Report from the Suns game: Much better performance than last game. Surprise #1 was Ime sending in Reed less than 3 minutes into the game, way faster than the usual 6. Maybe because Amen was turning the ball over, or maybe to see what Reed could do with earlier minutes. Reed did not disappoint. Much better energy defensively. Stepped right up to Booker, got in his face, narrowed his options. This happened over and over and over. The first time, after Booker unloaded the ball, Reed leaned on him, 8 feet or so out from the arc, and made sure he couldn’t get back in the play. Then the next time he faced Booker, he got up on him again and poked the ball away, leading to a break and a dunk for Reed. Then on an inbounds, Reed slipped under a screen, cut off Booker on the other side, stayed with all his moves, and went up for a contest that led to a miss. Every time Booker came around a screen, Reed was there. The physicality was good. He was boxing out guys even 15-20 feet from the basket. Big guys, too. When Fleming tried to come in, Reed met him and pushed him to keep him out of the action. When Reed got stuck on Dillon in the post, he held him off and made him settle for a fadeaway miss. One of my favorite moments: Somebody, I forget who, passed the ball out to Goodwin when Reed was guarding him. Reed saw the pass coming and took a step toward it. You could see him itching to lunge for that ball. He wouldn’t have gotten there. Instead, he wisely held off, crowded Goodwin, stayed in front of him, and made the shot more difficult. Goodwin hit it (he was hitting everything), but that’s what we need from Reed: Just do your job, make the bucket a little bit harder, and let the bigs behind you handle the rest. So, let’s turn to his offense. We need to talk about the Mr. Durant problem. Obviously Reed is obsessed with getting the ball to KD. He gets tunnel vision, stalls till Mr. Durant can get open, and half the time ends up picking up his dribble, lest he lose the car keys before he can hand them to Mr. Durant. This is dysfunctional for a bunch of reasons, but one of them is that we have this kid with stellar court vision, and instead his eyes are narrowed to one option. And it’s embarrassingly predictable. On one possession in the 1st quarter, Reed picked up his dribble, stared right at KD, who didn’t have a good seal, and Reed tried to bounce it to him and got ripped off for a dunk. Then on the next possession, Reed tried to float a pass to KD, they weren’t on the same page, and it went over KD’s head, again ripped off for a dunk. Every player on every opposing team knows this is coming. They’re poised to steal that pass. But we keep doing it. In the 2nd quarter, Reed was still way too locked in on getting the ball to KD. Then there was that exasperating possession in the 4th where (1) KD passed to Reed with 6 seconds on the clock, they were both covered, and Reed didn’t even move, he just tossed it back to KD; (2) after we recovered the rebound, KD passed crosscourt to Reed with 3 seconds left, and Reed was so fixated on making the next pass that he didn’t try the baseline drive and pull-up that was sitting right in front of him; and then (3) when we got the ball again and Jabari gave Reed a perfect setup at the top of the arc, Reed instead dumped the ball to KD standing behind him. And let’s not forget that ridiculous fast break where Jabari passed to Reed and he had a clean line for a dunk, but instead from practically under the basket threw the ball out to the 3-point line, apparently because he saw Mr. Durant there. But Brooks saw it too, so he was on KD to take away the look. Earth to Reed: They’re covering Mr. Durant. Sometimes the guy who needs to take the initiative is you. Maybe for a 3, but maybe it’s just taking that dunk that’s right in front of you. You know when Reed looked good? When he made stuff happen himself. In the 2nd, when he drove to the basket and scored, then came right back down the next time and drove to his spot for an 18-footer. Which he missed, but it was a good look, and then a couple minutes later he drove the right side again, drew the defense, and floated the ball to Tari for a 3. And then at the start of the 4th, on the first possession, they screened for Reed, he took a 3, missed it, but on the next possession drove to the left side, went up and hit the jumper. Then he brush screened for Amen and popped out for another shot. Then on the next play he used a high Adams screen to drive for a layup. That early shift in the 4th, with Reed taking initiative, got us from even to up 7. And it started because KD wasn’t on the floor. Not to take anything away from him: He’s our killer. But when the playoffs roll around, he’ll need his point guard to be more than a valet.
It’s reassuring to know we saw the same thing. The 3rd/4th q even though he missed more was the type offense we needed. 1st half Reed passing up open layups disgusted me tbh it’s so obvious that force feeding Durant like that isn’t helpful idk why coaches don’t say anything
I'm going to try to get A.I to read these to me in 1940s Dectective voice with loud typewriter clicking
I'd be in the minority, but as long as his tenure has been with the Rox, I think that JT would give the Rockets what DFF has and then some...
Yes, that's why I didn't say 'right now'. I said: if we're healthy or acquire a PG. Even so, right now at least one of them is playing 10 totally unnecessary minutes. Can easily live without even two of these guys. Can't live with both PG's learning how to PG though. I want a safety net guy who can come in on the rare occasion both Amen and Reed are not cutting it or we want to move them up a position.
Personally against that. I'll sacrifice the short term win for the long term gain on this one - as long as we get insurance. If we get another backup PG we're good. We have enough to win a title with Amen at 1. Team is so crazy talented. Second best net rating in the league before we even got our **** together.
Yep, it's Reed's problem. The problem is his Mr. Durant complex about KD. Part of what Reed needs is a little more Mr. Sheppard.
I think Mr. Shepperd needs a shrink to help him eradicate the Mr. Durant he keeps conjuring in his mind whenever he's playing basketball.
If we really want to develop both Amen and Reed to be our future co-PGs, then we don't really want to get a low-end vet PG just to be a safety net. If that guy is good enough to be a safety net, then he's good enough to be a rotation player, which will eat into the two kids' minutes. And that kind of player won't be very cheap. Plus, FVV is supposed to be that guy. He presumably will come back next season. If he's not good enough to be in the regular rotation and contented to be a ready-whenever-called kind of 10th or 11th guy on the team, then he's not really going to help much. We already have Holiday to do that kind of thing.
I'm actually a Tate fan myself, I may even agree with you on that, I think Tate's always been a solid performer, has a solid go-to move on offense that's near automatic. Hustles hard, can sometimes shoot decent. I think it's a shame that he doesn't seem to be an Ime favourite despite clearly looking like the type on paper.
Tate's performed well when played in the past. I think Ime was more into developing players than many on this board give him credit prior to this season. While Ime wasn't going to bench FVV or Brooks, I think Tate lost minutes to young players. This season, I think Tate's problem, other than not looking healthy, is that Ime routinely plays 2 or more of Sengun, Adams, Capela, Amen, and Okogie. Just hard to fit another non-shooter and/or low-volume shooter in.
Reed and the TEAM are better when they ignore KD and just attack, this deference to KD must stop, his gravity is not helping if others are still forcing the ball to him. Too much KD equals too ez to guard. DD
I don't support development minutes in the second half a title-contention season tbh, but I see your perspective too. If an insurance PG can beat out Reed or Amen at PG, then he's earned it and it gives us the best shot at a title. If he can't beat them out, that's great news for us. Development can resume next season, it's not going anywhere. That's my perspective personally. The top 4-ish teams in the league can win the title every season. This is that season. We have the second highest net rating. I'm not sure why we'd take that for granted.
