Amen Thompson

Jamal Murray at 17, Cat 18, LaMelo 19, and Chet Holmgren went 20.

Third round of 21, Amen Thompson, then Steph, Trey 23, Austin Reaves finally at 24, Josh Giddey goes 25th.

28 is still not a spot that I like very much.

I haven't said a cue yet 'cause I'm, I don't know, being bashful about the whole thing.

When I think about wings, Scotty, Scotty Barnes, um, Dyson Daniels.

Scotty Barnes, Dyson Daniels, um, Amen Thompson, Ausar Thompson.

That's as far as I'm going.

Yep.

I think Jalen Williams is...

I, I, I think J, I, I think J-Dub, I don't think that there's five wings in the game better than him defensively.

I think Amen, I think A- I think Amen Thompson, I'm on record saying this, and I, I think he the best wing defender in the game, and I will, I will die on that hill.

I don't think there's a better wing defender in the game than him.

Anthony Edwards is one, Donovan Mitchell number two, Devin Booker third.

Amen Thompson is fourth.

He's sliding right into his natural position with Fred VanVleet coming back.

He's a shooting guard at four.

I've got Rudy Gobert on my list at number 35 as of right now.

So I have the Wolves with two top 30 guys, three top 35 guys, other players around Gobert on this list, other defensive guys like Pascal Siakam, Amen Thompson.

I think they both are kind of in that same realm as Rudy.

Of course, Siakam gives you a little more offensively.

Amen Thompson can certainly, I guess, overall more than Rudy, although I think Rudy's screensiding and offensive rebounding is pretty valuable.

And Amen's inability to shoot threes at a reasonable clip hurts Houston more than Gobert is what he is offensively, right? Derek White in that same realm, another fantastic defensive player.

Laurie Markkinen, Desmond Bain.

And then Marcus Smart, who you've mentioned already in the show, but between Fred VanVleet and Marcus Smart, their experience and their just savviness and understanding of the game, I think they're gonna do a much better job of getting Kevin Durant in his spots where exactly he wants the ball, and just having a better understanding of that.

You know, not to mention just the ball-handling aspect of it, right? The, just the simple ball-handling aspect of it, taking that off of his plate, taking that off of Amen Thompson's plate, taking that off of Reed Sheppard's plate to a large degree, and, and that being their responsibility, that's the big part of the process.

Now, I think there's gonna be an, a, a coaching element to this as well, which is something we have not brought up.

But I do think that there is, you know, it's, it, it's not just plug and play Fred VanVleet, plug and play Marcus Smart, even though I think those are the biggest pieces of this.

Because you could throw Josh Okogie as the fifth starter in there and your defense would be awesome, and you'd be cool.

Like, we can, we can switch and we can defend and we're cool.

But then offensively, e- effectively, as far as the opposing team's scouting report was concerned, you had three non-shooters on the floor in Josh Okogie, Amen Thompson, and Alperen Sengun.

Even though Okogie shot a respectable percentage from three last season, teams willingly left him wide open.

So a new data point emerged in the marketplace since the Pistons last offer.

The Rockets with Amen Thompson inked a five-year 208.

That would seem to strengthen Duren's position.

Sure.

So a new data point emerged in the marketplace since the Pistons' last offer.

The Rockets with Amen Thompson inked a five-year 208.

That would seem to strengthen Durán's position.

Sure.

So a new data point emerged in the marketplace since the Pistons' last offer.

The Rockets, with Amen Thompson, inked a five-year 208.

That would seem to strengthen Duren's position.

Sure.