{"id":51118,"date":"2025-05-23T03:18:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T03:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/51118\/"},"modified":"2025-05-23T03:18:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T03:18:09","slug":"as-sophomore-on-nbas-all-defensive-first-team-amen-thompson-is-in-elite-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/51118\/","title":{"rendered":"As sophomore on NBA\u2019s All-Defensive First Team, Amen Thompson is in elite company"},"content":{"rendered":"

By earning a spot on the NBA\u2019s All-Defensive First Team<\/a> for the 2024-25 season, Houston Rockets<\/a> guard\/forward Amen Thompson joined a rare club.<\/p>\n

Dating back to the 1981-82 season \u2014 a span of more than 40 years \u2014 only four other NBA players have earned that distinction within their first two professional seasons. Typically, young prospects face a steeper learning curve on defense, which makes early success on that side of the ball extremely encouraging for their long-term outlook.<\/p>\n

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That exclusive club entails:<\/p>\n

Spurs forward Tim Duncah in 1998-99, his second season;<\/p>\n

Spurs center Victor Wembanyama in 2023-24, his rookie season.<\/p>\n

Robinson and Duncan are both league Most Valuable Player (MVP) winners, multi-time NBA champions, and members of the Naismith Memorial\u00a0Basketball\u00a0Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

Mobley and Wembanyama were both top-three draft picks and are widely viewed as defensive cornerstones for the next generation.<\/p>\n

Now, Thompson \u2014 the No. 4 overall pick by Houston in the 2023 first round \u2014 is making his own case as a defensive cornerstone. The 52-30 record by the 2024-25 Rockets, which was fourth-best in the NBA and No. 2 in the Western Conference, further bolsters that argument. Houston\u2019s success was clearly driven by its strong defense, as shown in a\u00a0top-five defensive rating<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Showcasing elite defense, athleticism, and positional versatility, Thompson averaged 14.1 points (55.7% FG), 8.2 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.4 steals, and 1.3 blocks in 32.2 minutes per game during the regular season. The 22-year-old became a full-time starter in January and never relinquished the job.<\/p>\n

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Per\u00a0NBA tracking data<\/a>, Thompson allowed the lowest field-goal percentage (40.7%) among players who played in at least 10 games and defended at least 9.0 shots per game.<\/p>\n

At 6-foot-7, Thompson is tall and athletic enough to guard and play at any position, and his versatility has quickly made a believer out of head coach Ime Udoka. Late in the 2023-24 season, after Alperen Sengun went down with a season ending ankle injury, Thompson played occasional minutes at center. In 2024-25, Thompson made a few starts at point guard in the absence of veteran starter Fred VanVleet, and he ultimately replaced Jabari Smith Jr. as the starter at power forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe can be a top 15-level player, All-NBA level,\u201d\u00a0Udoka told Chris Mannix<\/a>\u00a0of Sports Illustrated. \u201cPeople are seeing flashes. We see more.\u201d<\/p>\n

More: Rockets star Amen Thompson named to NBA\u2019s All-Defensive First Team for 2024-25 season<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: NBA All-Defensive First Team: At 22, Amen Thompson joins elite club<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By earning a spot on the NBA\u2019s All-Defensive First Team for the 2024-25 season, Houston Rockets guard\/forward Amen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[1307,7,193,3382,576,866,292,194,4066,2497,6,8123,2032,211,474,1988,693],"class_list":{"0":"post-51118","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-alperen-sengun","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","11":"tag-david-robinson","12":"tag-evan-mobley","13":"tag-fred-vanvleet","14":"tag-houston","15":"tag-houston-rockets","16":"tag-houstonrockets","17":"tag-jabari-smith-jr","18":"tag-nba","19":"tag-nba-champions","20":"tag-nba-players","21":"tag-rockets","22":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","23":"tag-thompson","24":"tag-victor-wembanyama"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114554988611829449","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}