I hate the Reed v. Amen discussion. PnR is something Reed can do well. Amen does other things well. To me, it is the Amen v. the other non-shooters, and it is Reed v. the other not great POA/switchable defenders.
I want them to remake this basketball card with Reed Sheppard. It would be great to see Sheppard get 30-40 points against the Warriors and Curry can graciously pass the torch.
Reed Amen KD Bari Sengun This should be the starting lineup and should have been since FVV went out. Eason is a bench player. The offense is night and day when Reed is on the court, because he’s the only healthy PG on the team!
It would be great if he does that and the Rocket’s win. One thing for sure, Kerr is going to out coach Ime. If Curry is still out, we probably win whether Reed goes off or not, but probably give up a 20 point lead to make it close in the 4th.
"Hate" the discussion all you want - it's one that needs to happen. The decision of whether Reed or Amen should be the primary offensive initiator is incredibly important. The decision as to whether Amen should be a point, point-forward, or forward is incredibly important. And this isn't a Reed v. Amen discussion in the sense of "should Reed start over Amen." It's a discussion of "how best to maximize Amen and Reed's talents on the court together."
I think how they played together last game was just fine. All year it was planned for the Rockets to have mulitple initiators with Amen and Sengun getting the lion’s share. What changed was the perception of how Durant was going to be used and the absolute nightmare of Point Sengun instead of Hub Sengun. Reed has played great and is improving in his ability to break down defenses. Amen’s mid-range shooting is improving and he has always been able to get to the rack and create shots for his teammates. They are complimentary and should be sharing the floor 30 mins a game. For the most part, one or the other should initiate the offense. Sengun and Durant should be finishers. It seems Ime goes with this game plan for 3 quarters and then goes full tard in the fourth instead of trusting what has worked the whole game.
I really like how they played together last night, but I'm not sure Amen "initiated" the offense much. I mean, I guess it depends on what you mean by initiating the offense. When Reed and Amen were in the game together, Amen often brought it up, but to me it was mostly to push pace and to see if the defense would give him a lane. If no lane was open, Amen looked to dish to Sheppard, Sengun, or KD to initiate the sets - then, Amen would either set a pick or fade down to the dunker's spot. When Sheppard brough it up, Amen did not really operate like a "guard" per se and focused more on setting offball screens and operating from the dunker's spot. This is exactly how offense should run IMO. Great balance all around and very difficult to defend.
Pretty sure the Rockets always assumed KD would initiate much of the offense. Mostly his own, but still initiating. KD is easily the best offensive player on the team. Sometimes, the Rockets lean too much on him, but he's not the reason defenses play a free safety.
Ime's mistake last season was waiting too long to give Reed a second chance as the backup to Fred. Reed was getting those minutes at the start of the season, but he simply refused to shoot the ball. He looked terrified of being benched(granted, a valid concern when Ime is your coach). So he wound up being replaced by Aaron who to his credit shot 40% from 3. By the time Ime finally went back to Reed, it was already past the halfway point of the season and then Reed unfortunately immediately broke his hand. The pretty much ensured he wouldn't play the rest of the season. What I do NOT excuse from Ime is him refusing to play Reed or Aaron in the playoffs when we desperately needed scoring.
He sucked last year. He was far weaker physically and unsure of how to play at NBA speeds. The fact that you still can't understand that speaks to how you view players like Cam and KPJ.
I see Reed and Amen both developing. How they develop will determine who is the primary, secondary, or tertiary initiator. I don't see an antagonistic relationship between those two, development, and short-term success. Amen v. Reed implies it is one or the other, and not how to maximize their abilities on the court together. To me the isssues are getting enough shooting on the court with Amen without sacrificing defense, and having enough POA/switchable defenders on the court with Reed without sacrificing offense. Maybe Reed and Amen won't be a good mix going forward with the other players on the roster. However, I don't see it as those two are oil and water. I would see it as one or the other not being able to fit with the other Rockets. Ideally, the Rockets likely want only 1 non-shooter on the floor long term, and only one guy that doesn't handle switches well/POA defense. The roster currently doesn't meet this ideal. Long term, the Rockets will try to find a way to overcome it (e.g., Detroit just going all in on defense), or they make roster changes to make the roster fit.
This was finally a game where Reed actually got credit for assists. So many games he delivers perfect dimes and the dudes clank them or miss a "give me" shot. He needs to be the primary ball handler because he puts pressure on the defense, finds the open man, and reduces the time KD/Alpi have to handle the ball and thus our TOs.
Reed's point guard play still has a lot of ups and downs, some times when he picks up the dribble for no reason, telegraphs his passes too much, loses track of who's behind him, those sorts of things. But he's definitely improved a lot and you can start to see the vision as he improves his conditioning and cleans up some of these mistakes. I'm definitely leaning more toward him eventually being good enough to be one of the primary ballhandlers, and Amen moving back off the ball more often (although he should still get plenty of opportunities in transition and early in the shot clock).
No, he was never given any real opportunity last year....because Ime is a complete moron. The only thing that has changed is that Reed has gotten the kind of opportunity this year that he wasn't given last year....and the ONLY reason it is happening is due to FVV getting hurt. 65 IQ Ime would do the same thing this year that he did last year to Sheppard if FVV was healthy.
