Agree - Shephard's value to the team at this stage in his career is as a floor spacer. We don't need him creating - we need him punishing teams with 3s when defenders crash on Sengun or dig on Jalen. I can't understate how important floor spacing shooters on this team (or the lack of) has impacted the offense to date. Jalen will see easier reads and less doubles and I hope to see a rise in efficiency from it. Sengun will see less doubles and more passing lanes for cutters. The sooner we can get the shooters on this roster to be relatively competent two way players(Reed and Cam most importantly but also goes for teaching Amen to have a passable shot), the sooner this roster starts being a REAL contender.
I think Reed has more than just floor spacing. He's not a guy to plant in the corner, a la Ariza, Battier, Tucker, etc... That mid range and floater game is killer. The range helps facilitate it of course. I think he'll have this day one. The playmaking at NBA speed will take longer.
I mean, not really. Sure Jalen got benched at the end of games several times so that the team would have some chance of winning, it happened to Sengun a few times too....but nothing significant. No matter how bad Jalen was last season, his starting role was never in question, his green light to chuck as many bad shots as he felt like remained....and like you point out, there was no accountability whatsoever when guys like Brooks were out there stinking it up. The fact that Brooks is out there saying he's going to be even worse next season and Jalen thinking nothing of going 3 for 17 just shows how they don't actually think there will be any consequences if they just do whatever they want. I like the coach Ime pretends to be, I just want to see some actual consequences for bad behavior on the court. The team has way too much talent to let low skill, high ego players drag them down.
I think there's a lot of wishful thinking going on that the PG of the future is only going to be an off ball player so that he doesn't eat into the possessions of mindless chuckers. There's not a lot that people can take away from Summer League, but one thing that was definitely on display was that Reed Sheppard is great at creating for his teammates and is a quality floor general even when his shot isn't falling. If the Rockets are smart.....and that's yet to be seen....they primarily run things through FVV, Sengun, and Sheppard. Cut down on the possessions by the inefficient chuckers, and have the offense run by players who are competent to do so.
I called all of this out at the time of the signing - the structure of the contract(front loaded with declining money in subsequent years), the 10% rise in the salary cap every year, and the fact Dillon isn't the best but can be a starting quality NBA guard/wing all added up to a overpay at the start of the contract to be an asset at the end of the contract. You are exactly right that he was always going to be trade filler on the back half of the contract right when we have to start paying our young lotto picks. Same with the way they structured FVV's deal with team options. Basically both guys got overpaid earlier on when the team needed to pay somebody anyway to met salary floor minimums and now they become flexibility for the right trade deal. You can even attach one of our younger guys not in our long term plants to one of them to make a trade even sweeter. If we decide for example maybe Tari Eason isn't a part of our long term plans because of redundancy to Amen - attaching him to Brooks or FVV allows you the possibility of trading Eason (and maybe a pick) for a more established player and the receiving team could get a decent starter, a good young player, and a future pick - that's a great start to what teams look for when trading valuable pieces. ....but NONE of that happens if we don't have matching salary, a somewhat useful player, and roster flexibility built into that contract.
Agree - long term. He will never be in the corner - he is going to be out near the logo at the top of the court and because of his gravity as a shooter teams will have to decide if they want to dig on Jalen Green because of that first step that allows him to blow by most players or risk leaving Reed open. If they dig and Jalen makes the easy read to Reed, then yes, Reed can either shoot or pump fake and drive in for that nice floater. He's not an afterthought in that scenario - he is a valuable piece of the offense relieving pressure in spots where otherwise teams were more willing to gamble off FVV and Brooks to make life difficult for Jalen and Sengun and it had the effect of gumming up the offense on those nights when Fred and Dillon couldn't find their shots. The playmaking pieces will come later for Reed - there is no rush to put him "on ball" now because he is already going to be a big boost to the offense just with the skill set he walks in the door with.
Definitely not really angry. Not even angry. But it is a damn shame that Thanksgiving is so disrespected. But damn, I have to give you credit. You read me very well. In fact, and this is no joke, I recently sent a text to a friend about how Costco is ALREADY clearancing out Halloween decorations because they are piling in the Christmas decorations. Crazy. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday to host and it barely exists anymore.
His most value initially. He can’t be one dimensional and he’s shown flashes there is more to offer than spacing. I think what makes him most valuable is that he can contribute more. When should he be depended upon to do more? Depends on his ability to develop at this level.
He may not be a guy to leave in the the corner, but he's pretty reliable from there. Maybe we find him there on the break.
Unlike Jalen’s year 1 - we don’t actually need to make Reed the focus of anything. I agree that ideally we untap more of his potential in coming years but he comes into a situation that the guys earlier in the rebuild didn’t have so let’s take advantage of giving him the benefit of learning opportunities without the burden of also being the reason why we lost. He’s going to have his hands full learning how to utilize his gravity as a shooter to generate good looks for himself and others with the speed and length of NBA defenses AND he needs to learn how to be an effective defender despite his size. I also suspect the speed and length of NBA point of attack defenses may cause him troubles as a ball handler earlier on. Maybe not hugely, but he got the ball stolen from him a few times by lower quality defenders in summer league and that’s particularly dangerous as a point guard because that often turns directly into 2-3pts for the other team seconds later.
