We have a problem with the starters not finding Reed but there is a reality that should not be subtle to him this is the ****ing NBA he knows what it took to get into the starting lineup and how aggressive he had to play. Nobody is looking for lawn gnome that drops it off and plays scared. If he wants to succeed he has to rise up and say screw it. Was not happy with how he played tonight
Reed gambles way too much for steals. He'll adjust to that, but it's something that I saw get exploited a few times last night by Sactown.
I'm sure many people believed Reed was just gonna be an efficient awesome scorer the rest of the season with no backslides or hiccups. It's was an absurd thing to believe, but I'm sure many here believed it. The NBA season is a grind, particularly when you aren't used to heavy minutes and attention. On top of having to adjust and find your place on a team trying to win a title while the best players in the world are steadily making adjustments and plans to stop/attack you. He was abysmal in the 2nd Utah game, and he wasn't great last night (terrible defensively) despite the awesome +/-, and that's OK. With a 21 year old undersized player in his first full season there's still gonna be plenty of rough patches to go through. The good thing I have noticed is that even doing nothing, Reed has elite gravity on the perimeter right now. It's gonna be extremely hard for him to be a negative in any capacity on offense.
The Kings weren't giving him any space last night. Which is a good thing. If he's drawing that much attention, it opens things up for his teammates.
I didn't get to see the PHX game, but watched the DAL game on my laptop. That 3 turnover sequence last night was horrible and the worse of his short career. The first one looked like a layup drill and he threw it back out for a steal/fastbreak. I thought, "Why would he do that?" My only conclusion was solidified with the next two telegraphed passes, he's trying to hard to be a facilitator versus just playing his game. That was a teaching moment for Ime, he should have pulled him out coached him hard about his mistakes and then reinserted him. That's how a guy like Sheppard grows. But when you yank him and then punish his mistakes I'm afraid it reinforces the wrong message. As for defense, yes he gets beat some, but he's competing every instant. Others get beat just as much and no one seems to wail to the heavens. We have a rare weapon that can help us beat anyone. He's still growing and hopefully Ime knows how to develop him correctly. Count me skeptical at the moment.
He’s just going to be inconsistent. I don’t care what the numbers say about his defense, he’s mercilessly targeted and gambles way too much. in still very optimistic but also realistic about the current state of his play
this was my thought as well - I am sure the entire coaching staff is telling him to be aggressive offensively and both he and Amen were trying too hard because the team was short-handed. A couple of those passes worked in the first half and so he forced it in the second half because he was trying to make up for perceived flaws on the defensive end. its going to be up and down for him all season - I just hope that Ime doesn’t start reducing his minutes when he has a couple of games where he slumps.
Agree, he's going to have some ups and downs, but that's how young players grow. I expect him to watch that series of 3 turnovers over and over to ensure that doesn't happen again. The staff has seen how dynamic he can be and hopefully that embrace that spark and realize it will be chaotic at times. We've seen some of the same learning during Sengun's and Amen's development, and that's still occurring as well.
