I’ll trust Udoka on this one. Shepard has been playing very well and he is creeping up to started minutes even not starting.
We've come a long way since the Aaron Brooks, Kevin Martin, Shane Battier, Luis Scola, Chuck Hayes days.....not complaining those were my guys too, but this is different.
He doesn’t hate him. Udoka went to bat multiple times for Sheppard last year when he struggled and he wanted to keep him long term when the front office and coaches discussed the plan going forward. Sheppard has some real strong supporters at the Toyota Center.
Maybe that's why Ime is playing the zone so heavily? It is such a bad option defensively, people won't notice the difference when Reed gets starter minutes and his so called bad defense sees more minutes? Was... was I wrong about Ime all along!?
I think that sometimes Udoka is slow to entrust young players with additional responsibilities until they do it for a longer period of time. It happened with Amen too. We won’t hear Udoka praise Reed until Udoka wants to… in time I think we will see more plays drawn up for him, but also some of it was that Sheppard could have been more demanding of shots if he wanted as well.
Sheppard isn’t as bad defensively as some have claimed. In some matchups he has struggled but excelled at others. He has the last half dozen games been a lot better at reading the offense and reacting appropriately.
He's certainly the best PG on this team. Amen walking the ball across half court and literally handing it to Sengun does not count.
His middie shooting has gone up significantly in the past several games. His struggle inside the arc earlier was due to his indecision, not inability to shoot. Now he is more confident and more sure of what to do.
I'm the last person you need to preach about defense to! It's the one side of the ball I see better than most. I know Reed is nowhere near as bad defensively as people make it out to be, just as Sengun wasn't. IQ IQ IQ It's a recurring trend. (that post was heavily tongue in cheek by the way)
I agree for the most part, but not this game. He was terrible on defense this one particular game. That is why he was on the floor so little down the stretch. I also think he is really bad on defense and blocking his man out when we are playing zone. Ime should just quit the two bigs lineup and play zone very minimally especially when Reed is in the game. While Tari is out, I think he should get way more minutes. Okogie can guard small forwards if need be. Reed will be fine in man if he has Amen or Okogie on the floor with him. Holiday and Reed should never be in the game at the same time unless you are going full on Dantoni.
The Rockets need to start shooting more 3s. Either tell Jabari to shoot 8 3s or w/e but Rox need to take more 3s. Rox shot 40% from 3 and Magic 32% but the game still went to over time cuz Magic had like 4 more made 3s for 12 additional pts. With that said, great game from everyone especially KD, Sengun and Reed Goatpard. I said it before but I was way wrong on Reed, he is playing like a future all star. Sengun isnt playing like an all star anymore, he is a super star alongside KD. Holiday was also pretty good, having him just focus on scoring and not bother trying to be a pg is working well. Jabari needs to be more aggressive and get the ball, how can you play 40 mins and only shoot 9 times? lol. Amen and Adams had bad games but bad games for those 2 are good games for normal players. They will bounce back next time.
Reed is the reason we are playing zone. Man to man the opponent will switch and then go 1 on 1 on Reed. Man to man others cant help you so why are you saying Reed will be fine if he has Okogie or Amen with him? Thats the point of man 2 man you guard your guy with no help cuz if others help no one is guarding their man. Zone minimizes Reed bad defense all he has to do is run off shooters at the 3 pt line. Even if opponents cross him up and drive past him they still need to get over the bigs in the paint. Magic shot 32% from 3 that means that zone is great against them.
