Over the weekend, former Memphis Grizzlies and New York Knicks head coach David Fizdale sought to give Houston Rockets two-way standout Amen Thompson his flowers.
Understandably so, as Thompson hasn’t been necessarily having a consistent season. Up-and-down would be the best way to coin it.
It’s not entirely on him. The point guard experiment has been….well….an experiment.
And experience.
Houston could clearly use a viable point guard. Thompson is a makeshift point guard by force.
Having court vision
doesn’t make you a facilitator. At least not a primary one.
Which is why we continue to see speculation that the Rockets will add a legitimate point guard.
(Their options are limited, though).
Fizdale thinks such a move would be unwise, as Thompson is a “beast” of a point guard, as he put it on NBA TV’s The Association.
Fizdale said even more.
“They’ve got a beast of one (a point guard). What are we talking about? Look at what the guy is doing. He is running the team like he’s been doing it for a while. Which he has, by the way. I keep telling everybody that he did in high school, and he came from OTE (Overtime Elite). He did it there.”
Let’s first note the difference in competition between the NBA and OTE.
Anyone who has watched the Rockets this season has noticed that Thompson is best suited off-ball. He’s at his best when cutting to the basket and slashing.
Not standing at the top of the key or behind the 3-point line.
Inverted pick-and-roll actions, which we’ve seen the Rockets do more recently, using Thompson as a screener.
In Fizdale’s assessment of how great of a point guard Thompson is, he contradicted himself a bit, and explained the best way to use Thompson (which is off-ball).
“The beauty of what they do in the halfcourt is they give the ball to KD to handle, or (Alperen) Sengun to handle, and they put him (Thompson) on the baseline. And every time you trap one of those guys, they hit that short roll, and he’s at the rim.”
Not exactly how a traditional point guard is used.
But again, a correct assessment.
In general, Thompson is a two-way beast, when used correctly. But as a point guard, he’s a work in progress.
Which is also okay to say.
