The Next Big Thing! Amen Thompson Proves Stardom with Houston Rockets
Armed with a 7-foot-4 phenom who can score, defend and more, the San Antonio Spurs have the future face of the league. But the Houston Rockets have one of the top up-and-coming players in the league, too, and he was drafted just three spots later.
Amen Thompson, Houston’s 6-foot-6 guard-forward hybrid, proved he was just that in an in-state victory on Wednesday night.
Across his 30 minutes in the comfortable win over San Antonio, Thompson was as aggressive a scorer as we’ve seen him in his pro career. He scored 25 points on a wildly-efficient 12-for-15 shooting,
He stayed true to his do-it-all style, too, adding eight rebounds, five assists and two blocks per game in finishing as a +26 plus-minus in the starting lineup.
Amid an All-Star season, former No. 1 pick Victor Wembanyama has been officially shut down for the season after suffering a deep vein thrombosis. And the Rockets cruised to its second-straight win without the all-time shot-blocker in the lineup.
Thompson’s freshman to sophomore jump has been incremental on paper, but the eye test shows he’s bound for stardom sooner rather than later. His athleticism and feel for the game pops on a nightly basis, and its only a matter of time before the Rockets continue to ramp up his offensive workload.
With Houston continuing to asert itself in the Western Conference, Thompson will likely get his first taste of the postseason this year, and it remains to be seen whether his unique skillset will hold up through one or multiple seven-game series.
