On his defense. I have a lot of trouble believing that Stone or Patrick were gonna stand in the same room and tell Ime Udoka they were taking a player he didn't want.
Jackson framing the question the way he would like it to be answered just to give credibility to his previous tweets. You can see Stone get confused by it. Just take the L. It's the draft ish happens.
Bball Psalm 23 Sheppard is my point guard; I got no doubt. He breaks ankles on the court, making defenders shout. He dishes slick dimes, and steals with clout, Grabs rebounds like a king, no game without.
After the last three drafts I now have absolute trust in the front office at least for drafts. It seems the Jalen pick was an outlier and influenced by ownership as the first pick of the rebuild and they valued marketability over production. And even then Jalen is not completely irredeemable yet. From Sengun, Tari, Cam to Sheppard it shows that analytics is paramount in their decision making. But what is even more impressive is the Amen pick, without a precedent to translate OTE stats and competition, they needed to rely on traditional scouting and eye test mostly. In hindsight that was a fantastic pick which showed the front office’s versatility in drafting. Very happy fan tonight.
Can’t wait to watch him splash in Summer League (or as @DreamShook said, watch him forget how to shoot) Craig called Eric “Splash” Gordon. I wonder what he’ll call Reed? Is he gonna use CF the “Taxman” nickname? Stacy’s son has got it going on
I mean, it’s a solid and good pick. Was hoping for something more exciting but I guess we have a good project to develop at PG under FVV’s tutelage. Two of the smallest players in the entire NBA now - I don’t love that. I can’t imagine how he’ll get many minutes. We needed shooting and got some at the most competitive and crowded position on the roster - which means his shooting is not going to be of enough volume to make a lot of difference. Green/Cam > already not enough minutes FVV/Amen > already not enough minutes So you’re going to get Cam and Amen minutes at the 3? Except we have Brooks and Tari who are elite defenders with a passable 3PT shot and THEY don’t have enough minutes. Our SG’s are both scorers so you must have a defender at the 3. Our scorers are not great shooters so our SF also has to be able to hit 3’s. I think it’s Cam and Amen who will lose minutes if Sheppard flourishes. We may shave 2 minutes each off Brooks and FVV’s minutes. Feel bad for Sheppard but for us we get to bring him along super slowly. Like Amen/Cam, he’s going to have to start off in the G league and probably be given a shot around mid season. That’s not going to change even if he’s a rookie Klay Thompson level shooter. The only exception to this I see is if he’s as good a shooter as Steph Curry. Ultimately he’ll be at least an excellent role player, that much is clear.
The only knock on this guy coming in was that he is not a great creator of his own shot and his lack in ability to break down defences. I hope he works on his ball handling, needs to add some crafty moves.
I know we like to think of Ime as a defense-minded coach, but it would be a mistake to think of him as one-dimensional in that regard, IMO. He knows very well that we need shooting, just as the most obvious example.
The guy that wrote 8 term papers on Jalen isn’t excited about Sheppard. I can only take so much winning in one night.
your missing the whole point. If we use him as just a spot shooter then it's a fail. He needs to be moving constantly to create space for our best player in Sengun. Those who believe Sengun is our best player will like the pick. Those who believe in Jalen are just confused... Just like other teams will put other players on reed if he's constantly moving. The Rockets will put Amen on all those guys you mentioned.
