Is This a Reasonable Player to Compare Amen Thompson To?

The Houston Rockets’ fourth overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft has already put together an impressive young career. From a Second Team All-Rookie selection, to making the First Team All-Defensive Team, we’ve seen the improvements. 

We haven’t seen him make many improvements in shooting, though, which still makes it hard to find an accurate player comparison. I previously discussed this on Roundtable, ultimately eliminating any comparisons with any of the playmaking guards. 

I like Andre Iguodala, who could still run an offense, or Kawhi Leonard for an absolute peak. Now I want to consider someone who’s slotted right in between those two. Not quite a Finals MVP, but someone who has been named to more than a one All-Star game. 

While I’d understand if you ranked him higher than Kawhi all-time, Scottie Pippen still seems like a solid blueprint for Amen Thompson to follow. Pippen had a similar 6’8” frame, coming into the league at 210 pounds. 

It’s unclear what Amen Thompson's true weight is, though, as the NBA Draft Combine weighed him at 214.2 pounds, but he’s only 200 pounds in most other places you can look. Regardless, I don’t think it’s unreasonable for him to get to that same 225-230 pound range as the other guys. 

I like this comparison because Scottie Pippen wasn’t typically the number one scorer, unlike Kawhi. He was certainly capable and proved it plenty of times, but that wasn’t his main job. 

Even though he could and did initiate the offense, he wasn't always the primary ball-handler either. He was more than capable of doing both, but he was a super versatile player and used as such. 

If he played in the modern NBA, it’s not hard to imagine him being a triple-double demon. He only racked up 17 of them throughout his career, though, which is tied with guys like Julius Randle, Josh Hart, and Elfrid Payton. Amen Thompson can easily surpass that number in due time, as he's already almost a quarter of the way there, per StatMuse.

Maybe the most important similarity is that they’re both tenacious defenders, making them incredibly valuable two-way players. Pippen was selected to the First-Defensive Team eight times (1992-1999), and made Second Team two more times at the beginning and end of that stint. 

Ten years of defensive dominance is certainly something Rockets fans would love to see from Amen Thompson. I don’t know where they’d find their Michael Jordan, but I definitely see this Thompson twin as more of a Scottie Pippen than a Kawhi Leonard, if you catch my drift.