Predictably, their favorite scrub **** the bed again. One of these days they'll learn the basics about basketball and stop embarrassing themselves, but it won't be any time soon.
This is interesting, but doesn't necessarily tell the entire story. Reed got a lot of his open looks by taking Curry-esque deep threes, which is something those Spurs shooters simply don't do. From 22 to 27 feet: Sheppard: 184 / 446 (41.3%) Champagnie: 193 / 499 (38.7%) Vassell: 159 / 405 (39.3%) Fox: 123 / 372 (33.1%) From 28+ feet: Sheppard: 43 / 130 (33.1%) Champagnie: 1 / 8 (12.5%) Vassell: 3 / 18 (16.7%) Fox: 5 / 16 (31.3%) So Reed made more threes (43) from 28+ feet than all three Spurs shooters attempted as a group (35). If Reed got more open looks from that 22-27 foot range and didn't have to launch from the logo as often, you'd absolutely see a bump in his efficiency.
This is why the Spurs wanted Reed paired with Wemby. Some people convinced themselves otherwise though.
There is something to be said for, Reed truly spaces the floor in a way that Castle never will. Whatever else he ends up being, I do think that will continue to be the case, even if Castle has a better career overall. And there's nothing the Rockets needed more than floor-spacing, which is why almost everyone was onboard with the pick at the time. Just still not seeing the point guard skills or defense you'd like from him to be more than a 6th man. Hopefully he'll develop in those areas this offseason and come back strong
Watching what Jalen Brunson "eventually" turned himself into should make fans feel better about a player Reed's size ever becoming an impact player. He was still at Villanova at Reed's age, and then spent 2 seasons as a decent bench player before he started ascending to star level. I'm sure people will run to say what Reed can't do compared to him "now", but nobody watching Brunson his second year in the NBA ever thought this guy is gonna lead a team to a title. Reed is still only 21 and he showed significant growth in year 2, how about we just chill out on him being a waste of pick bust. I really don't give a f**k about Castle, he's not a Rocket and worrying about the past doesn't really mean anything to the present.
Player A (first two seasons) 134 games (20.9 mpg) .414 / .383 / .804 (.544 TS) 10.0 ppg / 2.4 rpg / 2.6 apg (1.2 to) / 1.2 spg / 0.5 bpg Player B (first two seasons) 130 games (20.1 mpg) .467 / .352 / .759 (.551 TS) 8.8 ppg / 2.3 rpg / 3.2 apg (1.2 to) / 0.5 spg / 0.1 bpg Player A is Reed. Player B is Jalen Brunson, who was two years older. Spoiler
What you said is interesting for sure but not all 3 pointers are 22 ft. (Only corners). What did you use to get these numbers? 3 pointers that aren’t corners are 23 ft 9 inches so that’s greater than 23 ft. You are assuming all his 28 ft jumpers are wide open or generated by himself which isn’t true. Some of those shots were contested. Many of those shots were generated from the offense giving him open or wide open looks. That’s why I looked at his open % and he only shot 32% when open. He also shot poorly with a defender close by (tight-32%) The link below shows all his shots and you can filter the distances which i did for 28 ft. https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CF=SHOT_DISTANCE*E*28&CFID=&CFPARAMS=&ContextMeasure=FG3A&GameID=&PlayerID=1642263&Season=2025-26&SeasonType=Regular Season&TeamID=&flag=3&sct=plot§ion=game
One thing to note is that the league average when three point shots are tightly contested is right around 32%. Those shots rarely get taken in the first place, because when they do, the percentage is lower than normal. So, shooting 32% on tightly contested shots isn't bad, it's just OK.
