Speaker 1: On this episode of the Heat Check. It's a Thursday
Speaker 1: and not a Tuesday, so you know what time it is, actually,
Speaker 1: probably don't know what time it is, but today it's
Speaker 1: a rookie report. Damn John tay Porter bumped the rookie
Speaker 1: report too full days. But do not fear we're gonna
Speaker 1: break down another rookie and tell you us what. Let's
Speaker 1: get right into it, Anthony, drop that motherfucker beat. That
Speaker 1: should be real, all right, So we got three weeks
Speaker 1: less than the season, we gotta fill them. The gaps
Speaker 1: were pretty much covered a rookie this year, Someone somehow
Speaker 1: slipped through the cracks, and that was our man, a
Speaker 1: Men Thompson of the Houston Rockets. We covered his brother
Speaker 1: Ausar Thompson of the Pistons, who unfortunately went down a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago with the season ending injury, but
Speaker 1: not Almen. We saw him tonight. So let's fix that
Speaker 1: right now, all right. Aman Thompson averaging nine six and
Speaker 1: two this year, pretty damn good rebounds for a rookie, honestly,
Speaker 1: especially since he wasn't getting that many minutes for the Rockets.
Speaker 1: But that does not begin to describe the impact that
Speaker 1: he has had for his team. Number four pick in
Speaker 1: the draft is a point guardard. We'll call him like
Speaker 1: a pass first point guard, like a scoring less point guard.
Speaker 1: And nothing is harder in the NBA than playing point
Speaker 1: guard as a rookie. We've talked about that many times,
Speaker 1: except for a point guard who has asked to play center,
Speaker 1: which Iman Thompson is apparently doing right now. What makes
Speaker 1: Almon and Auscer so impressive is their defense. He is
Speaker 1: so versatile that since Alprin Shangoon went down, i'man has
Speaker 1: spent more than a little time guarding the other team's
Speaker 1: best centers and successfully. I might add, other teams are
Speaker 1: increasingly asking centers to guard him as well. Coach he
Speaker 1: Mayudok said, We've mentioned guys like Ben Simmons, like Giannis
Speaker 1: who have done similar things at times in their career.
Speaker 1: He can learn to implement those things as well. At
Speaker 1: six seven, he spends time as the screen setter in
Speaker 1: pick and roll situations and in the dunker spot as
Speaker 1: a faster, more athletic version of Clint Capella from the
Speaker 1: Hardened Days Whoo geezh Ahmans moved into the starting lineup
Speaker 1: seven games ago, and he has blossomed as a result.
Speaker 1: You probably don't even know. Fifteen nine and three nine
Speaker 1: rebounds a game is fucking sick. With one point four
Speaker 1: stocks per game on twenty eight minutes. Most impressive is
Speaker 1: his plus ten point four net rating and the best
Speaker 1: part the Rockets are seven and zero during that stretch.
Speaker 1: Uh Oh, alprin shangoun uh oh. Of course, Almend feels
Speaker 1: when all's said and done, that he's a point guard
Speaker 1: and he has dutifully studied for a van Fleet in
Speaker 1: this season to pick up some pointers from the point guard. Fortunately,
Speaker 1: he's a quick study. According to Udoka, he's a sponge.
Speaker 1: You've seen him improve just with the playing time alone,
Speaker 1: let alone the role that we're asking him to do.
Speaker 1: A guy that's had the ball in his hands his
Speaker 1: whole career. You put him out there with Fred van
Speaker 1: Fleet and Jalen in the starting lineup, Now you kind
Speaker 1: of have to divide those opportunities, those ball handling duties.
Speaker 1: He does it in other ways. He's great on the
Speaker 1: offensive glass, he's great in transition. But when he has
Speaker 1: a big on him, he can be used as a screener,
Speaker 1: used as a facilitator as well. Just kind of attacking
Speaker 1: the basket at all times, getting the shots that he
Speaker 1: wants and the shots for our offense. Of course, we
Speaker 1: can't talk about the Thompson twins without talking about how
Speaker 1: badly they are as shooters. And as Aimon is bad,
Speaker 1: he's bad. He's like the Auscer bad. Aimon is shooting
Speaker 1: fourteen point eight percent from deep this season, which would
Speaker 1: be the worst in the NBA if he didn't have
Speaker 1: a twin brother named Auscer. Matt Isa from Forbes wrote
Speaker 1: a piece about the four things that I'm gonnasked to
Speaker 1: do to avoid getting played off the floor by better teams. One, well,
Speaker 1: we already know what number one is, don't we Like,
Speaker 1: become a better shooter. Just become a better one easier
Speaker 1: said than done, Honestly, Just get into the fucking gym
Speaker 1: and shoot a million shots with proper form per game,
Speaker 1: per day. Just just do it. Play on a team
Speaker 1: with tons of shooting and spacing like the Celtics. Three,
Speaker 1: become a tough shot taker in the paint like himI
Speaker 1: Howkas and be good at it. And four counter your
Speaker 1: poor spacing by using your supreme physicality the body opponents
Speaker 1: like ag Aaron Gordon. So one become a sniper from
Speaker 1: the three point line play on a team that's not
Speaker 1: the Rockets, become more like Himie Hawkas and become more
Speaker 1: like Aaron Gordon. Thanks, matt Is said, that was incredibly helpful.
Speaker 1: It's pretty clear that unless the shooting improves by leaps
Speaker 1: and bounds, his ceiling is a defensive stopper. That does
Speaker 1: not mean that he can't be a super valuable asset
Speaker 1: on a team that has a bunch of bucket getters
Speaker 1: to offset his negative impact on offense. I am not
Speaker 1: sure that in a redraft amend Thompson still goes forth.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure he actually doesn't. I'm sure he'll go
Speaker 1: probably like still a lottery pick. But that's a lot
Speaker 1: about how deep this draft is as opposed to how
Speaker 1: good he is and how he's played. The Rockets are
Speaker 1: very happy with Doman because defense was their number one
Speaker 1: need and looks like he's gonna find a home there
Speaker 1: for a really, really long time. That's all the time
Speaker 1: that we have for this episode of The Heat. Check
Speaker 1: come back tomorrow for an all new episode. Keith Smith's
Speaker 1: gonna be on the show, and check out the feed
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