Sheppard is so damn small

Amen did positive things that offset his 7 for 0. Reed just got decimated on both ends.

The first step of fixing the problem is acceptance. If you keep making excuses you will never improve.

 

He has played 53 pro games now. What is this forever 19? lol

 

He’s definitely logged less minutes than Daishen Nix did, while Nix still had plenty of backers at the time. PG has the steepest learning curve. Give him to at least January. The competition eases up significantly. Just last week we were raving about his game against 75% of the starting Hawks rotation.

 

You are right hopefully he picks it back up. However it is still irritating seeing Castle blow up and look like a mini Amen.

 

He would be one of the smallest players making it......he is to me more of a high floor guy than the opposite.

 

I have said it a lot, Reed is a dude who can jump but his other physical limitations are out on display.

Stephon has tremendous size and good instincts. Also Dylan Harper has decent measurements.

 

Reed is small, that's true, and yet he's bigger and more athletic than the guy he's replacing.

I don't know if anyone recalls FVV's early days in the league, but they were pretty bumpy. In year 2, when he first became a consistent part of the Raptor's rotation, he shot an abysmal .308 from the field and .167 from three in his first dozen games. And yet he finished that year 3rd in 6th Man voting, played big minutes for a championship team the very next season, and later became an All-Star.

Reed absolutely has things to fix, particularly on defense, and if the long-term evidence continues to echo what we saw on opening night, then he won't be long for this league. But writing him off already is incredibly short-sighted.

 

How about Brunson, Maxey, Tre Young or FVV? All 6'2" or shorter

 

look at the per 36 minute numbers

https://www.nba.com/stats/players/traditional?PerMode=Per36&TeamID=1610612745&dir=A&sort=FG3A

 

NOT WHITE!

Sorry lol, um what I really mean is there's a combination of factors on why those guys are successful despite being small

The biggest two are either A. Supreme offensive talent and or B. Strength and or athleticism.

FVV is very strong and flat out had better lateral quickness despite being 30 and likely 210+ for us. He's a great defender

Brunson like FVV is super strong for his size, but also obviously a supreme offensive talent. Not a good defender though.

Maxey a supreme offensive talent, but also an incredible athlete who plays very physical. Still not a great defender.

Young is a supreme offensive talent. Full stop, horrific defender with even worse tools than Reed by quite a bit, outside of lateral quickness where he still probably has Reed beat.


Reed needs to get a lot stronger to survive defensively at his height. Lucky for him he has FVV as a mentor, who is one of the only small guards who are positive defenders. Reeds poor lateral defense might doom him though, adding strength/weight likely makes it even worse.

Reed becoming a supreme talent offensively will take quite a jump, he doesn't seem to have the ball handle thats so vital to be a creative force in this league.

 

There's something different about those guys that I just cant put my finger on....they just have "it" we'll say. Darius Garland is another micro guard that just doesnt seem to be too small for some people and also took time to get going.

 

You gotta give Reed at least a FULL 82 games. Heck I actually see Reed becoming something special and would love to give him 2 full years before we throw him away.

Please don’t forget that we gave Jalen Green 4 ****ing years to see what he’s got. Don’t give Reed that kind of **** and give up on him “after a few games”. Let’s have faith.

 

now look at KD's. for 5 times as much money.

 

I’ll just say that I think he should be starting tonight and probably another half a dozen games at least. Mostly out of necessity though. I just don’t see it though in terms of a top level prospect. You just don’t work a little bit harder in one offseason in your 20’s and suddenly gain high level point guard skills.

That’s what people don’t understand when they make these Nash and Stockton comparisons. Those guys were put on this earth with abilities few people ever will have. It’s your dribbling, vision, nerves, coordination, mental awareness, etc. His natural and developed abilities are more akin to a Jeff Hornacek than a John Stockton offensively… but with much less ability on the defensive end given his size.

 

This. The microscopic view of Reed's game is even worse than that of Alpi for years. Alpi was crucified on CF for years, both for his offense and defensive flaws. The offense, and even defense was relatively disorganized from the start long before Reed even entered the game. It looked like Adams was not positioned where he is most effective in providing screens at the top of the key. When Caruso was guarding Alpi, Ime did not call for positioning him the low post where he would have even shredded more the OKC defense.

The defense, as good as it was, was a bit disorganized, too wherein some were not yet familiar with each teammate's strengths and weaknesses. Tari was largely responsible for the OKC comeback from being down double digits. Reed was responsible for mistakes but their impact on the overall game was not decisive.

These panic cries on this thread is a bit overboard considering that this is just the first game, against an intact championship team, a very aggressive and foul-filled defense by the champs that were not called, while on the other side, any little touch on SGA was a foul. The starting line-up consists of relatively new players with the most major piece just starting his first official game with the team. Even with Alpi balling, they all seemed to be disorganized and unfamiliar with each other. Reed was not the only one not playing well and hesitating. Despite all of those, they almost win. Imagine how good this team will be, yes, with Reed, once they get it together and gain some chemistry. Everybody, relax. The team is really very good.