I would be very curious to see Reed/Tari/Alperen all on the court at the same time, because I think it would blow up all the stat nerd's computers. Looking at you Eli Witus. Also, big steal/deflection guys are nice when you have athletes like Amen/JG/Cam...
Long wingspan is good for playing passing lane for steal. Short wingspan can be good at steal too if you have good hand. Sheppard gamble a lot of steal.
How can you not be at least intrigued by a Kentucky Freshman going: 54-52-83 .699 TS% 42 inch vertical 3.4 Steals per40 1.0 Blocks per40 AND HE CAN PASS... I would be too damn scared to pass on him at 3, and I am surprised that some of you are so confident that he is a mediocre/poor prospect.
It's because we don't really see short people dominating the NBA. 70% TS but only 12.5 ppg, don't really know if that's legit or just a function of him being 4rth option on a loaded Kentucky team. After he got all this hype he got focused on by Maryland and couldn't really do anything. You'd think a guy with 70% TS would do more than 3 pts in the playoffs. What I'd hate the most is get a cliff Paul jr who will do good in the regular season but be trash in the playoffs every time.
First of all Chris Paul may be a HOF but he is one of the worst players you can get if you actually want to do something in the playoff. I'd rather be in lottery and actually have a chance at a real superstar than have another Cliff Paul on this team. In fact Reed Sheppard's 70TS in regular season and 20% FG vs Maryland is indeed reminiscent of Cp0. Playoff choker JR? I guess we'll see. Stockton had a 6'0 wingspan? I'm not sure how true that is or not but he also played 40 yrs ago. The NBA is much different now. More athletic and lengthy than Jordan's time.
Except Steph Curry, Iverson, Mark Price, Steve Nash, Calvin Murphy, John Stockton, Isiah Thomas...he's the same height as Nash and Curry and taller than all the others listed.
Trae Young, Colin Sexton, Jalen Brunson, Darius Garland, Chris Paul, Kyrie Irving, DeAaron Fox, Tyrese Maxey, Mike Conley, Fred Van Vleet, Tyus Jones, Donovan Mitchell, DeAaron Fox, TJ McConnell, Immanuel Quickley and Damian Lillard, are all the same height or shorter. Eric Bledsoe, Kemba Walker, Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley etc... Steph Curry is 1 inch taller. Lu Dort is 1 inch taller. CJ McCollum is 0.5 inches taller. Anfernee Simons is 0.5 inches taller. Pretty solid crop of players. His wingspan is identical to Tyler Herro, JJ Redick. 0.5 shorter than Jalen Brunson, Kyrie Irving. He is almost identical in size and length to Kyrie Irving, who always struck me as a super underrated defender. I don't know. The height and length don't bother me as much as it bothers you. Nor does 1 game of college basketball.
What I do not understand is people are acting like he is under 6'0. He is not a short point guard. Lets look at the pg in the finals: He is of a similar height as Holliday and White and taller than Irving. Maybe his wing span is smaller than those players. But it is not like we would be drafting Muggsy Bogues. He is also taller than our current PG. I mean it is not like his size is his strength, but it is also not a huge flaw. That being said If we draft him we do not expect him to become our franchise player. But so far I haven't seen any prospect that I expect to be our franchise player. we have multiple young players that could become our future star. With Sengun and Green (with the potential of Amen and Smith developing this) we have enough people that can lead an offense. Sheppard would be a very nice role player IMHO and possible the ideal player to have next to our group of young guys. If he can defend and spread the floor and give the occasional pass I am happy.
My questions are less about defense, and more about his comfort level on the ball. Being a huge "Amen is a PG" guy, I don't much care If he doesn't love dribbling around. We don't need that. We need off-ball movement and space. His (Coach K's) favorite player? Reed Sheppard. “My favorite guy, Reed Sheppard. Who is like a wind-up doll that never makes a mistake.” Calipari was quick to bring up that Sheppard broke a cardinal rule and fouled a three-point shot with a just few seconds left against Florida. Krzyzewski wittingly responded, “He had to show that he was human, because up until that point he was not human.” Defense is about mistakes and effort, not wingspan. Reed Shep does not make mistakes, Reed Shep plays hard. Straight from the horse's mouth. He is going to be a really good defender. Take it up with Coach K beehotches.
People have this obsession with taking measurables and trying to turn them into talent....instead of just taking the talent. Reed is in that Tari Eason/Alperen Sengun mold. Trust your eyes/gut and stop overthinking it. It's rich coming from fans of a franchise who's best player is the literal definition of talent over measurables.
No, I apologize if it that is what it appeared I wanted. I was just saying that many believe Dillingham is the better of the two and have him at 4 or 8 to the Spurs. Both players are top 9 picks, but this team needs to address the size issue. As I said, I’ll enjoy watching Reed (if he’s picked) make threes as that is a very legitimate skill he brings and is worthy of a top nine pick. People are forgetting we have FVV and Amen Thompson already invested at that position. Amen is the future point guard as that is his natural position. While it would be awesome to have a three point specialist….the third pick in the draft seems like too high up to take an Aaron Holiday upgrade. Even though I’d like to see us take a big, the real need we should be addressing is to be looking for a Dillon Brooks replacement at starting small forward at the third pick.
Why have we declared that Amen's "natural position" is PG? I'm not ready to say that. He excelled last year at wing/PF, and he only played PG with OTE because he was better at it than his brother. Sure, he could become our franchise PG, but we certainly shouldn't assume that will happen. I'm not ready to say we're set at any position, frankly, aside from, maybe, center (and even with that I could see Sengun becoming a PF).
But but but...he cannot get his shot off at that height and his wingspan is too short to get steals... DERP
