Reed Sheppard's Defense

I think he's a bad defender but it's ok, he's improving and some of it is just strength. I don't know why people are so hung up on something that is obviously going to improve slowly. He needs 1 or 2 more summers of putting on muscle.

We're only better defensively with him on the floor because he plays with the rim protectors more often. It's pretty obvious that he's our weakest link defensively when he's on the floor, why wouldn't teams try to attack him? I don't know why it's so contentious. He's just physically very easy to move around and doesn't absorb contact well.

Don't forget, we're a very good defensive team. He's not even in the top 10 defenders on this roster. It's going to look worse because we have so many great wing defenders.

Just keep working on it. The media loves him.

 

Reed is getting beat more than other players. He's also generally in with a defensive player to help out his defense, and not in the starting lineup. He also looks good in stats based on stocks.

That said, he's in with a lot of the weaker offensive players.

 

Clutch is flat out wrong, reeds defense wasn’t worse than anyone else last night (and maybe I misinterpreted it). It’s ok it happens to the best of us rockets fans. He will see the light soon.

 

A lot of Reeds poor D is in transition, he needs to learn how to take a charge, he’ll the whole team does.

DD

 

He’s WAY too much of an “ethical player”. Once he learns to flop he will be very good on defense.

 

Reed pretty much checks all the boxes for a bad POA defender. Lateral quickness isn't great, footwork is inconsistent and often bad, and he doesn't have enough strength to stop bigger players from going right through him. Tall players can shoot right over him since he's 6'2" with a neutral wingspan. His one saving grace is his active hands allowing him to make a lot of recovery plays and get back some of those points by forcing turnovers. Even still, I think the team defense being better with him on the court is very likely a fluke based on the eye test.

The two questions are, one, how much can the team hide him on defense come playoff time when opponents are scheming heavily to exploit specific weaknesses, and two, how elite can he be as a shooter, because if he's good enough on offense he's worth having on the court anyway.

 

Reed Sheppard's defense isn't the reason the Rockets are not playing particularly well.

Also - yes, Joel Embiid is going to tear up Reed Sheppard, and just about any other guard inside.

 

We all love Clutch (praise be unto him), but his doublespeak is very frustrating. In one moment he defends Ime for limiting the minutes where Reed might have to match up with Maxey, but in the next moment he acknowledges that no one could slow Maxey down. Meanwhile Reed was one of the few players last night with a positive plus-minus.

 

Reed has very significant strengths and weaknesses on defense. Yes he gets blown by way more than most players. He can't stay in front of people and he lacks the lengths to affect outside shots. On the flip side he does have very good hands and able to get more steals than most players. But when he fails he cannot recover unlike Amen or other elite perimeter defenders. He also has very quick jump that allows him to block/strip players that you normally wouldn't expect from a small guard.

At this current point in time, he's overall a net negative on defense against some teams and net neutral against some other teams. Will he get better over time? Maybe. I can't see into the future so I can't tell you what his defense will be in 2 years, but at this point in time yeah, he's not a good defender. Even if you don't believe fake national media or whatever, just look at how Ime mess around with his minutes relative to other players. Ime is a guy who expect defense first from all his players. There's a reason he mess around with Reed more than any of our other young players.

 

I dunno maybe look at Curry and see what they do, because he sucks at defense too, or maybe Nash, sucks at D also....tons of great players were horrible on D....Hell....Harden is awful on D.

Ime is just a ****ing moron.

DD

 

You just reiterated the question this thread and other posters have methodically dissected.

You can't use "because Ime benches him its true", the overwhelming burden of evidence proves Ime mismanages rotations and has close to 0 emphasis on the offensive side of the ball. You have had a stretch nof the worst shooting in NBA history, you put a lineup in that gets you your first lead and balloons it to 8, you don't change that up with multiple non-shooters if you are cognizant of this.

The goal of basketball is to win games, you score more points than your opponent.

Here is what the numbers consistently and with a P value of < 0.0001 indicate (meaning such occurence due to chance is less likely than winning the powerball lottery).

When Reed is on the court the rockets consistently (almost all the time) score more points than they give up, by a large margin compared to the next best player(s)

This last statement is a fact

 

I find a lot of it silly.

Everyone saw his tape at Kentucky. Everyone knew he was 6'2" with a developing body (he will get stronger), and everyone knew that he did not have a great first step. They also knew he had elite hands, good instincts and was good at blocking shots once the offensive player is in the air.

Some people are acting like he is a wounded calf trying to drag it's lame foot away from a pride of lions in the Serengeti.

He isn't Enes Kanter or even Jalen Brunson or Russell Westbrook on defense..... he is JAG at this point, and will end up being close to a neutral defender.

Udoka needs to show he isn't just a JVG clone and can actually coach a team that doesn't dedicate 99% of their effort to proving to Udoka that they will defensively run into a brick wall.

I am not even sure it is all that bad.... they are 1-5 in OT games, that is a bit flukish.

 

It is disingenuous to suggest Reed’s defense is not a contributor to the Rockets overall poor play at times. It is a reasonable take that when his shot is falling his offensive gravity makes up for his defensive deficiencies. Yes, Maxey is going to beat most everybody off the dribble. Team defense is the only way to slow a player like that down. Reed’s is not a good team defensive player. I’m not sure we can overcome Ime’s coaching, but we need another combo or SG desperately. When the matchup dictates that Reed needs to sit, we need another 3 and D guard to step in.

I think we should start Reed the rest of the year, whether we obtain another guard or not. Amen and Reed can eventually be one of the most productive backcourts in the NBA. We might as well get them the experience now, rather than wait for a miracle manifestation of an effective Ime offense. Reed and Amen have the best synergy on the team. Amen is also the only player on the team that can cover for Reed’s defensive liabilities. We need them on the court at the same time. It took me a long time to concede this point, but Reed’s and Amen’s continued improvement as a backcourt has convinced me.

 

I'm sorry, when you watch the game of runs that happens, what is it with everyone else's defense?

Why is it that only Reed's defense is the issue? It seems even when he isn't the game. The defense collapsed when he went out actually (not saying he was the sole reason)

What people are saying it that he isn't Amen on defense its just that it is completely disingenuous to completely focus on him. Every single game I watch where we collapse like this I see terrible defense..much worse than Reed ever played. But the only person that is ever highlighted is Reed, often the only person who is consistently leading the team in +/- (when strung together multiple games in a row indicating as clearly as anything that te team outscores the opponent when he is on the floor).

This is the fundamental issue with relying solely on the eye test, it makes people like Udoka make stupid decision which unsurprisingly lead to the team losing.

 

This is exactly what I am saying

KD/Senguin/Jabari blow bys that happened over and over again were just normal?

Are we just going to highlight Reed because he "looks" like he shouldn't be good at ball and shouldn't be good at defense?

Its maddening that people allow themselves to be gaslighted by this stupid ****ing narrative. We had Morey here for almost 2 decades and nobody could stop posting advanced stats then.

Now we don't even acknowledge basic stats since Udoka doesn't give a f.

 

Durant turns it over 4/5 times a game, carry on!
Sengun accounts for half of their missed free throws a night, nothing
Jabari throws up brick after brick, nada.

…but his defense

Why are we trying to turn him into Josh Okogie?

 

Welp, kiss your media access goodbye X.