Athleticism takes a hit cuz of his height. If you remember Scoot Henderson is also extremely athletic but couldn't capitalize due to being a shorty. The shooting looks good but on small volume and personally I rather have someone who is tall on top of being a good shooter.
Give them both their half inches man. 6'9 (with shoes) still better than 6'3 (with shoes). The only reason you are fixated about that quarter inch is cuz you know height matters. What's hilarious to me is you all are looking for every quarter inch but also saying height doesn't matter. Personally I think every player below 6'4 is short so I don't care if he is 6'1, 6'2 or 6'3, RS is still short in my eyes. I rather have a tall player over a short player, all else equal. The best players in the league aside from Steph have always been tall. Guys like Irving, Cp3, FVV yeah they are good players, but nobody would take them over Jordan, Kobe, LeBron, Giannis, Hakeem etc So I rather get a tall and lengthy shooter, over a short shooter and bet that dude is gonna be the next Steph Curry.
That’s where your goal posts ended up now. You started with saying Sheppard was unathletic and a defensive liability, which were proven untrue. And then you couldn’t get over how his height was going to limit him for sure, which maybe could be true, but there’s plenty of guards who are success despite being smaller and less athletic than Sheppard. I just don’t see what Risacher and CW offer that Tari/Jabari/Cam/Amen can’t, to the degree that we should draft them when we already have a logjam of wings needing minutes. And neither players are tall or generational athletes for their position either. The biggest knock on Sheppard is whether he can become someone who you can give the ball to and ask to create. But even if he doesn’t and just ends up as a better shooting and more athletic Pat Bev honestly I’d take it considering our roster.
Facts are, outside of height, there is nothing that CW or Risarcher do better than Sheppard. Not even remotely close in shooting anywhere on the court.
As someone who loved both Luka and Sengun as prospects, I don't think the comparison works here with Sheppard. Sengun and Luka both showed full scale production at professional levels. As in they were both clearly the go-to guys on winning professional teams and they flourished as the man. Sure it was lower quality, but they competed against experienced veteran players. Sheppard was the 3rd leading scorer on the 20th ranked college team. Quality of production wise, it's basically Luka > Sengun >>> Sheppard. It's just as much a projection with him as any of the other guys mocked at the top of the draft. The other guys don't have his shooting, but you really need to project both Sheppard's scoring volume and his future playmaking potential in order to ignore his height. Also, if you buy into his 42 inch vertical then you also need to buy into his absolutely abysmal standing reach. Which again just shows you have to 100% buy into him being an NBA PG to show this much faith.
You realize we only knew about Sheppards vertical jump now right? So you already made up your mind about a player no matter what new information comes up? Secondly, I still don't know if Sheppard will be a good defender in the NBA. He's still 6'2 with 6'3 wingspan. Most NBA pgs aren't good defenders or they can just defend the PG position. Even players like Cp3 or FVV, ok they are good defenders but that limited to PG and SGS. They aren't defending Kevin Durant, for example. You are basically saying RS can be a Patrick Beverly for us. So why can't you play Risacher and CW in that role? You realize Paul George is a 6'9 SG? Nobody is saying your point guard has to be 6'3 and shorter. Amen can play point guard and drive and dish and then he passes to our 6'9 SF who happens to be Risacher or our 6'8 SG who happens to be CW.
If he can’t create, he ain’t no point guard and maybe even no shooting guard. That makes Reed a 6’2” small forward with a nice vertical.
I was actually thinking earlier he seems more like a shorter Klay. The curry talk makes sense being a great shooter but it stops there. Steph had a much better handle and vision as a passer. He does seem to play more in line of Klay, another all time shooter, who gets a lot of his shots off handoffs and motion. While being a savant at catch and shoot.
They are better on defense, rebounding and finishing on contact, that's for sure. Both CW and Risacher have the height and length to guard 3 positions while RS can only guard 1. Risacher doing it vs grown men in Euro League, his stats would be a lot better if he played in NCAA. CW was also extremely efficient scoring in NCAA he shot less from 3 and got less assist but played better defense than RS, got more FTA and Rebs. Sheppard has low sample size only scoring 12.5 ppg. It's not a sure thing he will be a god tier shooter in the NBA. If he is just an above average shooter, that's not good enough for top 3 pick in my eyes.
I’m not saying Sheppard is anywhere close to Luka or even Sengun’s level, just that he is being underrated for the same reasons. And yes, for Sheppard to work in the NBA he has to be a point guard. I’ve seen enough of the passing chops to believe that to be the case.
My favorite part of draft season is the one poster who clearly hates a player more than consensus and we get 1.5 months of them arguing with 4-6 other posters about how wrong they are and eventually they hold a grudge against said player for the next 3-5 years.
Which is why I said at worst he’s going to be a better shooting and more athletic Pat Bev, which if we had one, would mean we’d likely have another championship by now. The worst case scenario for the other prospects we were discussing aren’t pretty too. 6’7-6’10 athletic wings who stand in the corner or cuts on O and have to rely on athleticism on D - didn’t we just trade someone like that for a future 2nd?
So basically, Reed is JJ Reddick sized, but projects to be a better shooter, is a better defender and has a 42 inch vert? In 2024, where 3's are that important, does that not sound like a super role player at the very least? JJ's no slouch, as the latter half of his career showed.
Not sure what you see in either prospects to suggest they could be a more reliable secondary ball handler than Sheppard. And if Amen is initiating and drawing in defenders I’d rather he pass to the dude that shoots like freakin’ Klay instead of Ariza.
Klay is 6'6 bro. If RS was 6'6 I'd be the first person saying take him. RS is probably the better ball handler of the 3 but our focus was off the ball shooting right? As an off the ball shooter it's better to make Amen the pg and have CW or Risacher than have RS the PG and have Amen the wing.
