Yes but when they are 21 they are better due to playing and learning from mistakes. Ime has far too quick a hook for some - Cam/Reed and not for others - Jalen, Sengun, Jabari..... DD
Quit saying Udoka's hook for Reed was quick. The leash was extremely long for him. Reed was embarrassing himself game-after-game and was allowed to "play through it" until they literally had no choice but to send him to G-League. In his favor, regardless of how bad he's been, Reed has played team ball when on the court and his head is screwed on. Cam was given a long leash for several games to start the season, but he was so putrid it could not continue. Apparently since then, his attitude has become worse than ever and he's his own worst enemy, not Udoka.
The difference is Jalen/Sengun/Bari all know how to play basketball better than those two and give the team a better chance to win. Also, they are all still very young too and decisions have to be made on them sooner If Cam and Reed work on their game and improve over the off-season they will get more minutes next year.
Extremely long is a stretch. Reed has never played 3 consecutive games of 15+ minutes and has only played 20+ minutes 3 times. Reed was definitely given a shot to play but the leash wasn't very long.
The big difference this year is we are competing. We are number 2 seed and dont have time to mess around with a rookie. When reed was playing he looked like he had no business being on thr floor. I want reed to do great but his calling card is the shot and he has done terrible job shooting. If he shot 40 percent from 3s, he would have gotten more playing time. This is not the season to give players time at the expense of winning.
He was "bad" as a result of the absurdly short leash, the few times he was given legitimate opportunity, he shined. It is what it is, Ime just isn't good at managing rotations and he falls in love with really bad veteran players.
That's a false dilemma, the reality is that the Rockets likely win more games if they more competently managed rotations.
Not all mistakes fall into the same bucket - I think Ime has been fairly consistent with his priority list: - you give max effort (first priority) - you lock in defensively (2nd priority) - you try to eliminate mental mistakes (starting with effort based ones) Cam pouting when he misses shots and not getting back on defense is an immediate hook even if he knocked down a couple of amazing shots before that. He gets in his head and loses focus on the game. That's something he has to work through. Maybe other teams would be more lenient with him, but for a team as good as this, we can't necessarily wait around for the light bulb to go off for him. We want players who put out maximum effort and limit effort based mistakes(not getting back). If he runs back in the same scenario but ends up latching on to the wrong assignment - that's probably not going to get him the hook as quick. Him getting back and figuring out his defensive assignment right after a miss or a no call or a bad turnover is part of how we expedite his learning curve - if he isn't doing that, he doesn't get minutes. ...for Reed - the problem is entirely different. He plays tentatively and gets lost in the offense/ defense, and makes lots of scheme mental mistakes. In the games where he has got the most minutes, he has been largely aggressive and plays with an edge even if it means more mistakes. I think he has to learn to play harder and be "felt" even if it means he is going to make more mistakes because ultimately Ime wants each of his guys playing hard and providing resistance to opponents, over guys playing mistake free basketball.
When did Fred VanVleet start writing for SI? Spoiler Blah blah blah B/R clickbait garbage Bleacher Report writer Eric Pincus listed Sheppard as a potential trade target for the Utah Jazz. "The Jazz are rebuilding and may prioritize the draft in 2025 and 2026 to get their next franchise-level players. That could open the door to a Markkanen trade, which may be the best way for Utah to add prospects like Sheppard and draft picks. If the Houston Rockets land a player like Kevin Durant, the Phoenix Suns may prefer Markkanen to Sheppard, opening the door for Utah," Pincus writes. Rebuilding teams like the Jazz should look to target Sheppard as a low-risk, high-reward prospect who could thrive in a different situation.
Reed averaged almost a quarter a game and was averaging 12 mpg for most of the season. When you consider he is scoring 3 ppg on absolutely horrendous percentages Rox are trying to win he was given a really long leash. Look at how much time Darko Milicic got and Darko was still so much better than Reed.
