Jabari Smith Jr. will do lot of good things for the Rockets when he returns, but Amen Thompson is a game changer.
If there were any question after the first nine games that Amen Thompson was inserted into the Houston Rockets starting lineup because of Jabari Smith Jr’s hand injury as to whether or not he should remain in the starting lineup upon Smith Jr.’s return, Amen put those questions to rest with his 33-point performance and game-winning shot with .7 seconds on the clock to defeat the defending champion Boston Celtics.
If that wasn’t enough to convince you, allow me to try my hand at convincing you. Let’s start with the raw numbers. Amen Thompson has started 16 games this season. In those games, the Rockets are 12-3. He’s scored 17.9 points, grabbed 10.5 boards, 2.1 steals and 1.7 blocks per game, all while shooting 57.3 percent from the field.
Since Jabari Smith Jr’s injury Amen is averaging 18.5 points and 10.9 rebounds and the Rockets have lost 2 just of the 11 games. Including three straight wins over the top two teams in the Eastern Conference.
I won’t go as far as to say that the Rockets have not missed Jabari Smith Jr., who is having a good season and does many good things for the Rockets. However, Amen Thompson has been a game changer. The numbers he’s put up individually as a starter over the course of a full season would easily put him in the discussion of All-Star status.
Meanwhile Jabari Smith Jr. has been a very solid starting Power Forward with 11.9 points per game, 6.5 rebounds, shooting 43.1 percent from the field, including 33.8 percent from three. Again, a good season from a solid player. But would any of you argue that Jabari’s style of play makes his teammates better?
Call it a coincidence if you want, but in the 11 games Amen Thompson has started, Jalen Green is averaging 25.3 points per game on 47.5 percent shooting from the floor, including 44.1 percent from the three-point line. No doubt the pace of the game has picked up as the team is averaging 118.9 points per game since Jabari went down with an injury.
The biggest argument against Amen becoming as permanent starter is his lack of three-point shooting, however the Rockets are shooting nearly 40 percent from the three-point line since Amen has become a starter in Smith Jr.’s absence. His defense leads to fast break points, his penetration into the paint has created open shot opportunities for his teammates when he’s not finishing in the paint at a very high clip.
With the Rockets winning eight of their last 10 games, four in a row, and playing their best ball of the season, I can’t imagine a scenario where Ime Udoka sits back and analyzes his team and thinks to himself that the team would be better suited with Amen coming off the bench and playing fewer minutes. So the question becomes, does Jabari come off the bench, or is someone else booted from the starting five?
Alperen Sengun and Jalen Green are borderline All-Stars this season, so they are safe. Fred VanVleet has always been the Rockets floor general, but when you include his recent uptick offensively then he is safe. So do the Rockets send Dillon Brooks to the bench? Before the last two games where Dillon has gone berserk shooting the basketball, it may have seemed like the easy adjustment to make. However, I just don’t see Ime Udoka changing the role of his primary defensive enforcer who frequently is tasked to slow down the opponent’s best offensive player.
Jabari Smith has been very good defensively and solid on the offensive glass, but Dillon brings an element to this team that isn’t measured on the stat sheet. It’s a grit, a toughness, and a little bit of crazy that gives Dillon an edge over his opponents. not to mention that Dillon has one less 30+ point game this season than Jabari has had in his entire career. I’m not suggesting that Brooks is a better offensive player than Jabari, but he has figured out how to get his shots in the flow of the offense better than Jabari at this point, and honestly Amen Thompson has improved that aspect of Dillons game as well.
It looks like the best way for Jabari to get back in the starting lineup is going to be to accept a role off the bench, be a part of the “stay ready” crew, and prove in his minutes that his impact on the game is too great to come off the bench and force Ime Udoka to make a hard choice, which is exactly what Amen Thompson did to land himself in the position he finds himself in. A bona fide NBA star in the making.