Pistons and Wolves clearly respected his shooting and sold out to stop it. And yet he still got 20 pts. He made a lot of bone headed TOs in the 1st half but I really liked that he had enough of human SPAM can and took him to the rack before the end of the half with the and 1. Again, what can you do if your shot isn't falling? And he showed that. He didn't have Cam as a safety valve this time and still performed. He's a quick learner so none of what I saw concerned me. Curious to see more detailed breakdown of his decision making this game and where he can improve moving forward. His defense is what needs the most work. But that's why we have FVV.
It's not ideal that Nix was able to shut him down when focused. However, overall, I'm happy with what Reed has shown so far. His shot difficulty has been much higher in the SL than at Kentucky where he was the fourth option. The first half of this minny game had to be deeply frustrating, but he held it together and ended up with a decently efficient shooting night. I think his role on the real squad will be even more conducive to success. How many open shots has he had in the SL? Not many. Playing off of the primary guys will make things much easier for him. He's putting up 20ppg on good efficiency as the focus of the defense. It's been ugly at times, especially the turnovers yesterday. There's still a lot to be optimistic about.
I think Nix might have been extra motivated to go after Reed. That first quarter, good Lord. I kept thinking, "Kid, quit trying that fancy spin dribble thing." He got his pocket picked twice. Too many got-damned turnovers. But Reed recovered well enough. He'll have plenty of learning opportunities like that, to be sure, going forward.
Was a bad game for him. There were hardly any players outside of Nix and Sheppard on the court who could put up serious points but Nix was the highest +\- and Sheppard was lowest in the whole game IIRC. It's because of 9 turnovers, defense and being very young. Won't matter, he'll learn from it and bounce back. Teams are guarding him aggressively which is a great learning experience. I never thought he could start at PG immediately so I wasn't disappointed.
Reed is going to be very very good and remember PGs are only as good as the players around them.....last night was some of the worst basketball I have ever seen, bunch of players that aren't NBA caliber trying to do it all on their own. Terrible ball. DD
Reed Sheppard is joining a team with Jalen Green. I thought he was the worst guy in the NBA. Reed is going to the NBA with roster talent worse than summer league if Jalen is on the roster.
You say he will not provide “space,” but anyone who watched the games know teams started to focus heavily on Sheppard. That, alone, created incredible space — not his fault his teammates couldn’t finish.
Look….he’ll be as good as the work he puts into his game. He’s not a finished product. Has to learn NBA three pointer. Has to be a better free throw shooter. But he has the absolute perfect mentor to teach him to be great and it ain’t Jeff Sheppard….it’s FVV.
Those turnovers last night were really bad and his struggles to get past Nix of all people was a concern. But he still shot well on the night and finished surprisingly well at the rim. Midrange looks good throughout summer league, moreso than his long range bombs.
Agree with all points. Also, I think having capable players around him will help him tremendously. He has a lot to work on in his own right, however his teammates did almost nothing to help.
There will be scouting, but font fool yourself and teams are not loading up a ton of personnel to hamper his shooting. One guy was athletic enough to get around the screen fast enough for the Pistons and Dillingham and Nix guarded him well enough individually. Note Sheppard likes to bring the ball near right ear...so scouting reports are going to show defender needs to stay near his right side to make him uncomfortable. My guess is teams have already noted that. But keep fantasizing.
Hey, if you looked at his first game, his 3p% is 67. See? This is the fallacy of small sample size. You conclude that he's not a floor spacer by looking at 18 shot (EIGHTEEN!) taken in the summer league?
I did. There were some scouts that did as well. Combo guard and point guard at this point are pretty interchangeable. Either you can make the reads and pass or you cannot.
It's not just the turnovers and unable to get past essentially G-League level defenders, but he also couldn't generate enough separation to not get his shot blocked multiple times. Last night, Sheppard's weaknesses were most certainly fully on display. You hope he can improve over time, but people who are wondering when he takes over for FVV really should watch this game and not get too ecstatic.
He can't get past defenders and can't get his shot off...how exactly has he been scoring any points? It certainly hasn't been teammates setting him up for anything.
Last night showed again why Reed is going to be an absolute star in the NBA, by demonstrating what he can do besides his shooting. Reed is a generational shooting prospect, his 3% is the last thing I would worry about. The questions were can he finish inside the arc when nba players are bigger and more athletic, and also can he play point guard. Reed finished 9/12 inside the arc when his 3 was not falling, he has looked comfortable finishing at the rim and has created mid range jumpers at will. This will translate well for scaling up his offensive usage in the nba. As for point guard, he has actually shown incredible court vision and passing ability, more so than I would say anyone on our current team. The problem has been his ball handling, which as I mentioned before is his biggest weakness right now. At least early on in his career, he will need another ball handler to help bring the ball up under pressure, and then get the ball in Reed’s hands for him to make point guard decisions - Amen and Fred can both play that role. Reed has been answering the questions about him coming out of college with flying colors, while struggling with his strength - shooting. The fact that he still looks so good, WITHOUT the one part of his game that many observers claimed was all he could do demonstrates truly what kind of player he will be. As I said from the start, shooting may actually be the least interesting part of his game, even though that is his biggest strength, it’s everything else he can do on top of that which makes him stand out.
I wasn't ecstatic over that first quarter in particular, watching him getting schooled a couple times by "Daishen Nix is Trash", but I keep in mind he's 20 years old. https://bbs.clutchfans.net/threads/the-official-nix-is-trash-thread.317957/ I was encouraged by the long outlet passes, to be sure.
