But why are you still cherry picking data? You are showing worst months of Jalen and Jabari and you only showed Reed's best month? Of course you wont mention Reed's best month again because even his best month is worse than Jalen and Jabari's worst month right? Why dont you tell me what is Reed's worst month and then we compare that to Jalen and Jabari's worst month? You are trying to act like these 3 are all similar when Reed is just worse than the other 2. Why are you making categorical statements like "they are all rookies that struggled early in their career" when Reed is kuch worse than Jalen and Jabari? If those two struggled shooting in the 40s why is Reed lumped with them when he is shooting in the 30s? You think shooting 42% is the same as shooting 33% LOL wtf!
Reed has played 5 months of basketball with low minutes. I chose the first 4 months for Bari and Green because they played way more minutes. Thats about as close as you can get to comparing them at similar points in their careers unless you want to count minutes.
Minutes isnt the big deal you make it out to be. How come Johnny Davis never improved even with lots of minutes? If you are bad then you are bad even with increased minutes. What'll make you improve is looking at film and working on your game not just playing lots of minutes. People like me are expecting Reed to be much better next year due to his offseason work and not because of him having NBA minutes. Rather, his improved play should give him more minutes.
I'm not making minutes out to be anything big but it's the reality of the situation. Bari and Jalen got more minutes and a longer leash to work through struggles. Reed has not. Does that mean Reed would be better if he got more minutes? No. But the situations are very different so it's hard to compare Bari and Jalen having ultimate freedom while Reed has to play winning basketball or he gets benched. I'm pretty sure most people think Reed will be better next year because of off-season work. I don't think how many minutes he gets as a rookie matters much at all for his future success.
Why do you keep bringing up minutes then if you dont think it matters? Bari and Jalen got a longer leash but that doesnt mean Reed had a short leash either. He had ample opportunity to show he deserved PT and he failed, simple as that. 1 quarter a game for a rookie is more than enough of a leash. Reed didnt just show not winning basketball, he was missing vast majority of his shots. As long as the team wasnt tanking Reed wouldnt see much play for any team in the NBA.
Because ball handling shooters can often struggle with few minutes and especially when they are used to getting regular minutes. It's hard to get into a rhythm. When Reed had his best game last month he talked about it. Rookies perimeter players very rarely play winning basketball. When that's the standard it's hard to stay on the court as a young small guard. My guess is if Reed could play without worrying about getting benched his shooting numbers would probably be better but he still wouldn't be a winning player.
Reed definitely had a short leash and showed in his limited minutes that he wasn't ready for NBA physicality and speed. I'm still optimistic he's a NBA player but he'll have to show something next season.
If Reed had been "middling" in his minutes instead of absolutely terrible, he would have remained in the rotation, probably averaged ~20 mins/game and Holiday would have stayed buried on the bench. LOL, your comparison is ludicrous!
Well, of course, he ain't Kobe. But, it does show, frequently, NBA rookies ain't ready to contribute unless they are given a green light like Jalen was with Silas. If you think all rookies should come into contending teams and be ready to contribute right away, well, that's just unrealistic. Here, how about a player playing the same position, Steve Nash. Who do you think had a better rookie season? Nash or how Reed has performed so far? If you said HOF Nash had a better rookie season, here are his stats. 3.3 points per game, 1 rebound per game, and 2.1 assists per game. Let that sink in, Reed, as awful as he has been, already has a rookie season like a HOF player like Nash.
This is getting ridiculous. Don't put words in my mouth. First off, I said before the season if Reed is a rotation player by the end of the season, that would be good. I didn't expect him to hit the ground running. I also didn't expect him to be a flaming train wreck who looked lost on the floor for the first two months with no sign of improvement. Can you even understand that? Is that "realistic" to you? Then you mention Steve Nash. Oh brother. Just stop! You remind me of the V-Span fanatics that repeatedly brought up Nash, who is probably the most extreme case in NBA history. I'll give you this: There is literally a non-zero chance Reed ends up like Nash. However, the chance is extremely close to zero. So much so that bringing up Nash to support your point just shows how weak your point is. Then you post one of the most laughable sentences I've ever seen on CF as a closing argument (which sinks your point into even deeper nonsense): Let that sink in, Reed, as awful as he has been, already has a rookie season like a HOF player like Nash. How many players have had rookie seasons like Steve Nash? Several hundred? Tell me how many ended up like him.
Gotta admit, you seem pretty troubled. Are you okay dude? Like, seriously? You seem like things are not going well for you.
I agree the boat may have sailed on him being a real contributor this season, but if someone goes down it’s next man up and we could use some of what Reed brings to the table.
There are some key distinct differences because all of these players are entirely different archetypes. Jalen Green was drafted as a potential high profile scorer with incredibly gifted athletic abilities. His athletic abilities were every bit as advertised, and it helps that he had a 30/4/3/1/2 game in his 3rd game as a rookie against the Celtics to at least showcase some of that gifted scoring ability. Jabari Smith was not brought in as a high profile scorer, he's expected to be more of a highly versatile defensive player who can shoot well. Whilst his shooting abilities were a bit shaky early on, his defensive versatility was also every bit as advertised. Reed Sheppard was drafted primarily as a gifted shooter above all else, and his second most important trait is being a good playmaker. He's also recognised as one of the most NBA ready player in the draft. Realistically, that means people were looking for more of a Shane Battier type of impact, not stuffing the stat sheets, but doing a bit of everything and at the very least hitting his 3s at a respectable rate. The fact that he isn't doing this creates a few major concerns, because he doesn't have a freak athlete's frame that you can build off of like Jalen Green, nor does he have the height, size and defensive versatility of a Jabari Smith. In other words, if Jalen Green isn't scoring, you know you still have a freak athlete that defenders cannot stay in front of. If Jabari Smith isn't scoring, you know you still have a 6"11, long switchable defender. If Reed Sheppard isn't at least hitting his open shots, I am not entirely sure what you have to work with except a very under sized guard with quick hands who plays passing lanes well. With that said, I think he's a smart player that will eventually come around, but for now, every concern about an undersized SG with average athleticism posing as a PG is somewhat ringing true.
I think it's a misconception that Reed is an undersized SG. Just because he was a sharp shooter in college doesn't make him a shooting guard. He is a natural PG. He has the PG instincts. He has good court vision. He is not very effective standing around waiting for C&S. He is much better having the ball in his hands. It showed in summer league, g-league and the only good game he had in the NBA.
I don't necessarily think he is a "natural PG" - he has been a combo guard and utilized as a shooter his entire career. I think that's a large part of why he hasn't immediately come in and hit shots because generating good looks as a PG looks a lot different than it does as an off ball player. To his credit he makes quick reads which is essential for a PG and he generally connects passes into the right target zone for a player to immediately shoot but his handles could use some work and his passes could be a lot "zippier". He also is just a baby at understanding how to apply pressure to defenses by setting pace as a PG. A lot of it is can come with being aggressive(no surprise - his best games have all been when he was playing aggressively) but the really smart PGs use that to put specific defenders in read/react situations that the PG will then actively exploit to tear defensive coverage windows apart. Reed does none of that yet and that is probably the most "natural PG" tell ever - that being said I do agree that he has a lot of very solid skills critical for PGs - I just don't think the mindset is necessarily there even if some of the skills are. He's going to be a year 3/4 guy in my mind - it's too hard to ask him to produce as a PG at this stage but he seems to work hard and has a good infrastructure for accountability in place so I expect him to grow into a role he is completely capable of.
That is the real question. I think we've seen enough recently to have legit hope he can crack the rotation and play the outside sniper role the Rockets desperately need.
