That just proves how irrelevant your question is. Even if Reed becomes a better shooter than Castle (as he should), theres so many things Castle does that is better than him currently. As for Reed you are right I hope I am wrong about him. I dont think his ceiling is very high he looks like he will be a career backup to me like a slightly better Aaron Holiday. But maybe I am wrong he looked like a future star vs OKC being able to take on Cason Wallace in isolation and shoot 3s right in his face. Then again Corey Brewer also had a 50 pt game once so we will see if Reed can replicate that OKC game. This year has been beyond horrible, next year will give a clearer picture. If he still shooting in the 30s FG% then that is def a big problem.
The discussions surrounding Reed Sheppard and Steph Castle are just weird. I would take Castle over Sheppard at this point - not because of anything Castle has done, but because Reed hasn’t had a good rookie season. Having said that - Castle has been bad, as bad as Sheppard, and has had more opportunities. However I expected Castle to be bad, he was someone I felt had a high ceiling but lots of warts to fix. I don’t think Udoka hates Sheppard. I just think Sheppard had a bad rookie season. He was inconsistent and missed shots and ultimately didn’t take advantage of opportunities. I didn’t see anything on the court that lead me to believe Sheppard is toast. It seems to be more a confidence issue. Some are acting like Castle has been amazing - he hasn’t. His defense has been atrocious (he will eventually be a great defender), his shooting hasn’t been good and decision making is poor. He just got a lot of minutes to accumulate stats.
It’s just a few of the fringe people on the forum that really hate reed. Most people (i think) understand castle has been complete trash this season. Both of them are purely projections, as is the case with most rookies. Neither have played at close to a rotation level yet.
If Sheppard shoots 40% from 3’s - he will very good. He can score, he can pass well- and when teams come out on him, he can turn the corner very well. He is very much a rhythm player. Defensively he is very good with the right players around him because he is disruptive. He cannot be left on an island though. Castle is currently a poor NBA defender because he is over his head right now. However he is going to be very good to lock down if he puts the effort in long term. He is stronger and longer than Reed and that is important. However he isn’t as good a passer and lacks the court vision Reed has. Honestly if Castle becomes a 38-40% shooter from 3 - he will be a star. Oddly enough the future of both largely hinges on perimeter shooting.
Yes - I would say both have been underwhelming rookie seasons. I expected Reed to shoot better than he has - and Castle has been exactly what I expected, lots of potential but too many warts as a rookie to contribute. Sheppard and Castle will both be very different players if they get their perimeter shooting in order.
I don't think Ime hates him, but I think Ime overvalues defense over offense. And as a result our team is unbalanced, and not likely to go anywhere as we are super easy to game plan for if you have time to sort out your setup. Reed should have been the backup PG all year long....and when he plays well he plays more, but he should have gotten consistent run, over Holiday - who is better right now, but won't be forever. Same with Cam, we are wasting guys in years we are developing..... DD
This is mostly stone’s fault. Unless you have a situation where the coach and gm are really aligned, the coach only cares about right now, and winning the game today. Holiday simply shouldn’t have been on the roster, and that’s on stone.
Then the GM needs to step in and tell Ime to play them, that is literally his job...to have the longer term plan in play. Think Billy Beane trading Pena.......in Moneyball. DD
Some people who hate Reed keep posting Castle highlight vids in Reed threads when Castle isn't really that good so far. They so desperately wish we picked the other guy. We saw similar things about the Green-Mobley comp and the Smith-Banchero comp. But it's never as crazy as the Sheppard-Castle comp.
If Sheppard shoots 40% from 3 he will be on FVV's level at the very least. But that's a big if right now. I don't really see the passing and full court vision from Reed due to low minutes. He gets like 11 mins a game and mostly stands at the perimeter waiting for an outlet pass. I don't think Castle is a poor defender at all. We shall see however I think Castle is def further than Reed is right now.
Reed has been much worse than either Green or Smith. He is shooting 33% FG and also just got injured. OTH Castle "not very good" is the likely ROY. Not really a surprise people wish we picked Castle instead. Reed has one great game the entire season, otherwise 4 ppg is already better than his game average. Reed is the the third overall pick and he gives you 1 pt per pick, think how insane that is. What's crazy to me is the all out defense of Reed despite how bad he is. Jalen and Jabari never got this protection. How many people are trying to bring down Banchero and Mobley just to justify how bad Jalen and Jabari were? What I see is people **** talking Banchero and Mobley when Jabari and Jalen are popping off, not when they are playing like crap.
Castle with 20, 7, and 4 tonight…averaging 24, 5, and 5 the past 5 games we’ll continue having people try to gaslight u into thinking he’s been abysmal while the guy that averaged 3 ppg on 33% shooting showed a ton of promise
