Nix was trying to bully him up top and it worked the first quarter. The second half he blew by his defenders for layups and mid range shots. On a cohesive team, one solid screen on Nix and he wouldn't be able to defend Sheppard at all. That kind of gimmick physical defense will not work on a good team. A Steven Adams pick would send Nix back to the G league.
And the past three games he hit one 3 pointer. He literally is only scoring by getting past his defenders and getting his shot off.
I admit I only watched the first half cause I'm old and just went to sleep, but even looking at the box score where his shooting improved, he still ended the night with 9 turnovers (I think he had 5 when I turned off). So he still had turnover issues in the second half. I'm not sure you want to say he just blew by people whenever he wanted to with that many turnovers on his ledger.
Ball handling is his biggest weakness, it didn’t prevent him from creating shots but he did get ripped a couple of times resulting in turnovers. Like I said somewhere else I think it would be best if we played him next to another ballhandler to bring it up under pressure, and then Reed can still make the point guard decisions in half court. I will say that at least two of those turnovers were perfect passes to Dante for wide open dunks which he dropped out of bounds that got counted as turnovers for Reed.
It's hard to determine his shot creation ability at the NBA level because all his shots look like really hard shots when he's creating for himself. In earlier games when it looks like Cam got bulk of defensive attention he often got enough space, but this past game everything just looked hard for him. Admittedly it could just be the coach is asking him to work on things he's just not that comfortable with, but at the very least he is showing deficiencies. And yes, I don't expect him to play PG this upcoming season assuming Amen has made some development over the offseason. At this point he should clearly be used as a SG and secondary ballhandler.
Id appreciate sincere mental health advice rather than "Im annoyed at you so I'll pretend I'm giving you mental health and pretend I'm a good person for it" shtick.
As is, Sheppard probably cannot shake NBA defenders in isolation. But that's no big deal. I mean, look at how Golden State use multiple (moving) screens to free up Curry. Curry has better handles than Sheppard to beat his defender. But screens give him more high percentage shots. I think Reed can be a perfect PnR guy. It doesn't need fancy dribbling. It just requires smart timing and a punishing pull up shot at any distance. Both Sengun and Adams are smart screen and roll guys to run that with him.
Creating shots for himself against two on the ball PnR defense or in non-switch iso situations will never be a responsibility for Reed in the NBA, even if he turns out really really good. That’s just not the model. FVV, Nash, CP3 never do it. It’s not even a big part of Steph or Trae Young’s games, and they score 30 ppg. These players score against normal PnR coverages, switches, deep pull up 3s, foul-baiting, semi-transition, spot ups, relocation, etc. But this is summer league, and the team is purposefully stress testing Reed’s game. And anyway he’s putting up 20 ppg on good efficiency virtually all unassisted.
Because you take an otherwise non jalen green thread and insert him into the convo. Same way Bobby did when we drafted him. Just give it a rest.
I have watched Pick and Roll offense to death ever since John Stockton days, and Sheppard is definitely not attempting the shots that these guards generally take in such situations. As I said I don't know if this is a coaching thing or he's not comfortable in those settings, but you're right those at least look like easier shots from an observer's perspective. Except he's not taking them. Or not taking them as fluidly as star PGs of the past. I am personally someone who don't assume a person can do something just because it seems like he should, so until I'm seeing Sheppard makings shots in similar circumstances as those you've outlined above, I am only going to question if he can do it.
