Reed Sheppard went 3-11 from the field and this guy said he was solid on offense and his offense wasn’t bad…wow even in a lowlights video, the Reed Sheppard gas lighting rages on
He played 52 games. You meant he only had 2-3 good games. I hope he does better next time and tonight was just opening day jitters or something.
He has to level up by December or he loses his role. Durant being signed is a game changer for Stone. He will not waste this year, hoping his draft pick works out. He won’t be allowed to. OKC is a great team and we stood toe to toe with them. That will make the Front Office even more determined to go for it this year. You can be sure all our other opponents will be watching this film and Sheppard will be targeted more than ever. Hope he responds. The two big lineup is not a recipe for a high seed in the Western Conference and absolutely destroys our spacing. Durant, Sengun, and Amen can’t be playing 40 mins a game and right now we are lost when 2 of the 3 are not on the floor and especially Amen. Reed has got to stop playing with his food and start moving North and South instead of dribbling around the perimeter. It is unfortunate for him that he has to learn so soon in his career, but this team is no longer a developing young team, it is a contender.
I just hope they give him at least till December with substantial PT and not give up on him too soon. If we can survive with him on the floor against OKC, we can still have decent W-L record even if Reed plays poor defense. The offensive rotation needs time to gel, especially for Durant, Amen, and Reed.
Reed will have a game where he goes 7-10 from 3pt and we will have to all sign the Declaration of Apology, just wait... But overall, looks like another top 3 pick bust from Stone
My sense is we could pick up a few of the recent first round draftees that were cut in preseason and we could survive w/ them on the floor vs OKC. My thought process here is Reed was so bad, that a comparable single game outcome from one of those cuts could hardly be much worse - right? Every time I go to a game in person and Reed gets PT he doesn't look like he belongs anywhere on the court as a lead ball-handler or on defense at any time except timing blocks and passing lanes. That is, he's truly just bad when it comes to both his primary job as a guard and everything on defense except gambling plays. My early posts in this thread were hopeful and full of encouragement for Reed. That ultimately evolved in to a tough dose of reality. The defense - to me - has been simply appalling when not masked by flashy stat box stuffing plays. And I can't decide if his deficiency as a lead ball-handler or as a defender is his biggest weakness right now. It's just all bad. Below is my note after seeing Pat Spencer take just dominate him on both sides. The point of showing this is to underscore that my view isn't an overreaction. Obviously, in general, a second year player will of course be prone to SSS for any analysis, but for the overwhelming majority of Reed's PT he struggles to look or play like he belongs out there so at some point SSS be damned and what you see is reality.
I hope so because man, he has not played well thus far. If he doesn't turn it around soon, he'll be Jimmer 2.0
I won't give up on Reed. This is just 1 game and the whole ****ing thread is going nuts that he's a bust. He'll get his **** together next game.
Coming into the draft he was billed as a combo not a true PG because of his limited handle. Being short doesn't automatically make you good at dribbling. He picks up his dribble so often because he knows it's not tight enough and he can get picked in the lane. It's gonna look a lot better without hounding POA defenders like Cason Wallace and Caruso. I expect he'll look much better against Detroit. But at the end of the day, improving his dribble will determine if he really can be a point guard or he's doomed to just be a little shooter like Seth Curry or Landry Shamet.
It can be a feel good story and the org could still trade for a more viable backup than Holiday or letting Okogie slip into the PG role. I like Davison but I think you need an NBA season ready guard and not someone whose life goal is to be the 12th man. You need Guard depth not multiple Gleague guards ....and Sheppard is only 1 body. This Capela signing is not doing it for me, why collect Centers now?
Who was the other one? To early to declare Green a busts. Also who would you have taken over him? Unfair imo. Stone has largely nailed the picks. Reed is way to early to call it on. I think that much is clear.
On plays when he initiated the offense, they were backing him up nearly to mid-court. He's got to figure out how to maintain his dribble without losing position.
I personally think he looked fine against the best team in the league with the best defense in the first game of the league. The coaching staff know he is a small guard and so they scheme around it. It too often didn't work against the top team but they will continue to tinker and work on it.
If he doesn't look like the best player in the league against a team with a top 3 offense and defense, in game 1, it means he's a bust.
Reed overall was not good last night, there's no denying that. Particularly on defense, he was getting cooked. But I feel like there's not enough consideration being given to the circumstances. Last night was, very likely, the single most hostile and high pressure environment Reed will face in all 82 games this season. This was like a promising young guitar player being asked to play Through the Fire and Flames at his first lesson. By comparison, most nights are going to feel more like strumming Wonderwall at a beach bonfire. If he consistently fails at that, maybe guitar ain't his thing and we can start to panic. At the end of the day, no matter how good or bad he looked, it's only one game. Just like it was one game last year when he looked awesome against this exact same opponent at full strength. As the saying goes, I imagine the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
I knew Reed would do bad against OKC - just a bad matchup for him all around. I'm not overreacting to the shooting or the fact he was targeted constantly when in the game. That said - I was very concerned at how slow he looked against significantly bigger players. I get that a quick ballhanlder will pose problems to Reed or shifty guys with a good dribble but guys like Lou Dort and Hartenstein shouldn't be taking Reed off the dribble. If he isn't at least quick enough to stay in front of other team's bigs, then it's kind of a huge deal because that means he isn't quick enough to guard point guards either. Maybe this is a scheme and they are trying to use Reed as a funnel but it looked pretty bad for Reed.
