How Legitimate Is Amen Thompson's Playmaking?

All season, the Houston Rockets have been hoping for one of their perimeter players to take a playmaking leap and support the team with their passing. They placed their hopes mostly into Amen Thompson and Reed Sheppard.

Both players have had somewhat of a mixed bag when given on-ball opportunities, but they've each grown since getting the chance to play as the team's lead guards. Thompson especially has changed his approach since the beginning of the season, and his efforts are starting to bear fruits.

However, the Rockets may not have seen enough from him to fully trust his abilities or lean on his playmaking from the perimeter.

One of the main jobs of a perimeter ball handler for the Rockets is to relieve the pressure on Alperen Sengun and Kevin Durant. While Sengun has the threat of his own passing ability, Durant is a little more susceptible to high turnover games due to the volume of touches he gets on offense. Traps and double teams have the chance to be effective, unless Durant can rise and fire over the double.

Thompson can take some of that pressure by allowing Durant to play off the ball on some possessions. Opposing teams can't key in on Durant as much if he is varying his playstyle.

Sengun also gets some easy looks at the basket with the impact of Thompson's rim pressure and Sengun's ability to set well-placed screens during Thompson's drives to the basket. One of Thompson's main limitations is his inability to shoot consistently, but the Rockets are looking to mitigate that with screens on his drives and creating lanes to the rim.

Once he gets to the rim, his decision making has improved significantly throughout the season. He finds open shooters like Tari Eason and Jabari Smith Jr. consistently, whether or not they can convert those passes into assists with a made bucket.

The best element of Thompson's improved on-ball skill is the fact that he is still doing many of the things that first made him one of the team's most valuable players. He defends and rebounds at a high level, and his speed still makes him difficult to guard in transition.

It's not certain yet if Thompson provides a long term answer at lead guard. The team is still awaiting Fred VanVleet's return next season, and Sheppard still has some development to do before he's a viable full-time option. However, Thompson seems to have developed some legitimate skills that should help the Rockets throughout the rest of the season, at least against teams without aggressive on-ball defense.

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