Report from the Spurs game: As poor a game as I’ve seen from Reed this season. Slack defense throughout, with only a couple of decent plays. Hosed by Castle, then trapped against the sideline by a single defender in the 4th, forcing a timeout. Also timid in the offense, deferring or retreating when we needed him to make something happen. I appreciate that he’s working on his inside moves. The little CP jumper he tried over Kornet in the 3rd was way short, but with more reps, Reed should get that move nailed down. I’m way less confident in the one-handed floater he tried over Wemby in the 2nd, which was also bad. Without his guide hand, Reed loses his form and his advantage. Offensively, the damning sequence was near the end of 1st quarter, when Capela came out to set a screen for him at the 3-point line. Harper was hounding Reed. Reed needed to lean into Harper and force him into the screen. Instead, Reed kept backing away as Capela tried to help him. Reed has to do his part. He’s playing scared, and it’s crippling him. I don’t know what’s going on with him mentally, but at this point it’s been so long since his last good defensive game, in terms of effort, that I would bench him. And by that I mean, play Holiday or JD or Okogie or a non-guard for much of the time Reed would otherwise get. I understand that he needs PT to develop. But he’s simply not putting in enough effort or initiative to justify the court time he’s getting.
When Reed is on he’s great. When he’s off boy is he off and just creates an entire collapse for your team defense. I get it that Ime has had a pretty rough season especially on the offensive end but a lot of yall owe him an apology for questioning how dare he not have trust in Reed. I’m still floored by the fact that he went 3rd in the draft.
This is pretty disingenuous Reed gets an F- - - today but people keep using this to vindicate terrible decision of benching him prior. You’re blatantly ignoring the fact he almost single handedly led comebacks and won us a ton of big games against contenders. He also led comebacks against teams like the sixers so yea benching him those games is ****ing stupid when him in the game was like +15 and him getting benched was an immediate change in the tide. for the record I think he played too much today and Udoka had a ton of patience. I would have yanked Reed sooner. I just think this continued denial of acting like every game has static variables and going “see!” When you wait enough games to get your desired result is a bit lazy. Udoka normally does it to Reed. Today he did it to Josh. One wrong mistake and didn’t see the floor again. So no we don’t freaking owe Udoka an apology. Play what works, tonight it should have been Josh and Clint
One big issue is seems like Udoka doesnt even know what went wrong. Still the same old schtick of not enough effort on defense.
Reeds class is just the super **** draft just look at Kon Kneuppel with his profile thats what Reed wa supposed to be in the NBA. Also Udoka isnt making it any easier none of our players are showing they have improved significantly it seems we have a **** dev staff on top of a **** system.
Reed is an inexperienced young player. We have to trust he will develop. He's going to be ass many more times the rest of the year. His gravity created a ton of baskets last night, especially for Amen.
We didn’t lose the game cuz of defense. We lost cuz we couldn’t score in the second half. Ime is too dumb to make adjustments. Rockets should have put Reed in for Amen at least to get spurs out of the zone. Also didn’t understand why capela doesn’t play in second half.
You can go back and read my history here, and I've been very clear that despite how down I am on Reed as a star in this league, I do think THIS ROCKETS TEAM needs to start him or play him big minutes. I'm just saying that I think you are very bias if you cannot understand objectively WHY Ime or any coach would have trust issues with Reed given how much of a disaster this guy is on the defensive end given how tiny he is, and how other teams scheme to go after him over and over again. Again though because people have reading comprehension, and cannot understand nuanced opinions.... I do think given the deficiencies of the roster that Stone has put together (and injuries) Ime has to play Reed because nobody else can provide what they need most. The risks are needed.
Ime is trying to turn a DEAD EYE catch and shoot shooter into an ISO shooter, that is not an easy thing to do.....Reed is not the kind of guy that wants to be the LEAD DOG - he is a TEAM first guy. And, he is much more suited to playing the team game than the hunt your own shot first guy. DD
I didn’t think Reed had that bad of a game other than shots not falling and getting himself cornered again. He had active hands and got some deflections. With the way the refs allowed the Spurs to maul our players, Reed’s gambling/frantic defense could have affected some of the buckets that Harper got. Should have left him in for that and his threat of a 3.
I’d also advocate that instead of trying to make Reed something he’s not, Ime should be focusing on finding ways to exploit the things he does well. Not entirely unlike drafting Lamar Jackson and trying to turn him into a pure pocket passer. It might work eventually, but your offense is going to suffer.
If scouts who chose Reed over Castle are still employed by this team then we really have a big problem moving forward.
Reed gets an F for January. 30-game or so stretch in which he looked great. 15-game or so stretch in which he's mostly been horrible. Defense has been bad, but he has to make shots. His shot quality has gone down some with better defensive pressure, but he's also just missing when he does get a shot. Playmaking generally looks fine other than he's the one shooting and missing.
I recently said the Rockets will not trade Lil White Boy. And I suppose I would still lean in that direction, because I don't want to pull the plug on the player he can become. And Stone would probably not yet want to admit he f***ed up. So maybe we will one day see Reed get some self confidence and become less mistake prone, and we'll be glad we didn't trade him. But for the right player in return, my resolve is no longer so.........entrenched? Part of me suspects it doesn't help Reed to constantly look over his shoulder every time he makes a mistake. You get to second-guessing yourself so much that it compounds the problems. That can be attributed to (a) the mediocre head coach and (b) teammates who are allowed dipsh*t mistakes. On this team, you can shoot 2-for-15 and not get pulled. Bad defense (unless your name is Jabari, see also, "shoot 2-for-15")? Pick up your dribble? See ya!
It’s a tragedy what “getting cooked” has become. Those of you who didn’t get to see MJ in his prime cannot comprehend what “getting cooked” is. I understand there’s levels to this. What I’m seeing is mental lapses. Drive #1, he decides to collapse to the screener. My impression is this is a design. Out of the play before Harper starts to drive. Blocks Harper. Is he really supposed to recover from the block AND stop the drive? Gets burned on the spin move. So does everyone else. Reed has shown the ability to poke the ball out off the spin move as well. Gets caught in the middle on transition. I mean, not sure what he was supposed to do on that one. It wasn’t “getting cooked” though. Is Amen “cooking” Spurs defenders when he drives, or is his drive game just better than the D?
He got less “cooked” than Alpi and Tari did FWIW. Harper had a great game and looks like a nice player. He can’t shoot and I would guard him just like everyone guards Amen.
