Edey is 22 and Knecht is 23. Clingan is on a bad team getting to play through mistakes with no real pressure to win. Castle is contributing on a decent team, largely due to Wemby, but that also doesn't have much talent on the roster. He's contributing but his advanced stats/efficiency are pretty bad right now and he probably wouldn't be getting any run on this team. All those guys may end up as much better pros than Reed when it's all said and done, but the circumstances aren't at all comparable.
Holiday is a 7 year vet journeyman who is just happy to still be collecting a check, and Whitmore....totally different story. Whitmore was so upset about having his minutes cut early in the season that his attitude got so bad he was sent to the G League as punishment. Now that he's back, he's getting like 20 minutes a game up until last night...we'll see if the bad attitude returns.
Cam is shooting 21% from 3 on the season. In his first 9 games this season with really sporadic minutes he was 1 for 23 from 3.
You are right because none of those guys were top 3 picks and none of them are playing as bad as Sheppard is RN. Why are you making justifications for someone whose 0 in 6 mins or 1 pt in 18 mins to go along with atrocious defense is the norm? Comparing him to his peers is an insult to his peers right now. Yeah Castle is bad offensively but you expect him to score 1 pt in 18 mins yes or no? You act like they are all playing at a similar level when Sheppard is several tiers worse than everybody else. If Sheppard needs to be 23 to do something then he shouldnt have been a top 3 lotto pick, he should have been a second rounder or undrafted. He should have stood up and told Stone and everyone else he was a scrub and dont take him so high cuz he will flop. He took the hype and accepted being a top pick in this class so he should be judged in the same lens we look at JG, Jabari and Amen.
It’s been almost 3 months and by now we should have seen a glimpse of what made him the third pick in the draft. Defensively he is short, slow and awful, minus the ability to knock the ball from behind once his man blows by him. Shooting has been underwhelming to be kind. Court awareness is not good as he always passes away his open shots due to his lack of confidence. He is a project…which is fine for a second round pick, but not top three. His game doesn’t even resemble Curry’s game, but is almost identical to Scottie Brooks for those of us old enough to remember. Scottie was a great 12th man and was known as the cheerleader on the Finals teams. As much as I loved Brooks game, there is no way he gets picked 3rd in a draft.
I'm not really sure what you mean by "making excuses." Someone said none of those guys are going to the G League, which is accurate, neither is Reed at this point for what it's worth. If Reed was on the Wizards he'd be playing 25+ minutes a game and there'd be no thought about him going down even if he was playing bad. All of those guys other than Knecht were top 9. Getting hung up on "top 3" is dumb and Knecht should've been drafted higher in any event. Knecht is much better than Reed at this point and he's three years older. I don't think we should expect Reed to wait until he's 23 to be as good as Knecht is now but it's also ridiculous not to acknowledge that judging a 23 year old and 20 year old on the same scale right now is probably not the right way to think about it. Remember when everyone was gushing over Jacquez and Amen wasn't really doing anything yet? I pretty strongly disagree with "atrocious" defense. This feels like the pre-draft convos when people were saying he was a poor athlete before the combine. Jalen's defense as a rookie was atrocious. I think Reed's is fine for where he's at. His defensive stats seem to back that up as does the fact that despite his terrible shooting he's still getting some run for the most demanding defensive coach in the league who repeatedly says if you don't defend you don't play. This stuff is in the eye of the beholder but I'm not all that worried about what I see from Reed so far. I see what I need to in order to still believe in him to an extent. Maybe some of that is confirmation bias because I loved his "tape" when I started really watching it and I see things here and there that were on his tape that made me think he could turn into a high end NBA player. I'd like to see him go down to the G League and shoot ~7 threes a game. I'm not super interested at this point and don't have a strong take on whether we should've taken Castle or someone else instead. Clingan, Castle, and Knecht were all guys I liked going into the draft.
I don't think he'll be a bust. Is he gonna be Steph Curry? No. He's still too young to judge if he's a bust. But, that said, I do see his major weakness being a problem and that is on the defensive end. He's a good help defense but he's not a good 1on1 defender. Too many times he lets guys drive past him without any resistance as he tries to go for the steal. His shot will be there once he adjusts and his vision is definitely there. He just looks bad right now because he hasn't adjusted his shot for the NBA level but his stroke does look smooth as butter. He needs to be on a team where he can get majority of the starting PG's minutes so he can develop fast.. that's why fans keep asking for him to be sent to the G-league.
Top 3 picks are more valuable than top 10 picks, I think thats common sense. You shouldnt judge them on the same scale because a top 3 pick is more valuable, like Wembanyama vs Cason Wallace or Banchero vs Johnny Davis. People expect more from Wemby and Banchero than they do Cason Wallace and Johnny Davis. People were gushing over Jacquez because he was top 15 but outplayed top 5 lotto picks in the draft. People were harsh on Amen because he started off rough. But after he got back from injury he was instantly much better so all the complaints stopped. What defensive stats are you looking at that shows Sheppard is fine for where he's at? He only gets PT from Udoka during non leverage moments, like during blowouts or when the game isnt close. I dont think him getting PT is a vote of confidence rather he just gets PT cuz he was a top 3 pick. If he was a 2Way he'd never see the light of day.
I felt the whole preparation for the 3rd pick was rushed/not well researched because obviously Brooklyn got lucky with the 3rd and delivered it to us...... Nobody expected it and the Rockets had exactly 2 obvious choices ...or 2 they targeted that were Reed or Donovan Clingan. I preferred if we took a glimpse at Stephon Castle or Dalton Knecht. Wouldn't have minded Salaun.
I think they zeroed in on Sheppard because they fell in love with his intangibles and we needed shooting badly. Just drank too much Kool Aid and ignored all the red flags. Def the biggest goof of Stone's drafting career even Ty Lawson and Daishen Nix are better than Sheppard at this point.
I know exactly what you mean. Everytime another black dude gets picked I'm just like here they go again, thinking just because he's athletic they think they got the next Michael Jordan and then they turn out to be busts over and over and over. And then the picked up that little yellow dude Lin, like some little yellow Asian guy can hoop. How stupid, can't the GM's see these blacks and Asians are just a gimmick? I don't trust that any of them are worth a damn. Sounds kinda prejudiced, huh?
I don't like Nash/Price comparisons all that much. But I think Stockton-lite could be a decent one if we're talking about Sheppard's ceiling in the best case outcome.
I was big on drafting Reed, but right now he definitely looks like a bust. It's so disappointing after all the hype. But, I'm also not worried about it this early. I am hoping to see the light come on the next 3 months, to give me some glimmer of hope that he is learning and improving with his limited minutes. He's not some idiot, lazy guy, or immature hothead. He's mature enough to work hard. We'll see, but I'm in no panic mode to get rid of him before he's even played a couple years on the bench.
True, he looks like he has the highest IQ on the roster. I'm not going to write him off 2 months into the season - that would be dumb.
