I should say I thought we reached for a "safe" pick. At the time, I thought..high floor...combo guard, sixth man...MAYBE a solid starter. He'll benefit from all that space. It might take awhile...If he struggles out of the gate, I definitely see a buyout guy or a deal bringing another guard in for now. Our Rockets know what they need to do.
There's a quote where I am from: I don't believe in Beatles. I just believe in me. Or it could be Bueller quoting Lennon. Either way, I believe in Reed. (question mark)
I think Reed will be able to shoot. I think he will be able to get a rotation player role out of that skill. Whether that is a backup or starter, I don't know. I do think the Rockets are hoping he's the starter in a year or 2. That could bias me a bunch.
My belief is circumstantial, right now I feel I have a little faith but it might change in an instant. My belief is that the current Rockets are not great at developing talents, and that has been going on for years now. Someone is getting injured and he gets his chance. Up and down but he will quadruple his 4 points per game.
We just need Reed to do these things: 1) Don't be a defensive liability 2) Hit the open 3 (need 40% from 3) 3) Push the tempo and keep turnovers low I believe Reed can do those 3 tasks and more better than Aaron Holiday.
We drafted based on team need vs best available player, which was Stephon Castle (we have that in Amen)...it was a weak draft class so I'm not sweating if Reed at #3 doesn't work out...though he could be a great tradeable asset at trade deadline if he stinks it up
His summer league games were alarming. He was not able to get around his defender. I realize the picks weren't the best and the defense swarms him because the rest of the team was terrible, but it's still an extremely worrisome sight to see him struggle that much as a second year player. Reed doesn't seem to have the strength or a bag of moves to manipulate his defender. He's trying to brute force his way in which is not ideal when his dribbling is suspect as well. Like Jalen Green, his shots around the basket are super tough because he has to go around a set defender . I am still fairly confident that the shooting will come eventually which will make him valuable. So he won't be a total bust, but I don't foresee a huge upside anymore. Maybe a career like JJ Reddick? Has a long career in the NBA, but never a star and certainly not as good as people hope.
They should’ve drafted castle if they had no intention of keeping Jalen or cam. They drafted Sheppard based on need. You never draft based on need or fit, always draft based on talent.
“Alarming” might be a little misleading. The color commentator for the Detroit game made a comment about him playing too “upright” which made a ton of sense in retrospect. You’re never going to get by tight man coverage standing up straight. Most of Reed’s “blow-by’s” happen when he retreats to space and wins the foot race. His handles and technique can improve, but I promise you he’s spent the majority of his career working on his shot mechanics and not his iso game. I’m not worried about him. He should spend the next 3 months working out with Amen.
I gave Jalen 4 years and he played 30minutes a game from the begining of his career. So yes, I am willing to give Reed more time while playing behind even a stronger team than Jalen...
I have some other high level posts about Reed in the other thread, but I'll try to do a quick summary here. Prior to the OKC game last year (and some other late season games), I was very concerned. I would have liked Ime to play Reed more regardless, but even with the reps he gave Reed, I don't think he looked very good at times. It wasn't necessarily that he was missing shots (which he was), but he just didn't look very assertive or confident most of the time. He looked very tentative. This gave me huge concerns as I don't know how you can necessarily fix this. We are a team of "dogs" (to quote the great Tari Eason), and he didn't look like he belonged. The OKC game showed that he could be more assertive and impactful in a game. That matters more than any of these summer league games he just played. Yeah sure I would have liked it if he put up 30/10/7 on 70% TS, but unfortunately that didn't happen. I'd still rather have the OKC game than numbers like that in SL. And personally I think his G1 was still really good. We'll see how he does when the real games start. The team apparently plans to lean heavily into him, and he will need to step up his play considerably from last year. If he can tap into more of what he flashed at times, then he'll be fine. If not...yuck.
I'll start by saying I believe in Reed Sheppard. He looked good last season when he actually got starter minutes in G-League and NBA. I believe those games are better examples to evaluate and study than this SL Team. Shep had a bit of a Framber moment when he got fouled and launched the 4-pointer in frustration. He'll learn from that and as bad as that last game was, it's another lesson in his very young NBA journey. Reed will look a lot different playing with KD, Alpi, Amen, etc. When Alpi and Adams set real picks, he'll have a lot more room to maneuver. He'll have actually shooters to feed that will dramatically improve his assist to turnover ratio. The NBA team will also understand spacing and be in the spots they're expected to be. Personally, I love Reed's gambling style defense and believe the coaches are encouraging him in that regard. While that is my speculation, I'm confident Ime would have sat him down last year if he didn't want Shep to be aggressive. His handles will continue to improve and he shows some improvement from last season already. He'll have a longer leash this season and that alone will drive his improvement and contributions. Frankly, I'm very excited about this team and the role Reed will play in our success this season. Sending positive vibes for a healthy and successful 2025-26 for our Rockets--LET'S GO!!!
I think Reed is going to be great and will eventually make up part of our big 3 with Alpi and Amen. That is after KD is gone.
Yes I do. He is not nearly physically developed as many people his age but he is advanced as far as reading the game. And the jump shot will eventually translate. As long as there are long players around him, he can gamble. Bigger players will result in open shots off screens. He will need to develop the stop and pop and the floater.
I've had this same question. IIRC, I think Ime said something about Reed doing too much reaching (or something along those lines), so I don't think everything he does here actually has Ime's approval. But I *do* think at least some of these things people are complaining about are actually things the team/coaches want. It is all kinda context dependent. If you have like...um...Grayson Allen, maybe you do kinda play matador defense (then try to steal from behind), which might prompt him to driving into...a help defender who is expecting him. Now you got Grayson being swarmed and possibly unable to make a kick out, and you either get a bad shot or a turnover. Now if the guy with the ball is Luka, SGA, or somebody like that...well I guess you might be screwed no matter what. But yes, if the team actually wants to pressure certain players to dribble the ball and attack a defense (especially a defense with Amen, Tari, KD, DFS, etc with all that length), then it isn't necessarily a bad thing that Reed is doing this. It helps if Reed has a fairly high conversion rate at getting the steal (or at least knocking the ball away). I know it doesn't look good, but if Reed actually generates a lot of steals this way, the actual (net) PPP might not be so bad (and arguably better than if Reed tried to man up on a bigger player). Either way, Reed needs to be more physical with his POA defense, which I did see some of during SL. Definitely needs to learn from FVV there.
I still believe he can be an NBA rotation player and he might be ready to be that this season. (Fingers crossed, we just need 20 good minutes a game from him.) I also think he has a chance to be a good starter, fringe all-star at his peak if everything breaks right for him. Ordinarily that wouldn't be too exciting of a ceiling for a #3 pick, but for the umpteenth time, it was a sh*tty draft class.
Udonis Haslem gave Reed some great advice on working on his defense. Reed talked about his defense only session not being fun but necessary. As Haslem told him, players hunt the small white guards to pick on because the strength and athleticism are not there. Reed has to get a lot stronger and develop a man's body. I remember watching baby LeBron when he got into the league and looking at him now. Built like a tank. It matters in football and it damn sure matters in the NBA. Jordan had to put on a ton of muscle. Reed has the shooting and the attitude, he just has to put in the work. When Reed is on the court he has to play with a chip on his shoulder he is going to be hunted. For the 5-7 minutes stretches he is out there he has to be super aggressive in D effort at staying in front of his man, not jumping at shooters, listening to coaches and teammates about anticipation of movement. He has to be brilliant on D to make up for his athleticism. On O he needs to go ham to make up for his shortcomings. That means driving, penetrating and being fearless on open 3s. He needs to let his defensive intensity give him the confidence he needs on offense. With him I just feel if he could play 15-20 games with set minutes with the right D intensity and just fire and forget we would see drastic improvement.
Same size as Steph. Same game as Steph. Gotta let him be himself. If we don't try to make him Jrue, we'll be good. If we do, then Ime needs to realize who he is and see beyond his single-minded vision . . . or trade him to a team like GS who will know what to do with him. I appreciate making him a two way player, but that's not why we drafted him. Let him cook.
