Well, I hope you're right, I'd love for him to become one of the best passers in the NBA. I don't currently see the game processing ability, which is I guess what I meant when I was talking about his passing ability. I'm not saying he's bad at those core point guard skills, he's not, he's pretty good (Fred is too IMO). Just not seeing "elite", I suppose.
I think he is at least an above average passer, has the potential to be great. But being a good passer and being a good playmaker are not the same thing. Amen can pass too. But he's not a good playmaker yet. Reed is actually better in that regard. Being a passer needs court vision and ball control precision. Being a playmaker needs to (on top of being a good passer) understand how a play develops, making the defense react to your advantage so that you can set up your teammates for good shots. Harden is a great playmaker. CP3 is a great playmaker. Jokic is a great playmaker. Sengun is quite good, can improve to elite level. Reed and Amen are still learning.
I mean, if a comp doesn't work because of such differences then Reed is also nowhere near the defense or leadership of a young FVV. Defense is half of the report card hehe. Also Reed is probably a better midrange scorer now than FVV has ever been. Different players. I'd call that a role model more than a comp.
I just dont understand how somebody can be a shooting specialist - yet shoot free throws below 70%... only clint and JD are lower... i aint trying to rag on the kid... but that seems like it should be a red flag... right? I mean Amen cant shoot, but hes over 80% at the charity stripe...
He is basically a rookie. I’m sure he has the ability to learn the processing side of the game. It takes time. My bigger concern for him is his ability from an athletic perspective to create space to operate and distribute the ball. NBA teams adjust. His breakout in the shooting category has woke them up. They are picking him up early in the shot clock and can guard him one on one, if he can’t overcome the man handling he won’t be much of distributor. Teams will not double team him, if he can’t win the one on one battles. I don’t think that shortcoming can be overcome this season. Ime should be looking to him to free him up on the perimeter without the ball.
Great post - 100% agree with you there. I'll just add that great playmakers tend to have excellent ballhandling skills as well - part of that reading of the defense assumes your eyes are watching the orchestration and reacting in real time the moment a player even leans the wrong way. Obviously you gotta have a certain ability to play keep away with the ball to do that. Reed being a smaller guy with shorter arms means he has to do it with his dribble because he can't use long arms or a big body to shield defenders.
This is one of those games where the boxscore won't tell you the story, unless you look at hte +/- One of his best games all season Was measured and approached the game with a quiet confidence. Dictating the pace and spacing even when not shooting. Got 2-3 shots at the end of the shotclock to bail people out so dropped his shooting % but on open catch and shoots etc he was great. If he can do it against good defenses we are a a different team but. I think that will take time. The truth is clear, we need to invest minutes and effort into developing sheppard like we are currently doing now
I know he brings more than Box Score watching but in 2-3 months he had only 2 memorable games, that was against Golden State and in the 1st Loss vs Denver. (and a 21 vs a bad team Wizards) Is that defining enough for a franchise shooter? He had solid role player games though.....to be fair.
He's still a rookie...kinda I know technically he isn't but last year he BARELY saw the court. He's improved in every metric you can judge him by and lately he's been showing he can be the PG of this team, the team just has to finally trust him and let him. I think his shot will return, even now it's not bad, its just the dude was shooting like 50% from three for a moment there and if that kept up he'd be the greatest shooter of all time. He was bound to cool off, he's 21, consistency is the hardest thing for young players. If he were consistently doing what he did at the start of the year he'd be one of the best players in the NBA. I think he's coming along well, just needs to get his stroke back to where it was deadeye and I think it will come back. A cold shooting streak for Reed is still like 43% shooting. He'll be fine. Just needs a lot more trust from the coaching staff and room to grow and learn.
I mean Cooper Flagg is 18 and he is 21....and Flagg who is not known as a super offensive weapon is dropping numbers. Boy, are the Rockets mediocre at developing, Amen and Sengoon would have developed anywhere with their combo of skills and talent.
Flagg was projected to be a generational player picked first in a strong draft. Reed was the third pick in a notoriously weak draft. You think Reed has to measure up to Flagg to be acceptable for his current performance? It's kind of like expecting Castle to measure up to Wemby.
Experts always knew he was Kawhi, it took Kawhi 3 years to figure out Volume Offense. This kid is already at it. For a kid whose forte is Offense, Reed is decent but nothing really eye popping.
That’s not really true. He basically won us the Milwaukee game. Played great the first cup game against spurs. He’s had plenty of good outings,
Does anyone else feel like Sengun is intentionally not passing to Reed? When Reed's man leaves him to collapse in on Sengun. It's all eye test to me, but it seems Sengun would rather barrell into 3 or 4 defenders than kick it back out. He's good at it also, but sometimes I wonder if his ego is getting in the way of making the smarter play.
I agree and I think a lot of players are not passing to Reed for some reason. It bugs the hell out of me when he's open at the 3 and they don't care. I think Reed can hit open three's consistently and we should be feeding him 4 of those a game. I don't have the stats to back any of this up but maybe someone can find them. Would more catch and shoot threes help?
I don't think Reed and Sengun have good chemistry yet. Conversely, I think any time Adams gets the ball, he plays hot potato and tries to get it to Reed as quickly as he can. Reed just is not treated as a 1st, 2nd , or 3rd option when he's in the game with a lot of the starters, and he's often the option when Durant and Sengun are off the floor. I think it is more of a coaching choice or Reed deferring. I will say I expected Reed and the starters to mesh better than they have.\ That said, Reed has to make his shots. He's in a cold spell. Granted, that doesn't explain why the team has sucked with him off the court.
Cooper Flagg is also the center point of that offense especially when Anthony Davis is down. The question is do we keep Reed as #1 option on the 2nd unit playing to his strengths or be patient with him to let him build the secondary skills at the 4th option with the starters/finishers.
They need to let Reed be the primary ball handler in the starting lineup. And Reed should play like a true PG initiating the offense with the starter and not just hand the ball over to Durant or Sengun. Eye test tells me that Reed plays better as the creator. And I agree that there is no excuse for him to miss that last play open shot--twice.
