yeah it seems i missed a lot. 2 years in a row? so last may he called amen & cam as most underrated and/or best players available?
He does have some misses as well, but you have to appreciate a BBS member taking some time to write up a thoughtful, detailed post. https://bbs.clutchfans.net/threads/...-best-value-pick-w-all-star-potential.312674/ https://bbs.clutchfans.net/threads/case-for-drafting-joe-wieskamp-at-23.312031/
Elite shooting ensures Reed has a place in the league for the next decade. His absolute floor (bust insurance) is Grayson Allen and his mid- level outcome (not to mention ceiling outcome) is MUCH higher. Plug and play contributor in an area of desperate need for the Rockets.
You know i was a bit harsh towards him. He's very small to play #2 i think but Cam Thomas and Anfernee are doing well. They are slightly taller than him. Also he could still grow an inch. I hope he has range because he will have problems getting cleaner looks. He could never be a 39-40% shooter in the NBA. I'd be fine with 37% though. Also if Fred stays size might become an issue. I like his shooting and bbiq which imo the 2 most important elements in bb today so that's good i just hope he was 2 inches taller but then he would be a clear #1 pick. I think we should prioritize Risacher and if he gets drafted go after Reed. One of Risacher or Reed has to slide down to 3.
He called Sengun and Tari. They are my two favourite players. I have a feeling Reed will be in my top 3 favourite players.
If it were just as easy as transferring a shooting percentage, then yeah but he'd probably be the #1 pick. My fear is that he's not more impactful than an Aaron Holiday or Garrison Mathews: good shooters who didn't impact the other parts of the game. Holiday's tunnel vision was a cardinal sin imo, so what if in between a bunch of bad minutes he made a 3 or two? I don't need that on my squad. Garry B also shot the lights out for a month and absolutely cratered the rest of the campaign. He was even willing to step in and take charges, wasn't exactly a shorty spice but the crash test dummy act took the piss out of him. There's any number of these guys available, they can shoot and are still fringe NBA players. This isn't what you spend a #3 pick on, it just isn't. Feels like this is the probable outcome for Sheppard. Bench shooter who struggles in the overall game. To his credit, I think he's far more advanced at playmaking than Holiday. His highlights are mostly coming around the pick and busting the 3, can he learn how to bend a defense with his gravity? I mean how do you envision this guy playing? Standing in the corner and hoping he shoots 50% from 3? While we're at it, let's all take a deep breath and back off any kind of thought that one player, a low volume shooter at that, is going to significantly raise the team's percentage. Geez. That's literally a teamwide development needed, saddling a guy we haven't even selected yet with that sort of thing is mind boggling to me. Oy. All that to say... if he were the pick I'm probably not upset. I'm not jazzed about it either. A shooter of that caliber could absolutely become a weapon but this is a real two-edged sword kind of pick. The three point shot is the biggest hammer in the game but you also have to be able to do something else to contribute. Even the GOAT range shooter has elite handle and playmaking. So do you take the shooter who has to develop something else or another athlete who has to develop a shot? If it's up to me, which it isn't, probably not the guy I'd pick. A 6'6" guy can develop a shot but a 6'1" shooter can't develop 5".
That's how they drafted a bust #2 overall in 2021, they drafted an athlete rather than a basketball player and just assumed they could teach him how to play and how to shoot.... and 3 years later he's still one of the worst shooters in the entire league. Let's give picking a guy that can actually play basketball a chance for a change.
Rather than typing up this novel, you might have wanted to look up Garry Bird's college stats and compared them to Reed Sheppard's.
Honestly, at this point in the process I would think these kinds of statements and comparisons wouldnt be made. Lets back up a second. We're talking about Reed at #3 overall. Granted folks call this a "weak draft" but even in a stronger draft hes still at the least a fringe lottery pick. Holiday was a 3 year college player and was a 22 year old Rookie. Garrison is the worst onball defender ive seen and he was undrafted at 23. These players are not even in the same realm as prospects. Holiday and Mathews have performed about as expected as pros. Reed isnt just a shooter. Talking about Holidays tunnel vision when discussing Reed as a prospect makes little sense. As a true freshman he led Kentucky in assists. He's got good vision and is a willing passer. Garrison cant handle the ball or really do anything on offense except catch and shoot. Im not sure you really have a grasp on Reed as a prospect if youre vision of him is Garrison and Aaron Holiday. Especially Garrison...not even sure how anyone thinks Garrison is remotely in the same stratosphere.
He is easily more athletic and faster than all of those comps combined. I do not see a Case for Clingan, Case for Risacher, Case for Castle yet so I guess it is up to Rafael to have the ultimate Say in this.
I think he is more of someone who has never entered the league. There are not many athletic white guys I can remember......Danny Ainge maybe, Rick and Brent Barry, Chase Budinger.......
Tbh, this really needs to be made clear for any and all skill sets or player types we're likely to get from this draft. People are out here throwing out comparisons to players like Curry, Kyrie etc and getting offended by comparisons to players like JJ Redick. We'd actually be lucky to get a player as consistent as JJ in this draft, NOBODY projects to be a huge difference maker. I just don't understand why nobody's getting it, if any player in this draft was better than Jalen Green - undisputed number 1 pick. Same goes for Nash, Curry, Kyrie, "Chris Paul with a more lethal shot" (possibly the most ridiculous Reed overhype I've seen so far,) every single one of these ridiculous comps would make the player the guaranteed #1. Jalen in this draft? #1. Jabari? #1. Amen? #1. Sengun? maybe #1 despite where he actually got drafted (with him the main reason he wouldn't be is lack of exposure.) We are not getting a top pick at the same level as we did the 3 previous years, and people need to reconcile themselves with that. I think I've finally figured out why people hate Jalen so much though. Most people have absolutely no idea what a young developing star looks like, so they expect way too much. I feel really bad for whoever we do draft, because people are going to load expectations so far above their capabilities that they can never succeed in the fans' eyes. It's not at all surprising to me that the people making the most ridiculous comparisons (Nash, Curry, CP32.0, Kyrie etc) also happen to be the biggest haters on any of our young players any time they're not perfection incarnate. If they see CP3 and Kyrie when they look at Sheppard and Dillingham then no wonder they can't celebrate any positives in Jalen. Considering how much more talented a prospect he is and how much higher his ceiling is I can only assume that Jalen needs to be the perfect combination of Mike, Kobe, AI and Jesus to hit their projections.
I haven't been able to find it but I remember seeing that he was basically consistently elite in all types of shooting during the NCAA season.
It's that he's bad at basketball. It's always been that he's bad at basketball. If we draft another player who is bad at basketball and they show essentially no improvement in 3 years and are still one of the worst shooters in the entire league.... yeah they'll catch some heat about it to.
Haha, of course I like all the old school players .... this guy will be playing pretty modern NBA ball. There is no knock on him but for all the Stephen Curry comparisons, I guess, Steph was more of an off ball player and consistently listed as PG although we know he is a very different breed of PG. Fred VV is the Combo guard that comes closest to being a Pure PG.
Numbers are numbers 6'1.75 and 6'5.5 are real and very important numbers. That's not an opinion, that's a fact. What's an opinion is you thinking being short and having trex arms won't matter in the NBA. Athleticism is just a means to an end, when you try to argue Reed Sheppard is just as athletic than Stephon Castle you are implying they will be able to do the same things on the court which is just fundamentally not true as Castle will be a better defender, rebounder an athlete out of the gate due to his superior length and height.
