I wanted him to improve his handling, strength and defense. Looks like he did all of those things. You can tell he's getting used to the idea of controlling tempo - he's never done that. Off the bench in college it was just high energy all the time. Some nuance involved now for which there's no other cure but serious NBA rotation minutes. They let him play WAY more on ball than he would get to play in the regular season. With Sengun, KD and Amen and mid-season mode, his role will be more catch&shoot-oriented. Feel like by the end of preseason he'll be ready to give us 15-20 minutes and we can build his game from there gradually.
This is what I saw. It’s the first pre season game. For the time he got I think he looked great. The only starters who looked polished were Jabari and Alpi. Especially Jabari. If Reed keeps showing the aggression and starts hitting those threes, which we know he will, then I think he’s going to be good for 30 min a night at least. As long as his legs don’t give out by the play offs.
I noticed a few things (maybe I watched a different game than some people with their comments?): Reed looked much more comfortable probing in the paint and not immediately picking up his dribble. He ALWAYS did that last year, and it drove me bonkers. He was dribbling through the paint and looking to create.. He also looks like he’s bulked up a little, and was not being bullied on defense (granted it’s preseason and the Hawks are well…. The Hawks). Overall, he looked much better keeping his defender in front of him. He’s still small and gave up some baskets, but it’s the NBA. He even had a block on a bigger guy on a 3, though the box score didn’t give him credit? I know the zone helps him, but he wasn’t being targeted in this game. My biggest worry was his size/strength on defense and ball handing. Small sample, but he looks more comfortable. I’m not concerned with 1/4 from 3. IIRC, one of those was a tipped heave with like 1 second on the clock. Had some good looks, and those will fall. The game looks like it’s slowing down for him, and he doesn’t look overwhelmed and going 100 MPH. Let’s see how the next couple preseason games go, but I suspect he will get more and more comfortable (and honestly he’s going to be getting a lot of open looks with KD and Alpi out there, commanding a lot of attention). Also - to the people saying holiday outplayed him, lol. Asinine. Holiday looked awful. He played more minutes because he was part of the “garbage crew” in the 4th, and the starters weren’t going 30-35 min. It wasn’t because he deserved more minutes. If anything, after yesterday JD looks like a 9th or 10th rotational player, ahead of Holiday. Reed and Sengun both played about 18 minutes, which is to be expected from the preseason. I suspect Amen had more minutes to try to get some extra reps running the offense. Oh, and Holiday took 12 shots (double Reed) and scored 1 more point. He also just looked like he didn’t know what he was doing.
I agree completely. Reed looked MUCH more in control and able to dribble through traffic while keeping his head up for a pass. The complainers are clearly just reading the box score. When I went to sleep it said 2-4 on 3. I woke up to 1-4. Some shitty record keeping didn’t change my perspective on his play at all, but it would apparently make a huge difference to the “told you so” crowd n
I agree here too. Tari looked out of control. I hope he isn’t in “prove it mode” in an unproductive way.
At this point, I think it's pretty clear that Reed should start. While he has a lot of room for improvement, he looks much more in control this year and better on defense. When DFS comes back: Sheppard / Holiday / JD Davidson Thompson / Okogie / JD Davidson Durant / Eason / Tate Smith / DFS / Green Sengun / Adams / Capella
This is why I think Tari is a perfect sixth man. It's no knock against him - he's the chaotic force you want coming off the bench to destabilize your opponent.
I don't know if Sheppard will start, but I do HOPE he starts. Him starting shows that the coaches and his teammates trust him enough to be the starter and let him set up the initial offense. It also means he will get plenty of minutes to either sink or swim. It's his 2nd year. He's needs to at least show he can play in a Mario Chalmers type role successfully.
As others have already said, Reed looked fine if you actually watched the game. Positives: Looks physically stronger More confident handling the ball / controlling tempo, even against a guy like Dyson Daniels Good balance between facilitating and looking for his own shot Made some nice passes off penetration, including a pretty sick corner skip Was playing more sound defense, maintaining position, gambling much less Negatives: Had a couple of miscommunications that led to turnovers Picked up a couple fouls swiping / reaching in at the last second Overall, I'd give him something like a B- for last night. I think we're all watching extra closely and have our expectations a bit inflated because of the circumstances, but at the end of the day he kind of just looked like one of the guys -- like he belongs. That's a great starting point for preseason game 1, in my opinion.
Something I really like about Reed is he seems to have a GREAT intuition for using his body to shield off defenders on his drives. I think the extra muscle mass will only help this. And as was said before, he's picking up the ball less, though he did get caught doing this a few times last night.
He picked up his dribble more than I would have liked him to do and he passed the ball to Tari Eason WAY more than I would like him to do, but I think he showed that he's a solid fit with the starting unit, especially when it's KD out there and not Tari.
Reed looked fine, if he is a backup SG/PG fine.......we will need the threat of his 3pt shot to free space for Alpi and Amen. The team is stacked. DD
Cannot be understated that the guy they were dealing with was a DPOY candidate and Top 2 perimeter defender in the league (the other guy is our guy).
