I think a big part of Reed's struggles are that Ime's offense doesn't do shiit to help him, he's just waiting around on the perimeter for someone to throw him the ball. He is pretty much an afterthought. If you watched the recent RGV games, that wasn't the case, they ran a lot of off ball screens, pin downs and other "basic" movements that got him not only open but moving and he shot the lights out. They couldn't have had more than a walkthru to prepare either .... Ime could do a lot more to help him.
He’s not getting meaningful minutes again this season. But at least we get to watch Aaron Holiday develop.
Not a good look for Reed when starting pg is out and can't get a single minute when it's clear team is disorganized and careless. Vet pg might be needed asap as insurance. We're playing with fire just assuming fvv health.
I hate to say it, but Reed got drafted by the wrong organization. He would have been better off getting rotation minutes on a different team.
Again? Compared to last season at Kentucky? Coaches play the guys who help them win. Aaron's knocking down his threes pretty regularly. Reed is bricking them. What's going to have to happen for Reed to get more playing time is he's going to have to play better during the minutes he's given. Simple as that. If he was hitting his shots, Ime wouldn't hesitate to put him in.
Super clear to me Ime is thinking exactly as I'm thinking: he's either a dynamic PG in the NBA or he's a bust. No one cares if you can shoot like Kyle Korver but the rest doesn't work. At the 2, it's totally useless right now. With his height and strength, it's just too easy to score on him for NBA sized SG's and bigger. That's a massive disadvantage, any switch is a disaster for us. I know that when he's above 25 years old he's going to be an effective part time SG. That's soooooo far down the list of priorities right now. We have to guarantee his bottom line. Bottom line is he's a PG in the NBA. Maybe play some SG, but you MUST be GREAT at being a PG that much is non-negotiable and to be honest not that far for him. Let's make an assessment: Offense: - No one is worried about his 3PT shooting. Nerves, strength, experience, reps, whatever but that's largely expected to come to fruition by most. At the latest by the end of this season, I expect this to be fine. - In order to be a respectable scorer and not a total role player, you need a counter. Seems good in that CP3 range of short jumpers. Needs muscle to finish better. Definitely some work needed on aggressive mindset going in and a lot of muscle needed. I think he will be respectable at the start of year 3, but good enough in year 2 to at least be a playoff team rotation player. - Fundamental playmaking skills are significantly lacking, but that's ok. He seems like a natural, which is way easier than trying to turn a KPJ into a PG. Ball handling skills will be at NBA starting PG calibre in YEAR 3 unfortunately. That's why starting for now will be difficult unless others run the offense. Defense: - Good at steals but I wouldn't call him a good or safe defender. The good news is he's an above average athlete for his height and he's totally committed to playing defense with some good instincts for steals. I have no worries about this in Udoka's hands. I think Sheppard will be - technically - an above average defender at the 1 by next season. I say technically because the issue is... - Muscle on defense is Sheppard's BIGGEST problem. It would make him twice as playable if he had an NBA body. Whether on switches or just against stronger/taller guys (most of the NBA) he's struggling real bad right now. Honestly this is a solid 2 years of intensive muscle building just to get to the point where his body ALLOWS his technical skills to make him an above average defender in the NBA. By year 3 I'm not worried about it so much. For now a huge issue. We're not talking about bulky muscles, we're talking about strengthening the core/skeletal muscles and that takes a couple of years (similar to Sengun actually). The good news is, I think Sheppard will be more athletic in 2 years than he is right now. That will be helpful defensively too. Conclusion So, realistic outlook assuming some setbacks here and there? You're looking at a 2.5 year project. We're 0.5 years into it. Somewhere early in his 3rd season we're going to have the Reed you were expecting late in his first season. That's probably the honest truth and it's totally fine. He'll be better every few months. By next season he can be a legit rotation player for us, could compete for top 6 player or 6th man type of gig. By the season after that he's a starting NBA PG and can start to learn to play some SG too. That's absolutely fine for a #3 pick on a loaded team. By year 4 or 5 you will start to get this net rating monster worth $35m+ we want him to be. This is a realistic take and even on this I would say "give or take 1 year" because it's not exact math. So 3-4 from now till he's just GREAT. Is that really such a bad deal for where we are and how we're doing as a team? Won't that be perfect for us, he'll be like a great signing next season and like adding a starter the following season? Possible star after that? Leave the contracts to Rafael, that's a great product. I want to protect an asset that can do that. Just relax and reset your timelines. You can be realistic and discover there's a positive outcome you know. If he does it sooner, great.
Wrong. Our current coach is playing guys who he thinks help us win right now because we’re a contending team. Other coaches on developing teams pump minutes into their projects regardless of performance just like we did with KPJ, Green and Smith Jr. That’s because for young players to develop they need to play meaningful minutes so they can grow, make mistakes and learn. Sheppard (and Whitmore to an extent) is in a bad situation where he doesn’t get a chance to overcome his mistakes. Because he’ll get pulled when he makes one. Remember his 50 point G-League game? He started off 2-for-7 with a couple of turnovers. If that was in the NBA that would have been it for Reed. What’s going to happen is Reed the timid rookie is going to have to play mistake-free basketball in order to get more minutes from Ime while guys like Holiday can make the same mistakes as Reed and still get minutes because of their vet status. Will playing Holiday over Reed make a huge difference for our W/L? Maybe. Maybe not. But I’m more interested in seeing what the guy we used the 3rd pick on can do. Bad situation for Reed, he’d be jacking shots on 25+ MPG if we didn’t draft him. Bad situation for the Rockets also having to rely on a guy like Holiday because we can’t turn Reed into an effective player.
This. I’d rather we trade him while he still has value to push us into a legit championship threat NOW rather than have him chill on the bench until 2027.
You know a guy named Scoot Henderson? When you suck doesnt matter which team plays you or how much PT you get. Sheppard has played in 30 games I think even Scoot had one good game in that time.
L So what you’re saying is you want the Rockets to go back to sucking so Reed can play? Cam played really bad in the beginning of the season and lost his rotation minutes, even went down to the G League. When he got his shot again (tari went down) he lit up the scoreboard. No reason to give Reed special treatment when the current strategy worked with other guys like Cam. Resd plays in blowouts, once he shows he can score and defend consistently maybe he’ll crack the rotation.
Bruh can you read? I said we should play Reed over Holiday so we can find out what we have to work with. If you think that means I want us to suck then you’re a silly goose. I watched the lob threat Jalen Silas years where we gave special treatment to all our young players minus Sengun. I’m done with that. But tell me more about how Aaron Holiday who just got hunted on every play is gonna be the difference between us contending and sucking. Ninjas wildn’.
We need a playable point guard who is young and fits our timeline. Reed may be that some day but his height and rawness makes it seem like it'll be years down the line before he gets there. I wonder if Bulls would be willing to part with Coby White. Solid defender, good vision and scoring, knows his role. He's 24 on a really team friendly contract. Also, he's super athletic, just saw him poster Wemby the other day. Bulls should be bottoming out anyways but instead they are in the playins since the East is so easy. I feel like Reed has a much higher ceiling than Coby but Coby would fit our team really well. I would still hold off on making any trades involving our young core until the off-season because if luck is on our side, we might be drafting top 4 and there are plenty of excellent lengthy PGs in the upcoming draft.
You’re literally proving his point though. Scoot still gets plenty of guaranteed minutes despite being a net negative, like Risacher, Sarr, Castle, and pretty much every rookie in this draft lol. Sheppard might be a bust too but we won’t know for sure unless we play him, and honesty we should just trade him while he still has value if he’s just gonna rot on the bench. If averaging 30+ in the G-League doesn’t get him a single minute when FVV is out then he’s done.
My point is even if he gets all the minutes he would still suck ass because he sucks ass. Saying he doesnt get mins is just an empty excuse cuz even if he played 30 mins he would still be sucking out there. Why does averaging 30 mins in GLeague guarantee him anything? Dude got 6 mins garbage time and missed all his shots. Ime already tried him out in a no pressure environment against opponent scrubs and he couldnt do ****. What the Rockets should do is send him to GLeague for the entire season, and then after one offseason of preparation maybe he'll be good enough to play a role.
I get that you’re a hater and have been since before the draft. So why even suggest persisting with him if you’re so sure he is going to suck ass then? Rockets should trade him in a package to improve our odds.
Holiday is shooting 39% from the field, Sheppard is shooting 28% from 3 and 41% TS. As bad as Holiday is he still better than Brickpard. Theres no stats that say Brickpard is better and whenever he gets PT he doesnt give any reason why he deserves to play over Holiday.
