In a game where Reed ostensibly struggled, he still was the best player on our team BY FAR and had to put up with a lot of shenanigans from his teammates that he wouldn't on the real Rockets. I'm super excited about Reed Sheppard, though I will temper my expectations because Summer League is just Summer League...and though it seems like we have a few friends that are still not aboard the HMS Shep, methinks you'll come around eventually
Fantastic break down of who he is and what he showed in Summer League as well. I still believe that Sheppard will be much better with the big club when playing with high end talent. Such a perfect fit for this team.
I really love the guy’s skill set, and feel for the game. But man… if he can’t develop the feel for the PG spot (which is incredibly hard to do) then I’m really nervous about his size as a combo/2 guard. I know Deshaun Nix hasn’t missed too many meals in his life, but he looked massive going up against Reed. In the NBA he’ll have guys just as tall but much longer, faster, and more athletic. There’s this assumption that because Sengun is so dominant that Reed will be left unguarded and he’ll just have a field day. While that would be amazing, I’ve just never seen that be the case in the modern day NBA unless it’s in really unique situations like when Harden was playing out of his mind and Ariza was constantly left open. Even then, Eric Gordon was always guarded. Hell Ryan Anderson was guarded and was ineffective. So I’m just not buying this notion that in the big league he’ll be much more open because he’ll be playing with better players. Even so I’m happy with what I’ve seen in SL. Reinforced that the guy can shoot even though he struggled from 3. Having that mid range game is huge as we can all attest with Chris Paul, and those who remember with Stockton who had a nice mid range game as well. That’ll help if he’s playing point. But I haven’t yet seen that elite court vision and passing yet from Reed. I’ve seen good passes, and a great feel for the offensive sets. But not yet that elite elite point guard skill set that only the all time greats possess. So I’m still concerned but there’s a lot to like and I see why the guy has fans. However if you realize how historically weak this draft looks to be Reed looks not so bad. We’ll see in a few months.
He is going to need a lot of picks to get open. He obviously has the BBIQ and mid-range game and passing ability to be good at PnR offense. Most of the other times, he is going to have to make a living as a spot up shooter. He just plain does not have the speed or shiftiness to get separation. We’ve seen it the last 2 games against summer league scrubs. NBA guards will be on him like glue and bully him relentlessly his rookie season. I hope I’m wrong, but I see a lot of time in RGV this year with our extreme roster crunch. If Jalen doesn’t show up, Stone will have to find a SG replacement outside of the organization very quickly for us to compete for the playoffs. I’m still holding out hope for a Brogdon rental. Sheppard is smart enough and athletic enough to mature into an NBA starter, but I don’t think he’ll be in the rotation before the half-way point of this season at best.
I'm actually surprised Sheppard has played as well as he has in summer league. It's really not built for guys like him who can't impose physically. It's complete AAU ball with a bunch of players with no defined role or scheme. I don't really need to see any more of him. At this point I think he's got a feel for what he needs to work on, at least nothing he can work on in the mess of summer league.
He averaged an efficient 20 PPG overall, with virtually no wide open shots, and no offensive system to create shots. It was all glorified street ball that didn't even use what he should be best at. He clearly isn't incapable of scoring with a person guarding him
I would argue that he'll look A LOT better with even one or two NBA caliber players out there beside him, so I don't hold a lot of what happened in the last 2 games against him. Besides Sheppard and Cam, there's not another player on the summer league roster that belongs in the NBA and that was a lot of the problem. Sheppard was getting mobbed by opposing guards and the bigs just watched it happen and did nothing because they had absolutely no interest and even less ability to set even the most basic of screens properly. Even when Sheppard managed to serve up buckets to those scrubs on a silver platter, they'd find a way to screw it up. If teams try the same thing in the games that matter, Sheppard will make them pay for it because he'll have some actual talent out there with him rather than a bunch of make a wish kids. No one is known for setting harder picks than Steven Adams and guys like Amen Thompson are going to finish at the rim when Sheppard sets him up with an open look. Also, there's a chance Sheppard is actually able to play off ball a bit and won't be the ONLY player on the roster capable of dribbling a basketball.... It shouldn't be surprising that Sheppard is not an ISO heavy player, that was never going to be his game....and the guys he's compared to, it wasn't their game either.
I don’t want to overreact to summer league but I guess we have learned a little more about his weaknesses: 1. staying in front of his man on defense (that was also a problem in college so I guess this will stay a problem for him with the pros, since it is tough to improve lateral quickness) 2. struggling with guys harassing him (he should be able to get better at that with coaching) 3. careless with some passes (he should get better at that with coaching) 4. shooting threes when gassed (should get better with conditioning) So overall I feel pretty good with where he is at. He is already better at being a floor General then anticipated and also better at the midrange. So overall I was high on him before summer league, I am higher on him now.
This was a great game for Reed. Did it expose some of his weaknesses? Yes. But guess what? He adjusted himself mid game and was objectively really really good after that. in the first quarter and a half he was what 0-6 with like 6 turnovers. in the final two and half quarters he was 9-11 with only 3 turnovers (albeit still too many there). and as for the is he a pg for real stuff… that still stands out to me as his best trait. He has incredible vision and frankly wants to pass too much. Can operate PnR really well. Hits kick outs and to the corners. Etc. If anything folks shooed be more concerned the 3 pt sniper we drafted looks like a meh 3pt shooting point guard… if one wants to be concerned. I think he’s now 5-18 from 3. And that’s after starting 4-4… so he’s 1 for his last 14. Yikes. I tend to fall into the seemingly unspoken camp of “it will come around his form is too good and he’s been blanketed since that start except for a few opportunities”…. But objectively, that’s just not good.
One thing I would like to stop in general is this stigma that's attached to the G League, like it's some embarrassment to spend any time there. The NHL and MLB both utilize it for a reason. It's a perfectly fine tool to use to smooth the transition. I thought Jabari should have spent time there to start his rookie season. Very few 20 year olds are ready for real NBA minutes. Calipari doesn't really run an NBA offense, so it's all new to Sheppard. RGV can set up an offense tailored to him to get him much needed PG reps. I honestly think he'll be a more valuable player than Holliday to start the season, but I certainly wouldn't be opposed at all to giving him a month or 2 to get settled.
Reed is a complimentary player. Most third overall all picks are more independently skilled / minded and self focused. He is a role player / team member. The good news is he fits what we got going on though.
I think it's safe to say you can attribute his poor shooting towards the tail end to conditioning. He's 20. He never played NBA stater minutes. Used to less minutes. There is a misconception that young players have more energy. Young players are less injury prone than older players but older players have better conditioning especially NBA vets who are used to being 35 minutes per game staters for multiple seasons. So it'll take some months of NBA game time for Reed to get his conditioning up which is normal and not much of a concern for me.
I've seen different games than most here. The main reason we picked Sheppard was because of that 3P% in college of near 54%. He went: Summer League Game 1: 4/6 Game 2: 1/5 Game 3: 0/2 Game 4: 0/5 5/18 = 27.7 (3P%) Not exactly providing much spacing with that. But Apache he is tired, well yeah I said it would be an 82 game regular season, marathon, rough travel schedule, players will lean on him in the regular season to wear him down and affect his shot. His defense is fast hands near half court, where he surprises a lot of players. But he lets everyone blow by him and he tries to pick their pockets from behind, knock the ball off their legs. Pros will gather the ball after blowing by him and Reed will be called for fouls. Grabbing the wrists or hacking the forearms.
