Castle has upside because of his body, defense and intelligence - so the idea is that if you can get him to shoot better, he can become an all star and I agree with that in theory, and I do think that it is quite possible he becomes a plus shooter. The deeper I dig into Sheppard - the more he seems to the the exception to the rule when it comes to drafting players. Every once in awhile a player comes out and breaks all kinds of conventional rules and proves to be legitimate. Steph Curry was like that... Fat Lever is another one..... Alan Iverson .... Dirk Nowitzki.... Larry Bird. Sheppard is small..... he is 6'2" and has a 6'3" wingspan.... he also is not lightening quick and he isn't Chris Paul as a passer. Yet - he is the best shooting prosect since at least Doug McDermott and possibly Steph Curry. He has the strongest hands in basketball and has expert control of them and they are very quick. He is very strong and he almost ALWAYS finishes in transition. The concern is you end up with a John Paxson type player, or maybe a JJ Reddick type guy at #3.... but when I watch him play, he is just different. The guy that physically was closest to him was Kirk Heinrich, and he had no aptitude on offense...... the feel for Sheppard is off the chart, and even being squat and pear shaped, he still keeps his man in front of him. It is early - we will see, but some of the combine numbers justify what I am seeing on tape.
Honestly, if we got Reed and he ended up being something like a cross between Redick and Hinrich I would be pretty okay with that given the (lack of) quality in this draft class. A guy who can be either a great bench player or our worst starter on a rookie contract doesn't sound great for the #3 pick, until you consider that the #3 pick in this class is the 9th pick in a "normal" draft.
Don't be sold too fast! Remember this guy? He was 6'7 ( 5 inches taller than Reed), shot 45% from 3pt range on 6.5 attempts (2 attempts more ppg than Reed), and had a 37' vertical. We thought he was going to be good too but he's just a fringe NBA player. My thing is, lets calm down and think this through. Everybody is on the Reed Sheppard train right now but there are NO guarantees.
However, you can never go wrong with height....Clingen. At worst you have a backup center who can block shots, rebound and shoot.
I feel like you wouldn't be posting this if it wasn't a white player.... kind of seems like that's what you're really concerned about.
To me, Castle seems like more of the same, drafting a body rather than a basketball player and hoping that one day they'll learn the game. I just don't think yet another pick like that is where the Rockets should be.
Sorry you feel that way but to each his own. Its something you have to deal with. However, they have distinct similarities in their games. Its just that Kisperts is 5 inches taller, vertical was high and shot just as good on more attempts. But you couldn't see the similarities?
Why would you say he shot just as good when he was 8.5% worse? That's a MASSIVE gap. If you drop curry 8.5% he would go from being the best shooter ever to being league average or worse most seasons
I mean, you aren't being very subtle about it. It's kind of funny how many people go full mask off when it comes to talking about white basketball players or black QB's. I'm sure you see similarities between every white player to step on the court....but you shouldn't assume that your personal bias is shared by all. The two players are drastically different, one is a guard, one is a forward one is 5 inches taller One had a 38 inch max vertical the other had a 42 inch max vertical One was a 4 year college player the other was one and done One had a 2:1 assist to TO ratio the other was about 1:1 One shot 52% from 3, the other shot 40% Basically the only thing they have in common is that they both went to college and they are both white. To you, that makes them the same person apparently.
I could see Udoker liking Castle. Sheppard should be the pick. I could be talked into Clingan, Risacher and Buzelis also. No to Dill, Topic
Knecht IIRC is the lone guy on his team, him getting 39% on his 3 and scoring 21 a game is harder than Shepherds 12.5 on 50% as the 4rth guy on his team. It's like difference between Sengun and Jabari in terms of pressure. I also like his steady improvement from 3 starting at 36%, 38% and now almost 40% all on high volume. It shows his shot is repeatable and consistent. I don't think Reed has "eye popping" stats, he had one eye popping percentage which is the 52% from 3 on low volume. It may or may not translate I guess we'll see. I mean like I said if he was such a god tier shooter why didn't he show up on the combine? Knecht showed up so I guess the small inconsequential combine wasn't a problem for him but w/e. Where we disagree is on the other stuff. Knecht has been a bad defender in college and hasn't done anything besides score while Sheppard has shown high bball IQ and all the intangibles. However Knecht is almost 6'8 in shoes while RS is 6'3 in shoes. You can teach Knecht to defend but you can't teach RS to grow 4 inches. Knecht was the main man in college he could afford to slack on D. But now he has no choice but to play defense, and when he is motivated to play defense he will be a better defender than RS due to his length and athleticism. Amen is a franchise altering talent because of his measurables. It's hard to be franchising altering talent if you have bad measurables. Very few of those.
From 3pt range he shot 45% on 6.5 attempts. Kispert had more ATTEMPTS, also he played on a better team in college. So, you had more of a complete picture of him, than Sheppard. To me, Sheppard is more of a risk. For one he's smaller, also how many positions will he be able to guard? Can you switch with him on the floor? I think there are some serious concerns.
I’d argue Amen is a franchise altering talent because of his immeasurables like very high BBIQ. He has elite physical numbers but many players before him have had top tier physical attributes but flame out because of low BBIQ.
Sheppard is as tall as our current all-star worthy PG. Dillinger is in the same boat. Amen will guard the 2 guards going forward, so I don’t see the problem in either at #3. I lean toward Dillinger because of his handles. If Jalen fails we do need someone that can break down the defense off the dribble. I think Dillinger is superior at that and has the athleticism to get better at defense. I think both are being underrated and would be happy at either at no. 3. The only way I don’t take one of those to guys is if Sarr drops to 3. Even if he is not all that, because of his age and measurables, he would be a great trade asset.
