Reeds play last night was proof that he should have stayed in the Valley for the majority of the season. The fans love Reed and want to see him succeed. It sucks that we were cheated out of the rookie experience. No one benefited from him sitting on the bench all season. The least we could have gotten was his highlights from the Valley.
This is pretty much what I'm saying. He was given very little opportunity and had to be perfect or he'd be benched almost immediately. That decision IMO caused a shooting slump because not only was Sheppard trying to adjust to the speed and athleticism of the NBA game, but he had the added pressure of knowing any small mistake would get him benched for the rest of the game and possibly several games. When he was given more leeway, he thrived. Either way, it doesn't matter now, we can't change the past. We can just hope that Ime gets better when it comes to player management next season because we know it isn't coming in what little is left of this season and our brief playoff stint.
I blame IME for not developing him and him getting to this point faster he was a number 3 pick, he should be playing some, every game. DD
Can we stop saying he didn’t get an opportunity? He got to play, and he struggled. If you want more time don’t suck and look passive in the time you get. Ball in your limited minutes and show you deserve more. No more handouts. Winning culture.
You have to be able to play through the pain to get to the gain....... Not saying start him but he should play at least 15-20 min every game and not be yanked out so often.... Our record would not have been impacted. DD
So you are saying giving a player 15-20 minutes a night who metrics wise has been anywhere from at best about the same value on court as a replacement player(anyone you could pick off the waiver wire) and at worst is below the value of the average replacement player...and you think that our record "would not have been impacted."????? ....you REALLY think that? Like you would bet something very precious and valuable to you that you are right? ...or is this just flippant hot take talk? It sounds like the latter but maybe people are right about how off your analysis is.
Nope, you take the pain early....KNOWING that he is going to get comfortable and improve and by the playoffs is a solid rotation player. Think of how Rudy used Sam Cassel - sort of like that..... Ime though would put him in, he would get blown by on D, or suck it up get yanked and then not see the court for 3 more games....you can't get comfortable like that....you have to play guys that your scouting staff believes in and that you drafted, otherwise your assets are rotting on the vine. This goes for Cam too - no way should Holiday or Tate play any minutes over Reed and Cam - even if they were better early in the year..... This team is not going anywhere until we replace FVV and Brooks - and the closer we get to that, the better we will be.... DD
Castle early on wasn’t “better” than reed. Both were unplayable, castle just played way more so he had more counting stats. If you think this was his 5th good game, that’s amazing considering he has played real minutes in basically 2.
rockets/ime were trying to win games this season. there was no room to sacrifice wins at the altar of reed sheppard.
Oh please, Reed was bad, but not anymore detrimental to winning as your typical rookie. In Reed's first 20 games, he averaged 12mpg with the Rockets on average being -0.8 points per game when he was in it. Amen last year's initial 20 games had him playing 16mpg with the Rockets on average being -2.3 points per game when he was in it. From a pure "causing the team to lose" perspective, Amen was even worse to start the season. Even so, from games 21-40, Reed's minutes would go down to 11mpg while actually being essentially neutral when he was on the court. While Amen's minutes went up to 23mpg in his 21-40 game stretch while still being a minus player (-1.7 per game). And that's the thing about playing rookies with talent but lack experience. You let them go through the growing pains, and they reward you with improved play worthy of their talent later on. Like Amen did towards the end of last season. But if you never let them grow, then of course they will continue to suck. And if you keep using that excuse to keep them from playing, then yeah they will continue to suck and you never get the payoff.
aaron holiday: 12.8 mpg / 43% fg / 38.4% 3p. we sacrificed some wins with those numbers. and JT's mins and reed's mins aren't the same mins so that one isn't worthy of a response.
Winning habits is also a form of development.... it's just asinine to suggest you don't learn or grow because you aren't allowed to go through your growing pains during your rookie season. The 2024 Rockets were not going to be giving Reed minutes to just develop (and Cam since we are on the subject). Aaron Holiday has objectively played better than Reed.
Of course but Holiday is not a difference maker - he is a 3rd string emergency player.....never mind......You guys can disagree all you like.....we just don't agree that Reed should have been playing all year. I think we would be much stronger as a team with Reed and Cam playing all year ......and closer to that contender status...you guys don't......it's ok.... Whatever. DD