1 Overlooked stat that puts Amen Thompson on the path to superstardom

Any Houston Rockets fan will agree that if Amen Thompson develops a three-point shot, he'll be a superstar. What's often overlooked is how much he improved from deep between his rookie and sophomore seasons.

It could be a case of confirmation bias. Once a player is classified as a bad shooter, they are perceived as such in people's minds until they unequivocally prove those charges wrong.

Thompson hasn't done that. He remains a poor shooter. Still, it can't be denied that he was a substantially better three-point shooter as a sophomore than he was as a rookie.

He effectively doubled his accuracy.

Rockets' Amen Thompson is on the right track

That's right.

As a rookie, Thompson hit 13.8% of his 0.9 attempts per game. He was a non-shooter. Those attempts came largely in garbage time when Thompson was taking an opportunity to experiment.

As a sophomore, he connected on 27.5% of his 1.3 attempts per contest. That is vastly different territory. Suddenly, Thompson was willing to launch a triple if he was open. It wasn't an excellent shot for Houston's offense, but it was (literally) an option.

For comparison's sake, Giannis Antetokounmpo connected on 27.4% of his 1.7 attempts per game in 2023-24. That's remarkably similar efficiency. Paolo Banchero hit just 29.8% of his threes as a rookie, albeit he shot 4.0 per contest.

These are imperfect comparisons. Antetokounmpo is 4 inches taller than Thompson. Banchero is shooting a significantly higher volume of much more closely contested threes. Still, there's a point here.

Thompson has his own advantages. He's much faster than Antetokounmpo and generally a far more impressive athlete than Banchero. The point is that there's a precedent for Thompson's 2024-25 shooting coming in a superstar package. There's an even more important point as well:

He has ample room to improve.

Rockets' Amen Thompson should improve his shot

The logic is simple. If Thompson nearly doubled his accuracy between his rookie and sophomore seasons, he should be able to continue to improve. Sure, his form remains poor. His shots were mostly wide open, and his volume was low. That's fine:

He'll never be a knockdown shooter. Thompson's defense, playmaking, and rim pressure will carry his game. Still, if we use 33.3% of on roughly 3.0 attempts per game as a yardstick, it's in play.

Thompson would benefit if he were able to keep defenses honest beyond the arc. If he can get his jumper to a point that defenses aren't comfortable leaving him wide open, he'll be a much more dynamic player.

His path to superstardom should be mostly unimpeded then.