While Jalen Green has been the breakout star of the Rockets‘ recent hot streak, the contributions of Amen Thompson during the team’s 11 straight wins shouldn’t be ignored, Tim MacMahon of ESPN mentioned on the latest Hoop Collective podcast (YouTube link).
After spending most of his rookie season coming off the bench, Thompson has began the previous 9 video games and is averaging 15.9 factors, 9.9 rebounds, and three.1 assists in 30.2 minutes per game during that stretch. While he has offered secondary scoring and play-making for the Rockets, it’s Thompson’s defensive capacity that excites the staff essentially the most, in line with MacMahon.
“The Rockets believe – and have data to back up – that he can be the best non-big defender in the NBA really soon,” MacMahon mentioned.
The major knock in opposition to Thompson is that he has but to develop an outdoors shot — he has made simply 8-of-55 three-point makes an attempt this season, for an ugly conversion fee of 14.5%. If he can finally add that aspect to his game, his ceiling would solely grow greater.
“He’s a jump shot away from being an All-Star for sure, and possibly higher than that,” ESPN’s Tim Bontemps added.
Here’s more from across the Southwest:
Spurs ahead Jeremy Sochan suffered a left ankle impingement during Friday’s win over New York, jeopardizing his availability for the remaining of this season, writes Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News. As Orsborn notes, Sochan hasn’t missed a game this season and had expressed a need to play in all 82, however he has been ruled out for Sunday’s contest in opposition to Golden State and figures to overlook more time past that.
Pelicans ahead Herbert Jones met the 65-game criteria for end-of-season award consideration on Saturday evening, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks. It was technically Jones’ 68th game of the season, however he performed between 15 and 20 minutes in 5 of them, and solely two of these outings may rely towards his 65-game minimal. Jones is taken into account a sturdy candidate for one of the ten All-Defensive spots and will earn Defensive Player of the Year consideration as effectively.
The Mavericks‘ backcourt duo of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving have come a long way over the past 13-plus months, according to Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News (subscription required). As Townsend observes, the two stars first played together against Sacramento last February, so this week’s back-to-back victories over the Kings, which prolonged Dallas’ win streak to 6 video games, represented an encouraging full-circle second. “I always said, this training camp, when got some practices in together, it would be way easier for us to function better,” Doncic mentioned. “And I think it shows, especially now. I think we’re both happy and we’re both doing some good things on the floor. And we have great teammates. So I think this team is special.”