But even if he never becomes a three point shooter, Amen has to become a good FT shooter. Teams will just start slamming him and make him earn the points at the stripe. 70% isn't gonna cut it. Especially in the playoffs.
Aldo suggested smaller Giannis as a comp for Amen, and it's not crazy. Amen's 2nd year vs Giannis' 3rd year: https://stathead.com/basketball/ver...layer_id2=thompam01&p2yrfrom=2025&p2yrto=2025
The problem is that I think Giannis can get away with it because he's massive. Giannis is basically 7' barefoot and last measured at 7'3 wingspan. Unless Amen has a large growth spurt, he's going to be closer to that 6'7 or 6'8 range and that's not really enough to impose his physical will on people. But holy shit, Giannis' FT% is sooooo bad. It's 58.5% this year.
Typical annoying comments from fans and the media ...after the fact. If you want to talk shit then do it before the draft. Not after. There are always players who slip in every draft. I was on record before that draft saying that not taking Amen could come back to haunt us because he oozed POTENTIAL. But I still slightly preferred Scoot based on input from the so-called "experts". However, it is quite clear there are no fucking experts because no one knows how much these young players will improve.
I think there is a little too much focus on the couple of categories of shooting Scoot has an advantage, 3ptFG and FT. Understandable seeing as it's a Blazer forum, but it's a little forest-thru-the-trees vision FG%: Amen .562....Scoot .468 2ptFG%: Amen .614....Scoot .478 eFG%: Amen .580....Scoot .500 TS%: Amen .613....Scoot .548 FG% at rim: Amen .757....Scoot .564 FG% in 3-10' zone: Amen .500....Scoot .333 (Amen takes 82% of his shots in the 0-10' zone; Scoot takes 45%) PER: Amen 18.7....Scoot 13.0 I think it's worth noting that while Scoot shoots a higher percentage on FT's. Amen converts 2.8 FTA's a game vs Scoot at 2.5, and he does so while attempting fewer FG's. That's due to a higher FT rate which is understandable as he takes a big majority of his shots in the paint. So far this season, Amen has drawn 84 shooting fouls and converted 15 And1's. Scoot has drawn 52 shooting fouls and converted 7 And1's to be fair, Amen has played 3 more games and 250 more minutes I really like Scoot's progression but he's got a lot of ground to make up on Amen, and Amen has been progressing faster
Thank you for proving my point. 82% of his shots are within 0-10' of the hoop. So just foul his non-shooting ass. A guy like Shai is also not a three point shooter, BUT HE MAKES HI FREE THROWS. 90% free throw shooter. My whole point was that in the playoffs, which the Rockets will presumably make this year, he's gonna get fouled a lot. If he can't make his shots, his value decreases SIGNIFICANTLY.
They play different positions and expectations are different for those positions. The stats you quote might compare favorably to almost all point guards in the league. As a point guard, which Amen called himself before the draft, he's got some issues. Do you see progress in Amen's three-point shooting? How is he going to be a primary scorer with very little mid-range or long-range game? If that isn't expected of Amen, we're talking about a high-level role player.
And if your game is predicated on 80% of your shots coming within 10 feet of the hoop, that's extremely easy for teams to scheme for..... unless your name is Shaq.
this isn't hack-a-Shaq territory. You're really exaggerating how bad a FT shooter he is and really really exaggerating how willing teams will be to put a 70% shooter on the line while getting in the penalty sooner he's making 70% of his FT's and attempting 4 a game. Making 2.8 a game. If he was making 80% he'd be converting 3.2 a game. He'd need 2.5 games to make one more FT than he currently is. The league average is 78% by the way selected players and their FT% Bam Adebayo .726 Jarrett Allen .726 Toumani Camara .716 Kevin Huerter .714 Wendell Carter Jr. .712 Santi Aldama .707 Alperen Şengün .703 Daniel Gafford .701 CJ McCollum .701 Terance Mann .700 Caris LeVert .699 Amen Thompson .695 Cody Martin .694 Brandon Clarke .686 Rudy Gobert .681 RJ Barrett .670 Kyle Anderson .667 Dwight Powell .667 Zach Edey .662 Jonathan Isaac .658 Isaiah Hartenstein .648 Paolo Banchero .646 Russell Westbrook .639 Jonathan Kuminga .639 Dereck Lively II .638 Bam Adebayo attempts 4.1 FT's a game. Amen 4.0. Bam converts 3.0; Amen converts 2.8. Over a 5 game stretch Bam would only score 1 more point from the FT line than Amen. Teams aren't going hack the shit out of Bam; and they aren't going hack the shit out of Banchero, for instance, who happens to shoot much worse than Amen from the line. The nature of the hacking percentages just aren't as good as you imagine now obviously if any of those 3 players is close to the basket with an easy shot, teams might foul. And that might especially be true of Amen because he is absolutely an elite shooter in the paint FG% at rim: Amen .757....Banchero .710....Adebayo .704 (Lebron .756...Giannis .756...Tatum .706...Jokic .685) FG% in 3-10' zone: Amen .500...Adebayo .417...Banchero .273 (Lebron .511...Giannis .413...Tatum .422...Jokic .586) the reality seems to be that every opponent knows Amen attacks the paint and the hoop. But they can't stop him from getting there, and when he does get there he has elite efficiency.
c'mon man. What relevance is that? It doesn't matter if Amen said he's a PG or not. He's played 104 games and hasn't played a minute at PG he shot .138 last season and now .250 this season. He's increased his conversion rate by 81%. That's some progress. who is arguing Amen will be a "primary scorer"? maybe try non-primary-scorer/elite-role-player like Jrue Holiday or Draymond Green or Aaron Gordon or Andre Iguodala or Michael Cooper or Dennis Rodman or Tony Allen or Buck Williams or.... I get it, you guys are high on Scoot. As I said I really like his progression. But I can also see that Amen is well ahead of Scoot right now while having a huge impact for the team with the 3rd best record, and at this point has as big a remaining upside as Scoot; maybe bigger
There's a major flaw here. Most of the guys you listed are either centers or they're role players. Amen is being billed as a potential next superstar. Someone linked a tweet saying he's the possibly the best under 25 outside of Wemby/Edwards/Banchero. Superstars get fouled. They go to the line. Gotta make those foul shots. Of the guys you listed, only Bam, Banchero, and Westbrook could be classified as superstars (or former superstars). I think Russ is an interesting comparison, with the athleticism and attacking the rim.... but Russ has proven to be a huge liability in the playoffs. What happens when Amen is shooting 8 FTA per game? 10 per game? Side note: the weirdest guy on the list is CJ. It makes zero sense that he's shooting so poorly from the line. He's a good shooter. That's just bizarre.
I think Amen is the better player currently but something tells me year 3 will be the breakout year for Scoot.
