Amen Thompson's breakout is here if GMs are proven right

NBA fans can often get caught in echo chambers, where they fail to realize that their diehard opinions aren't shared by the rest of the league. Houston Rockets fans don't need to have that fear about Amen Thompson — the rest of the league wholeheartedly agrees that he really can be a superstar.

In the league's annual general manager survey, one of the questions is, "Which player is most likely to have a breakout season?" This year, that category was dominated by Thompson, who got 30 percent of the votes. Brandon Miller of Charlotte and Ausar Thompson of Detroit both got 10 percent of the votes. Thompson twin domination!

You would be hard-pressed to find an NBA fan who disagrees with Amen being at the top of this list; he made first-team All-Defense last year so the production is already there, he raised his scoring output nearly five points from his rookie season, and he showed enough playmaking chops for Ime Udoka to feel confident putting the ball in his hands a lot this year, and his role in the offense is set to expand greatly. Those are the clearest breakout indicators I can think of.

The NBA world knows just how good Amen Thompson is

The only downside about Amen already getting the props he deserves is that he can't be Houston's best-kept secret. Like, one of the fun things about a homegrown young player is being able to tell fans of other teams, "You don't know anything about our guy!" Unfortunately, seemingly everyone is already aboard the Amen hype train.

But that's fine, because they would have learned eventually anyway. It's just as cool to have a young prospect who the rest of the world thinks is as good as Rockets fans do. There's no hyperbole when it comes to Amen Thompson, no biases, no delusion from Rockets fans who have an attachment to him because he's one of their own.

And, no, NBA general managers aren't always spot-on in their talent evaluations, as we know. Sometimes they overthink things. But when they're saying nice things about a player I like, then they must be correct. I kid. Kind of.

Of course, it's not just GMs who see greatness in Thompson, it's... Everybody. Casual fans, analytics folks, opposing coaches, your dad who claims nobody plays defense anymore. In terms of NBA player approval ratings, Amen Thompson's is near 100 percent. So it's not much surprise that he's the most popular breakout candidate among front offices — but that doesn't make it any less fun.