As Houston’s roster grows crowded with talent, Amen Thompson’s path to the All-Star game faces steep competition from teammates Kevin Durant and Alperen Şengün for limited selections.
The Houston Rockets have an incredibly talented young roster, and arguably the most valuable and important one of them all is Amen Thompson. That’s not just me saying it either, as I’m sure everyone’s heard by now that he’s the only truly untouchable player on the roster.
That’s high praise for someone on a team with Kevin Durant. Heck, even Alperen Şengün was drafted twelve spots lower than Thompson, and he’s already become a two-time All-Star.
So when is it Amen’s turn? Will it be this season? Will it ever happen? I personally believe there’s a good chance, but unfortunately for Rockets fans, I don’t think it would be this season. Things would either have to go extremely well, or very badly for him to be an All-Star this season. Let me explain.
As we already went over, Alperen Şengün and Kevin Durant are already the two All-Stars on this roster, and teams rarely get three selections anymore. The last team to do it were the 2022 Golden State Warriors, who went on to win a championship.
It’d be great if the Rockets were dominating the league by February and got three guys invited to play on Sunday night, but there’s a way less positive option. Actually, there's a couple more bleak possibilities to consider.
Firstly, either one of the current All-Stars on the roster could get injured and miss the game. Or both. Obviously no one wants that, but we live in reality. It could give him the opportunity to be the focal point offensively and rack up stats, though.
The other option would just be that Amen Thompson improves and is deservingly voted to participate, but one (or both) of the other guys regresses. Nobody expects it from Kevin Durant, even as he creeps towards 40 years old, but it’s a possibility.
People have already begun to sour on Şengün, made evident by him recently being voted as the most overrated player in the league, as covered on Roundtable. Don’t be surprised if that’s not just players, and fans, as well as coaches have moved on to new players to fawn over.
Amen Thompson might be the new fun attraction for everyone, effectively knocking Şengün out of the conversation. That’s still being a bit optimistic, though, considering it’d take all of the voters to agree on that change.
In reality, I’d expect some people to favor Thompson, while some favor Şengün. We’ve seen it time and time again where teammates cancel each other so I won’t be surprised if that’s where we land in Houston.
