He doesnt have the same game as Steph lol. Steph is all offense, Reed is a plus defender. On the flip side Steph is the best shooter in NBA history Reed shot below average last year.
Reed Sheppard looks bigger. His body did get bigger and stronger. Reed did say he did alot of workouts and physical defensive drills for weeks Reed said "I did defensive drills for weeks, Which wasn't Fun".
In Sunday's game against Detroit, they did an in-game interview with Ime. I can't find it on YouTube, but he I could swear he said something to the effect of wanting Reed not to gamble as much and to stay on his man. Can anyone else confirm that? Was I high?
@RC Cola and @topfive couldn't find Ime's interview on YouTube from this SL, but found last year's... Some interesting info to look back on. However, I did tape the game and I'm listening to the interview now. The former coach asks Ime, what he wants to see from Reed on defense. Ime says (and I paraphrase) essentially... "It's really to take the challenge and have a defensive mindset, he has really good hands and you see the steal numbers he has in this game and the last game. We want to see him take the initial hit a little bit better and not give up blow byes, and rely on reaching. Take that challenge (mumble)... we've seen him take steps in that already, but we don't want to have any weak links on the court. Guys take pride in not being a defensive liability, so he's taken on that challenge. Everybody knows the shot creation and IQ that he has, but the big thing for us is being able to guard and he's really grown in that department." I take that as a net positive with Ime pointing out his great hands while acknowledging he needs to take the first contact better in order to decrease his reaching, and summing it up by saying he's really grown in that department. Thoughts?
Folks won't be saying this when he around 8-16 from 3, most every night avg around 16-20 ppg off the bench. He will be 3pt monster go watch some college film. His game is coming.
Thanks for looking back for the Ime clip and paraphrasing it here. I was too lazy to dig it out, but your post seems to match roughly what I had in my head (and I agree with your overall impression). It seems clear to me that Reed wants to defend the way Ime (and the staff) want, and he is putting in the work to do so. I think they are all happy with that. I did like the question Ime was responding to, which IIRC was some version of "people think a good defensive team can mask the deficiencies of a poor defender, but actually a good defensive team needs all 5 players on the court to play good defense." I do think playing with guys like Amen, Tari, Jabari, an improved Sengun, etc., makes it easier for Reed, but yes Reed will need to put maximum effort on the defensive end in order for things to work out well. This includes that increased physicality that Ime touched on. I'm encouraged by what I'm seeing and hearing, but ultimately up to Reed to show that in the games that matter. And he'll probably take some bumps (especially early on), but he'll need to get back up and do better ASAP. They're vastly different players with different circumstances, but I'd really like Reed to take an Amen-esque leap in his 2nd year (not necessarily have the same overall impact, but he needs to show rapid improvement). If he's unplayable on defense and still looking very tentative on offense during this 2nd year, that will not be a good sign.
He played last time vs Detroit what happened? Posts like these dont make any sense. Lots of NBA players have great stat lines prior to the NBA. Check out Jimmer Freddette and Jahlil Okafor. Thats how they got to the NBA they have been elite players prior to the NBA. So we dont care how Reed dominated lower levels that is vast majority of NBA players. The reality is Reed got PT when he played well and got benched when he didnt. When he sucked, Ime benched him. So dont turn it around and act like Reed wasnt getting the opportunity and produced every time he got the opportunity cuz that is wrong. Reed did get the opportunity he just played bad so he didnt capitalize on that opportunity. Even now Reed got shut down in SL after his bad game. So you gonna turn it around and say Reed plays well every time he plays in SL? LOL
Well, apparently the handful of us here always harping about his blowbys aren't the only ones who noticed them. But hey, Coach Ime doesn't know what they hell he's doing, amiright, @Bobbythegreat?
Regardless, he's way too small even in the summer league. Starting NBA PG's can push him around and he can't do anything about it since he has no first step to counter with. It's fine, not a disaster. Just needs more time.
He got shut down primarily because he was injured (calf tightness at the end of game 1) Not going to brush off the concerns from game 2, but using it as indisputable evidence to argue against what he can do is not productive. He would have to deal with and prep for those high pressure situations to get better and consistent minutes, period. He would have to be benched otherwise and have to learn quickly because patience is limited in this team, 100%. But that’s what all prospects will have to deal with, and a lot of them don’t even get the luxury of this stressed sample. Why don’t we treat it as a great opportunity? Also he was pressured hard in one or two games last summer league, but came out bouncing back nicely on the fly, partly because the roster around him was much more balanced (with Cam next to him helped), partly because he was not injured. The other prospects just don’t get the pressure treatment yet. No one gets full court pressure so far because he’s obviously the highest profile name on an extremely flawed roster around him. In an ideal world other than the obvious strong defenders next to him (Amen, DFS, Tari and also KD) he would be paired a good screener that can just do infinite loop screening all game long and I can see him eat. Fortunately we do have these. Once again Curry averaged 34% including 2s in his summer league with 34 mins a game for 5 games. Now go back in time and give up on that.
Sorry but in a league where Mike Harris can be MVP, stats mean very little. Same for Summer League. And I just don’t see it with Reed yet, so right now I have very little faith in him. But he’s going to get a chance to prove himself and if he doesn’t produce, he will not see the court, of that I’m sure. We are in win now mode this year so it’s all good. I just wish we hadn’t wasted 2 free agent signings on a big and a stiff shooter rather than some more insurance shooting and creating wise.
What did Steph average in SL Y2? Oh wait he didnt even go to SL cuz he was already balling out in Y1. This is already Reed's second year its time to stop with the Steph and Nash rookie scenarios cuz those dont apply anymore. Personally the fact he got injured after 1 game is already concerning. We expect him to be available and play lots of mins how can he do that if he gets injured immediately? Its not even a contact injury.
