I agree. For me personally I would revamp the roster next season. Trading DFS Sengun Durant Adams And FVV for 2-3 guys in their mid to late 20’s and assets. Run one season like that and then the following season go all in for the next 3-4 years.

 

Take your own advice. I made a specific post that was not in response to anything you said at all(in fact, until you started quoting me, I don't have the faintest clue what you thought about Amen), I didn't reference you once and YOU ended your post to say:

...but y'all need to stop getting upset when everybody else doesn't think the sun shines out of his rear end tbh.
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I didnt come at you at all - I was just a guy advocating for Amen in a thread for advocating for Amen and YOU started quoting me and saying "ya'll Amen lovers all say the same thing and insulting me for having a different POV than you .....so if you quote me and come at me like that, then you would agree your own admission that you get the same energy back ten fold - RIGHT?

In case you haven't noticed I'm making an honest attempt each time to engage in meaningful conversation. I wouldn't do the research in long posts if I didn't want that. That seems very reasonable and honest, right? What is insulting is when you are trying to have meaningful conversation with someone who says 'I'm not even going to bother reading anything you spent the time and effort in researching'. That is where you crossed a line with me. In case you haven't noticed pal, I have been a long time member here as well and ALWAYS try to put more thoughtful conversations into existence here rather than half baked takes. Go back and read my posts - I was trying to engage you in conversation around if you don't like Amen, then who/what? I was trying to get you to take it to the second and third order consequences of that If you are not one to be bothered by that level of conversation - that's fine, I'll put you on the block list and move on but for someone who claims to have so many engaging conversations across the board - I think you should really ask yourself why you are engaged in multiple tit for tat conversations with multiple posters about Amen in a "pro Amen thread".

You can imply "I'm a sensible poster not looking for fights, people just keep picking on me and I defend myself in kind" but the context suggest you are indeed looking for fights if you are going into a pro Amen fan and here are actual quotes from you in just two pages commenting to several Amen fans who post in the (surprise, surprise) "Amen is the franchise player thread"

 

You are only talking about counting stats. How do you measure Amen's defense over Sengun's? And what about efficiency?

That factoid isn't telling all facts. Amen was a raw rookie when Sengun already played two season during the same time. That's comparing apple with orange.

 

Amen will become a superstar in the playoffs.

 

This is a "basketball reference" take on his performance this past year.

Pre-draft there were people including a good friend of mind who said Ausar would be the better option because he was a better defender and shooter. But I and most pundits had Amen higher because of the court vision and PG potential. The past two years he was optimized in the off ball/dunker role playing off Sengun, so his TS% naturally was as high as you could expect from someone with zero outside shot.

But this year he pushed himself, and had growing pains in doing so. But with the film he put out there, and the valuable experience he gained, he clearly showed why he has such a higher ceiling than his twin. Will he ever be a pure point that can take care of the ball and break down a defense off the dribble while being a P'n'R threat? It's still not completely ruled out, but remains unlikely given his lack of a shot.

But the ceiling scenario is still out there, as some Kawhi/Marion/bigger Westbrook amalgam, or "Ben Simmons with a heart". The NBA has never seen a fully actuated Amen before. If he pans out he'll become a unicorn, a one-of-a-kind. It remains worth it to give him that opportunity to see if he can do that. And fortunately we have the perfect backcourt partner to pair with him. The Amen-Reed backcourt supercedes the Senhub Offense or the KD Swansong as the most high priority narrative of the next 8yrs of the Rockets.

 

I can respect your argument. But you could also say that Sengun would look better now if he was sharing the floor with an actual PG and/or wings who can shoot. Experimenting with Amen as a PG or as a non-shooting wing might be great for his development, but it's also clogged up the offense for others.

My fear is that OKC sweeps us by constantly sending double teams at KD and Sengun while allowing Amen to run free, so Amen would have good counting stats while everyone throws the other guys under the bus.

 

I think perimeter defense is very valuable, but I don't put a lot of stock in any one single perimeter defender. I've seen Amen switched off on many screens and he's always been on the floor whenever teams have gone on these 4th quarter runs against us. I think a great rim protector has much more value than what Amen brings - as great as his defense is, it's not game changing.

And Sengun has a team-leading PER of 21.5 to Amen's 19. "PER" stands for Player EFFICIENCY Rating. Again, Amen is very good and still has untapped potential, but Sengun is better right now and has room to improve as well.

 

I know a lot of Amen's new fans are basically just Jalen fans who found a new crush but there's no reason to think that attempting to tear down other Rockets will boost your guy.

There was a grand total of 4 Rockets who were significantly better than a replacement level player... in order

KD
Sengun
Amen
Reed

If you are trying to **** on those guys... you are either stupid, not a Rockets fan, or both.

 

That headband changed him

 

PER is an extremely flawed stat, regardless of what the acronym stands for. Usage alone will grease the PER numbers, regardless of whether or not that usage was efficient. Sengun has a high PER because he has high counting numbers (points, rebounds, assists). There's a reason Amen pulled down 10.3 win shares this year (5th in the league) over Sengun (20th).

To Sengun's credit he was more efficient this year than last year, but it remains an area that he has to get better at, particularly with his post-game. We saw how big a dip he took mid-season, which I choose to attribute to accumulated injuries that in retrospect he should have sat out through.

 

Nice try. Amen's win-shares are that high because of his insane minutes. If you look at WS/48, Amen is well under Sengun. But whatever. All I know is that Sengun draws double teams while Amen has the worst gravity in the league. Coaches, writers, and wonks across the league rank Amen well below Sengun because of facts, not feels.

 

Is this your source for WS/48?

https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2026_advanced.html#advanced_stats::ws_per_48

If not, can you post the link to yout source? TIA

 

Ah hah! Good catch. I was using ChatGPT, but when I went back to check the sources I saw that it used different means of pulling each players' WS/48 instead of using the same table. So yes, I was wrong per the table. In fact, Amen's WS/48 is greater than Sengun's by 0.006 percent. But in truth, while we can argue over which math formula is superior, no reasonable person can honestly say that Amen is obviously our franchise player above Sengun - neither of them have accomplished enough to put one ahead of the other.