Amen Thompson will instantly make Rockets fans forget about Fred VanVleet injury

As the Houston Rockets attempt to cope with the loss of starting point guard Fred VanVleet this upcoming season, a number of players will have the opportunity to shine in their new roles in an entirely revamped and redone offense.

Yet, the most prominent among these is ascendant young star Amen Thompson, who will likely get the first crack at the starting point guard role, and, according to Bill Simmons on the recent episode of his podcast, there is a chance that this positional shift could ultimately be a blessing for the Rockets.

If Thompson is able to take on the additional playmaking burden that comes with being the point guard while maintaining his electrifying defensive performance, he could quickly become a bona-fide star of the league, and this development would make Houston even more dangerous as their young core continues to develop.

Putting the ball in Amen Thompson's hands could force him to take the next leap in his game

Although Thompson has never taken on a significant offensive burden in his first two years in the NBA, he has steadily proven to be a relatively reliable ball-handler and a downhill offensive threat. Last season, en route to an First-Team All-Defense campaign, Thompson also managed to average 4.3 assists per 36 minutes.

For context, VanVleet averaged 5.7 assists per 36 minutes in the same span: a relatively closable gap for Thompson.

Therefore, in a best-case-scenario outcome for Houston, Simmons could see the team ultimately becoming better as a result of the unfortunate VanVleet injury: "If they find out Reed Sheppard is actually way better than they thought, Thompson can handle the ball, there's a case [for them to be better]."

While Sheppard's emergence, and his ability to play viable minutes off the bench, will be highly important for this team, their success or failure ultimately comes down Thompson's ability to take another massive leap in year three.

If he can become a capable enough ball-handler to be trusted with the rock in the most important moments of games, the massive lineups that the team can construct around him could leave head coach Ime Udoka with almost unprecedented versatility.

Moreover, it appears as though Thompson has continued to work on his perimeter shot this offseason, and, if this can continue to develop, it could make his downhill threat even more dangerous, forcing defenders to hedge for the closeout more often.

Therefore, while VanVleet's injury is obviously devastating both to this roster and to fans of the team, Thompson could quickly get the Rockets back on track given his ever-expanding skill-set.