I do think he will get hunted on defense at times, but those quick hands will allow him to make a lot of steals. Steals equal transition buckets. I didn’t think he would get many minutes this year, but I don’t see how they keep him off the court by the all-star break. His bbiq is through the roof. His PnR game is Stockton good. His shot is Curry good. His floater and mid-range are elite. I know, I know it’s summer league, but most everything he has done on offense will translate. Jalen needs to look at what his mid-range and floater does for his game and should be working like crazy on those shots even more than the 3 pointer. If Jalen pans out, we will have 5 facilitators available on this team in Jalen, Shep, FVV, Sengun, and Amen. We are building a team of basketball geniuses with great work ethic. The addition of Sheppard makes us 10 deep. Our bench is going to kill other teams bench. He probably has a lot of conditioning to do. I think him coming up short on some of the threes could be fatigue. FVV Jalen Brooks (would rather have Amen starting) Jabari Sengun Amen Shep Cam Tari Adams Jeff Green Landale Holiday Wow. Now that is deep. I will be disappointed if we don’t make top 6 this year.
This is where he can perform even better than the summer league. Imagine the vets setting up better screens and feeding him the ball when he's wide open. There were so many times he had wide open looks in these first two summer games when a better player would have fed him the ball for a catch and shoot. Can't wait to see him and Sengun together. I also think he'd be great at feeding a wide open Jabari the ball with his great court vision.
No it hasn’t. His defense is outstanding. Watch him against Wemby, Chet, and Durant. He forces them to defer almost every time. His defensive rebounding has been disappointing at times, but his one on one defense is great. People equate a lot of blocks to great defense. It is an aspect of great defense, but not the be all of a great defensive big. His ability to defend the perimeter in today’s NBA is incredibly valuable. Also he just turned 21 and said yesterday his main focus is getting stronger.
The good thing is, both Amen and Reed can play off ball. They don't have to be ball dominant to be effective. If they are on the floor together, it doesn't matter who is the PG. They can play off of each other.
It's a breath of fresh air listening to him be interviewed as opposed to say, a Jalen Green et al. I didn't even need to see a second of Summer League to know the Rockets lucked out with Washington taking Sarr. I'm still as dumbfounded today as I was before the draft when I realised people were so hyped about a guy playing in the NBL, and not even dominating, hell, not even contributing enough to warrant anything more than a few minutes each quarter in the biggest games of his teams NBL season. If that other tall lanky Frenchmen wasn't drafted last year, I doubt anyone is even talking about Sarr as a lottery pick this year.
I was responding to a post who says Rockets fans gonna be clamoring for Sheppard to take FVV's spot, which is ludicrous. The much more likely scenario if Sheppard ends the season as a starter is if he takes Jalen Green's place. As to why that may happen, you just said it yourself.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id...ue-first-impressions-years-rookie-draft-class Sheppard makes case as draft's best prospect Sheppard, the No. 3 pick, topped my stats-based projections for this year's draft and showed exactly why during his first two games. After scoring 23 points against the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday, Sheppard followed that performance up with 22 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds and 5 steals against Sarr and the Wizards on Sunday. After scoring 20-plus points just seven times in 33 games at Kentucky, Sheppard has already done it in each of his first two outings as a pro. Sheppard's ability to get where he wants with the ball and create separation with a hard crossover has stood out. We already knew Sheppard, who hit 52% of his 3s from the college line, was a powerful shooter. He hit from a listed 27 feet during Sunday's third quarter, which also saw Sheppard score nine points on 4-of-6 shooting and a pair of assists. Defensively, Sheppard's active hands constantly generate deflections. Sheppard had three blocks Friday and racked up a pair of pick-six steals Sunday. Sheppard joins a crowded Houston backcourt with starters Jalen Green and Fred VanVleet, along with 2023 lottery pick Amen Thompson and veteran Aaron Holiday. If Sheppard's play in Vegas so far is any indication, however, he'll force his way into regular playing time as a rookie. -- Pelton
There are different ways to end plays. Amen can cut (and sometimes spot up, to keep the defense honest). Reed can spot up or cut. Alpi can take it to the post and put his defender in a blender (and sometimes spot up, to keep the defense honest). All three can dunk (especially Amen). And then there will of course be two other guys on the court for us who can mix it up and spread the floor. Of course, it would be ideal if Alpi and Amen could get to 35 % from three. Alpi is closer to that.
