I need to see some Reed summer workout vids. But if I don’t, I won’t worry. Reed gonna show the world next season
He struggled badly early on in the season as he was getting adjusted to NBA speed, but after the all-star break he shot 49% from three and averaged 3 assists in 15mpg. Defense definitely still needs work, but there were some positive signs, and all reports I've heard are that the organization is still really high on him. I think there is some uncertainty about what we're getting with Reed still, which makes it a risk/reward type play to count on him for rotation minutes. If you bring in a real rotation player who is going to want backcourt minutes, you may box Reed out of the rotation and lose the chance to develop him into a starting backcourt player beside Amen. The best play might be to go into the season with Reed as the de facto backup guard penciled in for most of the bench backcourt minutes, and if he is disappointing again, make a trade at the deadline for somebody better. He is going to have to prove himself quickly on a team that considers itself to be within a championship window.
I didn't say we would miss the playoffs, but playing a lot of Reed could have meant a worse seed. Again, I'll repeat myself here, I think playoff experience is important. So a worse seed could have meant getting bounced the first round, whereas a higher seed could have meant going further in the playoffs. If the calculus is "develop Reed and lose in the first round" vs "give him way less PT and win a playoff series", I think that's a tougher call. But obviously if we lose in the first round anyway then it's a no brainer, hence the hindsight comment.
Reed should have been given about 15 mins per game from the very start of the year... But here's what happened instead... That's all the way up until Ime gave him his first DNP. Out of the 24 games to start the season he saw less than 15 mins 17 times. He saw less than 10 mins a third of those game, 8 times. In just the third game of the season he only played 6 mins...Then in the 4th game only 3 mins...Followed up by 5 and then 7... He only saw at least 20 mins in ONE game which was a blowout... Ime let it be known VERY early that developing him and letting him play through some things was not a priority. I think some are misremembering things just because Reed made appearances in these games, but he would get yanked quick as hell if he made a mistake. As a rookie of course he wasn't going to play loose and free. The gleague and summer league are obviously nowhere near the nba, but even in the NBA games (like his start against the Thunder) where he knew he would receive minutes and be allowed to run the offense a lot more he looked spectacular. So yeah, I disagree with him having gotten plenty of opportunity. Not only were the minutes not there but also the role they had him playing in wasn't optimal either. Hopefully Reed and Ime figure it out because him being a good player for us would be extremely beneficial. It also could have meant he'd be more comfortable by the time the end of the season got here and he'd be an actual weapon in the playoffs which could have helped us...in the playoffs. Or he could have gotten more comfortable in season by playing more and we still end up top 2.
I remember watching those games in the beginning of season and the thing that came to mind was that Reed kept passing up open shots time and again so i'm not surprised that Ime eventually yanked him cause his role was to shoot. I'm sure this expectation also resulted in his lack of confidence since if he hesitated Ime would eventually pull him off. But it was quite obvious Reed was scared to shoot the ball early in the season.
He may have been hesitant to shoot, but he gave him 1 game before he basically stopped playing him any meaningful minutes. The only other times he saw 15+ mins again after the first game was in blowouts. In game two he went 2 for 4 from three in 12 mins, 5 shots in total...That doesn't look scared to shoot to me... Looked like he might be warming up some...and then the very next games he saw...6,3,5 and 7 mins.... I wouldn't place all the blame for Reed's struggles on Ime. Reed was a rookie and like most rookies he struggled...But Ime certainly didn't place any meaningful priority on his development last season and didn't give him "tons of time" to get acclimated. Lets compare Reed's mins to Jared McCain who probably gets ROY if he stayed healthy. Jared McCain: McCain didn't start out the gates blazing...He wasn't shooting a lot or all that well in quite a few of those games....especially from 3...I know Philly had some injuries, but that's still a ton of minutes he started to play. And it's not like they didn't have veteran guards that could have played. Eric Gordon, Reggie Jackson, Kyle Lowry...They could have easily fell back on the vets and not played him...
McCain only had 10 assists once in 23 games, and not more than 5 in most other games. That cannot happen with Reed.
None of the teams that gave rookies big minutes or opportunities were serious teams. Grizz, Philly, SAS. Reed needed adjusting to the NBA and he started to figure it out towards the end of the season. He's clearly the backup PG now. Him and Jabari will be getting more shots now that the Chuck-o-matic is gone as well so all is good. Was frustrating but he does have some stuff to work on. I'm always super weary of putting too much stock into shooting guards that "play well" on awful teams. Lets see what McCain does next year (as well as Grimes).
He'd have "figured it out" much more quickly if he was given consistent legitimate minutes from the start and it wouldn't have cost the team anything to do it. It was just an area Ime is really bad at as a coach. He was scared he might lose one or two regular season games, so instead he doomed his team to lose in the first round by a 7 seed. Hopefully he's learned his lesson.
I still believe in Reed's potential, but I don't think it was necessarily a bad thing to have him take a seat for a while after his initial struggles. I think that, combined with the G-League stint, allowed him to reset his brain a bit and resulted in a bit more success to close the season. We saw some of it of course, but could you imagine the "welcome to the NBA" moments he had in training camp and practices against Amen and our other strong defenders? That takes a psychological toll. Some people can just power on through that stuff, others do better by taking a step back. All we can really do is trust Ime's judgement in that regard.
His initial struggles were caused by the inconsistent minutes, he never got a chance to be on the court long enough to get comfortable until he was sent down to the G League.... that's all it took to right the ship. The RGV coaches fixed what Ime broke in half of one game. Reed Sheppard would have been a very beneficial weapon in the playoffs if Ime handled things better.
Notice his outlet passing after getting the ball under his own basket. People complain about our lack of fast breaks with all the gazelles on the team. We just don't have good outlet passers apart from this shortest dude.
It worked out in the end. My fear was that they were going to give Jalen Green another year to tap into "tHe PoTeNtIaL". They didn't. Reed will get his shots this upcoming season. His defense was dreadful when he wasn't hitting on steals. His shot came around. He can't beat guys off the dribble without a screen yet. Needs to work on this stuff next season. He will. Looking forward to it.
Agreed. Also, I dont think ive seen anyone else besides Amen (not even Fred) hit shooters in the corners like he does off pick and rolls and drives. We really havent had that type of passing since Harden.
