I'm really thinking Reed is going to be something special. This 3rd year we could see alot of great things from him.
He was absolutely fantastic from early November through late December. The starting lineup feel apart around mid-November, but reed dominating masked the problems. Mid to late December, Reed had 2-3 of bad second halfs, and got blamed for losses even though the Rockets generally got toasted in the non-Reed minutes in the 1st half and Reed wasn't given much leash in the 4th. January and February were not good for Reed. I think it was apparent that Reed and Sengun weren't working together well. I had thought Ime was just being stubborn about Reed in November and December. Seeing Reed and Sengun on the court a lot showed to me why Ime was not playing Reed much with the starters. Ime had seen that Reed and Sengun didn't fit, and he picked the guy to play who for the most part had been the far better player for most of their careers. I am really hoping the Nov-Dec Reed was not the same as March Jalen. Jalen has not had that long of a sustained hot streak
Yep, this lines up with the data as well. Sengun and Reed just didn't mesh well. For starters, their shared lineups did not have a good +/- together. Also, when Sengun played without Reed, the defense was bad. When Reed played without Sengun, the defense was quite good. SOURCE: https://databallr.com/wowy/HOU/2026/2026/regular/high/wowy/1642263/1630578 Reed's individual productivity also took a hit across the board when he shared the court with Sengun. SOURCE: https://databallr.com/StatLineShift (you'll have to select both players manually) His stats took a similar dip when playing with Amen, which I take as a sign that Reed is best utilized when he's getting a lot of on ball reps. Sure, he's a great shooter, but sticking him in the corner waiting to catch and shoot neutralizes a lot of what makes him special.
Reed + Durant + Sengun was a disastrous trio on defense. Eventually Amen stopped giving as much effort because he had to make up for all 3 guys being bad defenders. I remember one specific instance where he could have chased a guy down and just...didn't.
Durant is not trying to play any kind of defense, he just wants to score. And if he can’t get the ball due to double teaming, fronting or whatever, he’s not going to even try.
Durant, I don’t think his defense was great or even above average last year, but I would definitely call it average. And considering the offensive load he was carrying I am surprised it wasn’t a bit worse . His length was often helpful. maybe the data says otherwise I just don’t remember him getting destroyed consistently.
Reed definitely played well with Adams on the court setting screens for him. We'll see if that helps him next season.
All he needs is the pickup truck with the Confederate flag and he can go driving through Galveston now.
He doesn't get destroyed one on one but his effort as a help defender is pretty poor these days. You basically can't count him for "team" defense and that's problematic when Sengun's defensive impact is largely propped up by everyone else helping keep him out of the action as best we can.
