Why is Reed Sheppard still not starting?

Pistons living with two non-shooters. .

Cade
Duncan Robinson (shooter)
Ausar Thompson (non-shooter)
Tobias Harris (shooter) / Stewart
Jalen Duren (non-shooter)

In closing lineup for offense, Ausar can be swapped for a shooter, and Duren in their for rebound and box out.
Cade
Duncan Robinson
Beef Stew
Tobias Harris
Duren

In closing lineup for defense.
Cade
Ausar Thompson (in for Duncan)
Tobias or Holland
Isiah Stewart
Duren

When Holland is playing with Ausar and Duren, they have three non-shooters on the court.

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Our non-spacers

Amen / Sengun
Bench: Clint, DFS (technically a spacer, but not shot well this year)
(not counting Tate)

Spacers:

Kevin Durant and Reed Sheppard
Techncially also: Tari Eason, Jabari Smith, and maybe Okogie, Holiday.
(not counting Jeff)


Pistons defense is better, so them living with two or three non-shooters still results in more wins than us. Our defense slipped this year, there likely are other teams out there two (or more) non-shooters. This team just had to make the best with what they have. This including slipping in Reed when they can.


Ideal for the Rockets:
Amen gets better at corner 3.
Sengun gets better at middy maybe. There's still adv in center being closer to rim for box outs and rebounds.

Alp's current midrange is questionable. Until he works it this summer, if he's getting doubled, he should emphasize the 'hub' in senHub and pass out more, especially when he's not in the deep post. Don't settle for a contested flamingo, trust an open teammate.

 

Agree that Sengun/Reed will be solid on offensive end. But not sure how Reed/Sengun can co-exist in a lineup on playoff team if they're both below average perimeter defenders. Way too easy to exploit (See: Bane, Desmond). No doubt Reed can stuff the stat sheet though. He needs more lessons at the FVV school for the short

 

Building around Sengun is not my preferred option. I, as a fan, would prefer building around Amen, although I am open to both. My point has been that building around a non spacing 5 is the easier option. And that building around Amen puts a team in a super constrained position.

We're talking in circles a bit because you keep raising guys who can't / have never been able to play full-time C (JJJ, Sarr etc.). Heck we have one of those guys in Jabari. They necessitate having another C on the court most of the time, and then that guy has to be able to shoot. And then we are back at square 1.

Or theoretical / future projection guys who are not there now. No point disputing conjecture.

The broader point stands imo. If Sengun is traded to solve the spacing problem, we would need a new player who is actually, next season, a starter level C who gets guarded at the 3 point line and can play full time 5 on a very good defensive team. Or else we haven't solved the problem.

This isn't a new Rockets-specific problem. Milwaukee has dealt with this for years re: Giannis. Hence the extreme move of the Dame waive and stretch to get Myles Turner to replace Lopez. These guys are unbelievably hard to find. Turner has been basically the only acquirable one for a while now.

 

I have been using Steve Nash's career trajectory as a bench mark for what I think Reed's could be and I just saw that Nash didn't begin playing NBA ball until he was 22. Reed is only 21. In addition, Nash didn't start putting up decent scoring number (15.1 PPG) until his 5th season at the age of 26. Before that it was all single digits. Reed is already averaging 13+ points a game and he is just beginning to catch his rhythm and building some consistent confidence. I think Reed has the potential to give Nash a run for his money in the talent department and I'm looking forward to the future with him.

Hope he has a great game tonight against the Warriors.

 

Well most people aren't very smart. Silas lowered our expectations for what a coach should be that if you made a hot pocket the head coach it would have been an improvement. We was just so excited that our coach was actually talking and engaged we overlooked his deficiencies. Now its glaring.

 

Ime the terrorist

 

reed on the bench, no spacing and pg play, down 7 again

 

So tired of this garbage. It’s too clear that Reed needs to be playing point guard as much as possible.

 

national TV announcers just talk about him all day.

When your coach was a scrub 3rd stringer this is what you get. There highlight is a closing out on a corner drive

 

Delete

 

We talked about Reeds conditioning which he obviously has to improve....

One of the issues with him coming off the bench right now is hes playing too many consecutive minutes. Starting him would allow for a normal rest pattern so he can be fresh late in games when we need him.

 

John Stockton for his untouchable assists & steals totals, wasn't even a starter until his 4th season. Also started at age 22.

Steph Curry was good from the start but not great, didn't even make the All Star team til his 5th season age 25.

I don't think Reed is getting "cheated" near as much as claimed. Its fine if he can be eased into it (as long as you keep him)

 

Im really not as worried about Reed's career trajectory as I am about how he's being used that best helps the Rockets. I dont think Ime has been the best for his development, but at the root of it I am more concerned with how his development and usage affects the team.

 

I wonder how we would have looked if Sam Cassell got the job...

 

If Kenny Smith was injured I dont think Rudy plays Vernon Maxwell at pg. Im pretty sure of that at least.

 

Rudy essentially invented the stretch 4 with Horry. And yet Doc Rivers is who gets named a top 15 coach of all time.

 

Ime is an idiot and can't get out of my city fast enough with this D2 level coaching.

 

That 7th seed had the best record in the entire league from the point of trading for Butler to the end of the season.

That's no typical 7 seed.

 

All that may be true and maybe it's easier in the future to find a stretch 5 .... but the real question here is why are some so insistent on building around a very flawed player who literally has no "offensive bag of tricks" and isn't more than a 4th or 5th option in the half court.
Sengun may not be a #1 but he's proven he can play second fiddle to another good player and sustain an offense - even if he's double / triple teamed.

One of these guys is very flawed, the other really isn't - Sengun shooting 30% from 3 isn't terrible for a center who doesn't take many to begin with. Amen can't shoot from anywhere accept "at the rim", he's 36% from anywhere outside of 3 feet. He's so bad that defenders don't bother to guard him, they guard the space between him and the rim while hedging towards either the paint or the wing shooter making it very easy to double team either. Alpi is the 3rd most double teamed player in the league, Durant isn't far behind - Amen is the reason.

The leap that Amen has to make to be in the same stratosphere as SGA or Ant or even Sengun level is leaps and bounds from where he is currently, no jumper, no floater, no runner, no 3 ball, and it's not "just shooting" that he lacks - no step back and no euro step and not a particularly good handles and not good as the pick and roll ballhandler - really an empty bag offensively.
He does a lot of things well, transition, defense, cuts & rebounding but I don't think any of that outweighs the damage he does to the half court offense. And in the playoffs, everything tightens up and slows down and that half court game is infinitely more important.
As for his defense, good offense will always beat good defense. The rules favor the offensive players more than ever.

As for the thought of making a decision on him, yeah, the clock is ticking. Next year is the last year of his rookie deal. Do you really want to see him go to RFA and either lose him for nothing or be forced to match some insane contract? I think not.
That means you either extend him or trade him either this offseason or at the deadline next year. That's probably easier to do in the offseason than it is during the season when lopsided trades are easier to accomplish because of expanded rosters and maybe you can get into this years draft as a result.
Also, I'm not sure that his trade value won't be lower the more information teams have on him.


One of them is a solid 2nd option, the other is a 4th / 5th option that might someday be a first option IF a lot of things come together - the odds of all those things happening are pretty slim.

 

[narrator] He had a great game against the Warriors, and it didn’t matter because of the early hole.