The goal is still to put the orange thing into the other orange thing, but the way players are capable of doing it looks a lot different than it used to look. Players of today are just too skilled to fit into a positional box. You used to be able to look at a prospect and say: that dude is a point guard or a power forward. However, the positional landscape has become so blurred that the league will eliminate positional designations for All-NBA teams going forward.
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Now, wait just a dang second, Corey Tulaba. You know that any discussion involving the Thompson Twins is going to involve some sort of chaos. So please, allow me to help you steer this ship of anarchy on the NBA Draft waves of madness.
But while both players offer similarities when it comes to their athleticism and playmaking, the Twins each present a different type of flavor when it comes to their potential outcome at the NBA level. At the same time, they also both project to have different questions that must be answered when it comes to their roles early on in their NBA careers.
I still have some pretty serious concerns about Amen as an on-ball shooter, and I even still have reservations about him as a potential catch-and-shoot guy, but you have to at least be encouraged by the work.
Amen is going to be the prospect that has highlight maniacs in their feelings, but Ausar will have NBA decision-makers in love. While I remain intrigued with both talents, I have firmly had Ausar higher on my big board for the majority of the year. There are tools in his arsenal that I believe offer Ausar the potential to be a legit terrifying two-way player at the next level. Corey, what are you thinking? Are you riding the Ausar hype train or what?
The path to the NBA used to feel simple. If you were an elite talent, you would go to college, spend a few seasons developing, and then eventually enter your name in the NBA Draft to begin your basketball career at one of the five designated basketball positions. But basketball, like life, evolves. No longer is the NCAA route a prerequisite to a prospect\u2019s NBA journey. Players like Brandon Jennings and LaMelo Ball proved that forgoing college to start a professional career overseas is a viable alternative to the traditional route. And the more recent introduction of domestic developmental programs like the G-League Ignite and Overtime Elite have given young prospects even more opportunities to create an alternate pathway for their pre-pro development.
With all of these new pathways becoming a viable means of entering the league, it feels like we\u2019ve hit not only a talent wave, but a talent tsunami that has sent us at warp speed into the midst of basketball\u2019s Industrial Revolution, where every generation seems to have more tools at their disposal to build upon the foundation laid out by the players of yesteryear.
At 6\u20197\u201D with the kind of dynamic athleticism that few basketball players have ever been blessed with, Amen Thompson and Ausar Thompson are showstoppers and may have the kind of game-breaking potential that lands them not only in the lottery, but in the Top 5 on draft night.
Throughout the entire 2023 NBA Draft cycle, this conversation has generated more debates and discussions than any prospects in recent memory. The truth about that last sentence is that the \u201Cdebate\u201D hasn\u2019t necessarily been from a negative perspective.
Last year, Ausar and Amen Thompson sent shockwaves throughout the scouting world when they were destined to be the \u201Cguys\u201D that were the focus of the Overtime Elite league. While the OTE has done a sensational job of adding talent in just their second year, there were plenty of eyes focusing on the development of both Ausar and Amen this season.
As Corey brilliantly stated before, the modern-NBA game has transformed into an entirely new dimension of basketball nirvana. The game continues to be more \u201Cpositionless\u201D than ever. At the end of the day, teams are looking for players that look to raise their ceiling when it comes to potential, with the realization that positions can be figured out on the fly.
It doesn\u2019t take long to find yourself glued to your television or computer screen when it comes to consuming the film involving the Thompson Twins. The highs are electric. Listed at 6\u20197\u201D, both Ausar and Amen have the tools at their disposal to become transition demons at the NBA level. In the blink of an eye, both Ausar and Amen can hit another gear and glide all over the court before attacking the lane with violent intentions.
The two central figures of the show\u2014Jack Shephard and John Locke\u2014have diametrically opposed philosophies on leading the group through surviving their time spent on the uncharted island. Jack, a spinal surgeon back home, makes decisions rooted in science and reason, whilst John Locke believes the island is magic after his paraplegia is miraculously cured upon the crash.
Jack sees and feels that magic throughout the show, but he struggles internally to come to terms with the mysterious things that are happening on the island that shouldn\u2019t exist in the world as we know it. John Locke accepts these mysteries right away and shows an unwavering faith that ending up on that island together was fate.
The word generational has been thrown around a lot during this draft cycle, and Amen Thompson\u2019s athleticism is one of the main reasons for that. Amen will be the most electric athlete on the court the minute he steps onto NBA hardwood for the first time. Amen\u2019s first step burst is so dynamic that it feels next to impossible to stop him from getting into the paint, and once there, he can rise up with such immediacy and elevation that he feels like he\u2019s flying. When you add in the fact that Amen is also a 6\u20197\u201D point guard that can make any pass in the book, it feels like it should be pretty easy to place my faith in the kind of prospect that consistently does some pretty special things on the basketball court.
And yet Amen\u2019s evaluation has been the root cause of many sleepless nights, as the Jack Shephard side of my brain has trouble coming to terms with fully buying into a player that is so far behind developmentally with regards to perhaps the most important skill a perimeter player needs in the modern NBA game, regardless of how magical some of his highlight reels feel.
It\u2019s become arguably one of the most fascinating case studies in recent draft memory. When Zion Williamson got drafted first overall by the New Orleans Pelicans in 2019, many of us \u201Cjoked\u201D that Zion just became the best athlete in the NBA. Amen Thompson has the potential to have that exact same storyline when he goes onto the stage to shake Adam Silver\u2019s hand on draft night.
But at the same time, Corey, you\u2019re completely right. The evaluation of Amen has resulted in plenty of restless nights. On the one hand, it\u2019s easy to fall in love with the tools that Amen has at his disposal. He\u2019s an incredible athlete at 6\u20197\u201D with terrifying explosiveness and the ability to go from 0 to 100 MPH in the blink of an eye.
Going into every NBA draft cycle, I find myself wanting to get an early feel for the potential \u201Cheadaches\u201D that could come with prospects in each class. Once I figure out who those players could be, I want to make an effort to go see them in person. Scouting from the couch is one thing, but evaluating in person can always help you clear your mind when it comes to the potential of an individual as an NBA player. It didn\u2019t take long before I found the Thompson Twins at the top of my list. Right alongside them were Victor Wembanyama and Scoot Henderson, but that was more for a \u201Chey, do they deliver on the hype?\u201D
So that\u2019s just what I did. I hit the road to get an up-close look at both Amen and Ausar Thompson. When I witnessed them both in person, it didn\u2019t take long for me to buy in with the tools on full display. Amen and Ausar both have promising frames at 6\u20197\u201D that pair beautifully with their athleticism and ability to float all over the floor. But I knew that there was only one area that I needed to get answers on\u2026
As evaluators, we hate to use this phrase more than anything in the world. \u201CIf the shot just comes around\u2026\u201D Trust us when we say this, we hate to have to hang our hats on that specific set of words. But with the Thompson twins, it\u2019s more evident than ever. Just watching in warmups, I could get an idea of where both of the potential Top 10 selections stood. Amen looked to clearly be favoring the work in progress. There was a lack of consistency that looked to almost be creating a mental block.
When it came to Ausar, I found myself a bit puzzled. The shot looked improved when it came to fundamentals, but it was a bit slow in warmups\u2014almost as if it was someone that was clearly making a calculated effort to eliminate some bad habits. Once the game started, that idea clearly got shifted. In one of his first touches of the game, Ausar had a clear catch-and-shoot opportunity that was lightning quick with his release and resulted in nothing but net.
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