What does “earn it” in the context even mean? Ime should put out the best starting unit regardless of who has “earned” anything. And who even has “earned” it over Sheppard? Tari has been up and down and doesn’t fit as well with the starters. DFS is hurt. Reed is clearly better than Holiday and Okogie. In my eyes, he’s absolutely “earned” the starting role.
I think he's shown enough to give him the reps he needs to iron out the kinks. He got caught in bad spacing early on last night but I felt like he definitely improved as he went along, and his quick hands were more than disruptive enough on D to justify him being there. I agree, I'd rather start Reed than Tari, I changed my vote.
I think many are selling Reed short in his basketball IQ and court awareness making up for any (current) physical/mental limitations. Let the kid play through mistakes, he's smart enough and has the mental acumen to make the proper adjustments. Twenty games in he will be burying wide open threes as teams are forced to focus on Alpi and KD.
I don't know what people are seeing here. Reed's turnovers so far have mostly been miscommunication, sometimes his fault, sometimes not -- a lot of that is just preseason rust. He's not out there getting turned over by the defender or dribbling off his foot. Last year, even in sporadic minutes, his assist to turnover ratio was 2:1. He takes care of the ball just fine. And his passing? That's even more confusing. He makes the most advanced reads on this team outside of Sengun.
If we can develop Reed into putting up Maxey like numbers with a little better defense, I'll take that as a W. My guess is that half of the NBA is drooling to have Reed on their roster. Trade opportunities will be abundant midseason if Ime is too impatient. If Reed was starting on a team like the Jazz, Nets, Pelicans, Blazers, he would be putting up 17, 5 a game. He's a good to great player with a bit more expectations than necessary so early in his career. I hope we keep him and develop him but I'm not sure he fits Ime's style, so we will see. Ideally we trade some pieces midseason for guard depth, but we have to see how the team responds after 30 games.
My guess is that Reed averages 12-15 ppg this season. Hopefully, he gets in a groove early and shows that he can contribute
i think we're kinda saying the same thing... The conversation was about Reed getting the job based on his high draft position... i disagreed - saying it should be the best person for the job - the guy who's 'earned it' by working hard and being the best fit... Personally, i dont feel anybody (reed, holiday, JD) has proven themselves to be all that better than the other options... which is why i say let em run it by committee - until someone proves themselves to be the better option... everybody always want to lock somebody in as THE starter or whatever... i say, screw that - we got em all under contract - let em battle it out and push one another...
I think Reed's defense was as good as Holiday least season. The advanced stats says Reed was much better. But I think it's cuz it values blocks & steals more than positioning. It's Reed really was mostly bad on offense, outside his couple excellent flashes. Which goes right against Ime's philosophy of "being a defensive guy is all you need to play". It allowed him to play more than no D caring Whitmore lol, but Reed needed better offensive game to play. Holiday is servicable enough on his limited but complementary skills
I think most assumed it would be Amen/DFS/KD/Bari/Sengun. But the early returns are that the team needs Reed in there.
He had 3 pts with the starters and was mostly a spectator. He got off running the show when the starters sat so I dunno why you guys keep saying he is needed in the starting lineup. Sengun was doing the playmaking and Amen was doing the penetrating and KD was doing the scoring. All Reed did was bring the ball up and give it to someone else. I think its a no brainer to have him be the 6th man. You have KD, Sengun and Amen you want the ball primarily in those 3 guys hands and the other are off the ball like Jabari. Reed is showing good playmaking potential he shouldnt be used just in a spot up role.
Setting aside how much you hate him and just focusing on what's best for the rockets, who else could you even consider starting? We currently are starting sengun - a pure 5, durant and jabari - pure 4s, amen - fine as a 3. Just play with no guards at all?
why is Amen a 3 when he has played as a guard all his life and only played PF last year? Just cuz you say so? I dont think he even played as a 3 so far outside a couple games lol Jabari and KD "pure 4s" when both guys have played SF, Jabari esp in the double big lineup is a 3. Sengun a "pure 5" when the dude played beside both Adams and Capela and was shooting 3s. I dont think you ever focused on the Rockets all you cared about is your god Reed Sheppard. You dont even know what positions the other players play.
Reed and Amen both played great last night. Our offense can have 3-4 initiators all year. In terms of frequency it will be Sengun, Amen, Durant, Reed to initiate the half-court offense. In all cases, we are going to bring the ball up the court faster and get into our half court offense faster. People forget how bad FVV was last year. We are going to be better on offense. Defense may take a small back with Reed as a starter, but start he should. I think Ime is experimenting with the zone, because of FVV’s injury. If Reed can get closer to FVV on defense, we will be just as good as last year. Going to be a fun year!
It depends on your goals. Do you want to pad Sheppard's stats, or do you want the team to win? What he provides on offense is tons of spacing and impact defensive play and doing it as a guy who doesn't demand the ball. In short, he's the kind of player that makes his teammates better and makes the game easier for them. That's what a point guard used to be before everyone wanted to be a ball dominant combo guard chucker. So it's not about individual stats, it's about what they can do for the team.
If we start Reed nobody is gonna run the offense for the 2nd unit. I guess JD can be the 6th man, but with only 2 preseason games might be too big a resp for a Gleague player.
Lots on the team can play off ball Akogie, Tari, DFS all these 3 are much better impact defenders than Reed. DFS is a 38% 3 pt shooter he is superior on both spot up shooting and defense than Reed. If you want just impact defense and spacing without demanding the ball why is Reed better than those guys? What Reed brings as his unique skillset is passing and playmaking and thats better used to run the 2nd unit cuz who will playmake for the subs? If you really value team success then Reed should be the 6th man.
Jabari played the 4 88% of the time and the 3 5% of the time. You can lean either way, i'd lean towards the 88%. Durant is not a 3 at this point, he can't chase anyone around screens. He has not played the 3 for more than 8% of his minutes since 2018-2019, he's a pure 4 who can occasionally play 5 as well. Sengun has played 2% of his minutes at the 4 for his career, though last season he did play 7%. Amen did play 18% at guard and only 82% front court last year, so that's more than the others.
