He's gonna be fine. Was out of sorts yesterday and still put up decent numbers. Needs to stop gambling for steals and just be stout on defense. The rest of the stuff is whatever to me. He gets 3 years just like the others. Amen showed it by his 2nd. Sengun by his 3rd. Hoping Jabari shows it by his 4th.
My take is very different. Mebbe a million miles off, but nevertheless one I have experienced and am transposing onto young Mr Sheppard. Back in my younger days, before injuries took their toll on me and in fact prior to RS being a glint in his folks’ eyes, I was a competitive athlete. My adult sports career after I aged out of grand possibilities was racquet sports. Eye-hand, moving spheres sports. And I was good. Experience taught me fear. I never feared a more able opponent but I feared ones lesser than I. When on a court with someone trying but not court smart I got hurt. Once resulting in neck surgery, another in shoulder surgery. And that’s what I believe I saw in the first half yesterday. RS looked frustrated then flustered by the overall lack of competence on the court. I thought of years ago in pick-up games with Allan Leavell. An NBAer, some good but not NBAers, and a couple of us good enough to be filling out sides but… Allan would stop a game and organize or reorganize such that we all stayed in our lanes, meaning we played hoops. We didn’t play hurts. Sheppard looked like a marked man. I saw ‘Jordan Rules’ with Daly’s thugs. I at least managed a smile with a mental image of JVG not getting a leg up…
No. I don’t usually take much about them seriously, but you can use summer league games as an indicator of what players do well and what they really need work on. With Reed, in both games he had difficulty beating his man one on one and is a continuance of a weakness he exhibited last year. It is a fatal flaw for a PG which so many of his acolytes insist is his future. He might be able to become a better ball handler and passer, but you can’t coach speed or quickness, neither of which he has exhibited. In my opinion, the concentration for Reed should be bringing up the ball, handing it off, and looking for spot up opportunities. He also needs to concentrate on his defensive assignment and be more selective when gambling for steals. In that way, summer league can be useful from a coaching perspective. We need a good 15-20 mins out of Reed this year. Unless something snaps for him early, Holiday or an acquired player will get those minutes. It was a big gamble by Ime and Stone, so I hope that it works out.
Another issue with RS is that i don't think he's short enough to have practiced playing big. Or ever used his body in the way Fred and CP3 do to get the advantage. But now that he is in the NBA everybody is much bigger and faster, and on top of that in my opinion he plays smaller than his height. We use that word for centers generally but in this case Reed Sheppard plays small in my opinion.
Cam Whitmore played in summer league last year (his 2nd year) and averaged 16/7/4 on 38% shooting and 7% (not a typo) from 3
Reed's primary challenge, in order to get minutes on this team as a bench role player, is to be solid enough on the perimeter defensively while balancing the stl/blk gambles. I saw some visible improvements here in game one, but also a few very bad looking plays in both games. This is really hard to evaluate in this setting. The team is playing a ton of zone, and we also don't know how much the coaches are telling Reed to gamble for steals in the scheme. Reed's primary challenge in order to fully develop into a long term core piece is different - it's all about the handle. He doesn't need to be Kyrie, but he does need to be able to manipulate and punish defenders overplaying him. Foul baiting and decel game are key here. It's why Trae and Jalen Brunson are so annoying, but effective at neutralizing pressure and getting to spots on the floor. Otherwise defenses will continue to pin their ears back and chase him and there's not much to be done about it. The shooting numbers etc. are all downstream of this. Has to be able to navigate the court on balance and on his own rhythm.
Yep, same as Reed this season. Either that's a meaningful number of games or it's not. Shot 45/29/63 his rookie summer league.
Barkley is a little over 6'4". I have played pick up ball with him before and have been to events where he has been. I am 6'5" and he was my height.
