Nobody is doomed to being a bust at 20 yrs old. However I am worried at the low ceiling considering how bad he is RN.
Looks great in SL + G-League + in practice. But scared at NBA level and all star games. His mom saying she reminds him not to be soft was a huge red flag. Mental issues are way harder to overcome than physical/skill issues. This the same issue that had Luther Head shooting 40% in regular season and 9% in the playoffs. I’m actually more concerned he’ll be a bust now. He needs a hot stretch to get his confidence going but he’s unlikely to get the opportunity this year under Ime, and we don’t want to send him to the G for some reason. Will he be broken beyond repair mentally? #BeWell
This is very fair, i was super high on him and wanted him in the draft but there's no way you can't be concerned his ceiling is much lower then anticipated. This is very similiar to scoot henderson last season, he was soooooooooo bad (worse than reed) that it's hard to imagine someone going from THAT to allstar. Scoot looks considerably better now though, as i'm sure Reed will next season.
Wait, hold on a minute. Did I just read that Reed’s mom has to remind him not to be soft? I haven’t heard this one before? This is true? Reed really needs his mom to give him daily affirmations? nah man, please tell me that isn’t true or is being misconstrued
The 10 fts all season is the worst stat for me. Thats crazy bro Holiday average 1 ft attempt a game and he plays less mins than Sheppard. He gets less fts than Ben Simmons lol. And tbh I dont get it he should want to get to the ft line as much as he can since he is a great ft shooter.
I think Stone expected him to not get very minutes at all this year. And I don't think him struggling as a rookie shooter that is getting very limited minutes would come as some huge surprise to Stone either. Bari shot 30% as a rookie so I'm sure Stone is very familiar with young shooters having slow starts to their careers.
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/423-...de/rockets-no-3-overall-draft-pick-191538259/ I heard Ime and Rafael reference that your mom said at dinner that you can't be soft, can't be soft. How would you describe your toughness that you had to develop, one going from high school to college, but now going from college to the pros. I mean you got to have that toughness. You got to have thick skin, and it's got to be “Alright, made a bad play there, got to turn the page onto the next one.” Reed: Yeah for sure. And a lot of that is from growing up with mom and dad. You know, in the house, you never won. Everything was a competition and growing up it was they never took it easy on you. You would have to, I would lose every game that we played. It didn't matter if it was basketball, it doesn't matter what it was. If it was a competition, they weren't taking it easy. So I had to just grow up learning how to compete and learning how to fight. And that's mom’s biggest thing is don't be soft. Don't let anyone outwork you. You go out every time you're on the court, and you play as hard as you can. No one's gonna play harder, winning or losing. You're gonna you're gonna fight, You're gonna compete, you're gonna play the best you can. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/te...rd-jeff-sheppard-stacey-sheppard-19551007.php But when the No. 3 overall pick cited the influence of his parents, Stacey and Jeff Sheppard, Udoka heard the instructions that were drilled into Sheppard long before he became a coveted draft prospect. Udoka knew some of the coaching he would value most had long since been taken care of. “We had a dinner last night where we got to meet the family,” Udoka said. “Stacey said it a few times: ‘You can’t be soft.’ That’s why I chuckled. I know he’s heard it his whole life. I heard it about five times last night. It’s something I know I don’t have to say to him. If he gets soft, I just have to call Mom.” “I learned so much from my parents, more Mom than Dad,” Sheppard said. “They were both really big on the whole basketball journey. The biggest thing they taught was just work hard, compete, don’t let anyone outwork you. It doesn’t matter if something hurts. You go out; you fight through it. You can’t be soft. That was one of Dad’s — Mom and Dad’s — biggest words. You can’t be soft. “With the IQ stuff, a lot of that is from Mom, so I thank her for that. I’ve very thankful for both of them through the whole journey. They had my back through it all.”
Jabari is 6'10 and can do a lot of other things besides shooting. Plus he is 6'10 that shooting will come back because he can shoot over the heads of people. Sheppard is undersized and the only reason he got picked top 3 is because of his elite shooting. He has to shoot better than Jabari does to prove his worth cuz thats his reason for getting drafted. Lets say Sheppard improves his shooting to 36% which is a major improvement. However thats still not good enough cuz then he just becomes a 2x more expensive Aaron Holiday.
Nope, that's 100% not the only reason he got picked. Sheppard's great shooting is without a doubt one of the main reasons he was picked at 3 but his decision making and defense played a huge role as well. Go back and read that article you posted and Stone mentions that he liked a lot of things about Reed. If they thought Reed was just an elite shooter he doesn't get taken at 3. Reed at 36% with his other intangibles is a better player than Holiday. If I was betting I'd guess he ends up higher than 36% because that's often at, or below, league average. But time will tell how well his college skills translates to the NBA.
Well so far his production aside from shooting is horrible he also isnt getting a lot of the "scrap" pts like rebs, steals, fts etc so I'd say those intangibles arent translating so far. Stone expected him to be like a guard version of Tari Eason instead he got Jett Howard. On defense he has lightning quick hands but he has lead feet he can't stay in front of his man and gets blown by a lot of times. I dont see him as significantly better than Holiday even if they shot the same from 3 pt for example Holiday always tries to attack the rim and get fouled Sheppard has 10 fts for the whole season. Right now Sheppard doesnt have that dawg in him that fringe players like Holiday and Tate have.
This whole thing always struck me as so odd because at no point in the whole thing did they ask Reed what he thinks. Reed's face when talking about this at press conference looked bored with the non-soft talk. This kid acts like he's in the military, he's afraid to share his opinion. Honestly, he's never seemed especially uniquely tough. Not that he's soft, not at all. He seems to have a great mentality and attitude and work ethic. But he's not Ime Udoka. He's not his mom. Because he actually has skills and unlike them he's on the shorter side in his league so he has to be more skilled than they might understand. Shooting requires a zen-like toughness you will notice the greatest shooters are not animated with their effort and dunks. It's the opposite of a Kenneth Faried or Ja Morant. Shooters are like a Durant or Korver they have the opposite personality of Udoka, very laser-like concentration, not a lot of yelling and screaming. It's good the people around him care about this but we just need him to play good defense and work on those 3's. We won't know whether he's tough from the regular season. Not from his mom. Not from his dad. Not from an Ime Udoka who has wild mood swings and changes his mind every other day about whether his team is soft or not. We'll know when when we see him in the 4th quarter of playoff-like games. So far, Ime: - "I know Jabari can shoot, but we need toughness" - "I know Jalen can score with eyes closed but what we need is xxx" - and probably "I know Reed can shoot so what I really need is..." Ime, develop the ****ing core skill before you jump to turning them into you. Jabari ain't there yet. No, Green can't just score on anyone and everyone we're not done developing that. Similarly if you're up Reed's ass about toughness right now instead of instilling confidence his 3PT shot: stop it. Missing open shots is a confidence issue (need a +) not a toughness issue (non-negative). Sometimes feel like Ime doesn't mind inconsistent scoring as long as he gets defense. Which is just what he was in his career. Coincidence or projection? These are the things I think Ime needs to - sorry Ime - toughen up about.
