Bane is a turd and is well overdue for a teeth-loosening pick. Here’s to hoping that Sengun keeps freeing Reed up around half court with some MAJOR collisions.
Report from the Wizards game: This is the first game where Reed has put together (a) the solid on-ball defense he showed in the Kings game and (b) the caffeination he showed earlier in the season. It's the standard he needs to strive for in every game. I think the first part, the tactical and discipline part, will stick. He'll probably have some off games where he loses focus or gets rattled or his head isn't in the right place, but most of this is learning. He's been learning how to position himself and how to react to various moves. He has leveled up. The bigger challenge might be the second part. I've rarely seen him get back to the level of aggressiveness he showed in some games a couple of months ago. The most obvious sign of it is when he steps up with quick feet to take away space from the ball handler. Some games he has that; most games recently, it's been missing. For all I know, it's some kind of chemical thing, like how he's sleeping or eating. He might figure out that part, too. When he puts those two things together, the result is what you saw tonight. It's the kind of defense that gives even Ime Udoka the confidence to leave a 6-footer on the court for 42 minutes. Which, for all the steals and blocks and assists, might be Reed's most impressive stat of the night.
This was an important game for him. He contributed without shooting well. He found a way to score - help out on the offensive and defensive end.
Yeah, that's a worry. His best defensive games have been against the weakest teams. Which is natural, but you'd like to see him put up one of these performances against better guards. OTOH, in the past he's had some trash games even against weak teams. So getting his D up to this level against weak teams is progress. And the next step is to level up from there.
Full season report card, would be nice to see how these grades improved or digressed throughout season though...
meh if he sucked and did terrible, then this board would have crucified him by saying he can't even beat G-leaguers
Granted, Washington is a bad defensive team. They keep messing up the rotation. The assist to Durant early on was due to Durant's guy half-heartedly trying to double team Reed and leaving Durant wide open. But Reed makes the right pass when the defense makes mistakes. That's a good sign of a playmaker.
the best player and will continue to be the best player in his draft class yes better than castle sarr and the rest has a great bball iq knows the right play to make yes low level competition give him the keys hide him on the worst non-center on the opposing team defensively let him use his brain to get in passing lanes, fade and help, and be disruptive defensively stop believing he is a negative defensively because he is not give him the dang ball against great teams and see what happens he's earned that opportunity
That's how it works with G-league level competition. Dominating the G league doesn't prove you'll be good in the NBA, but a player struggling in the G league guarantees they won't make it.
Finally got a chance to watch the Warriors game (I heard the result in advance and didn't have the stomach to watch it till today). Not to rain on the party, but Reed was a major liability on defense. Not slack, just beaten by his man repeatedly, and then he committed I think at least three and-1's? Bad judgment. Plus he got called twice for the thing where he turns his shoulder and runs interference on the driver. He must have cost us at least 10 points. I'm not gonna bash him, since his failures weren't from lack of effort. But he still has a long way to go if he wants to show the league he can't be hunted constantly. The hunting worked in this game, even without Steph or Jimmy. With all that being said, it's notable that Ime left Reed in the game for 37 minutes, including crunch time. Which I think tells us that Ime now believes Reed's offensive value is high enough to tolerate the defensive suckage. Many of us would say that's correct, in part based on stats and in part based on eye test. It seemed pretty clear last night that the offense worked a lot better with Reed on the floor, in part because of his shooting, but also because of the spacing and driving and creating shots for others. He's broadening his offensive game at a pretty solid clip. The PT is paying off. So I hope Ime sticks with it.
Agreed. Will, based on what you've seen over the years with small guards like Sheppard who are more adept offensively than defensively (but seem to have at least a 'desire to improve' on that end of the floor...), how "learnable" -- for lack of a better term -- is defense for a young player like him? In other words is that something where he, as a 21-year old who basically had a redshirt year last season, can somewhat minimize his defensive liabilities moving forward over the next couple of years (and offseasons)...?
Good question. I'm used to thinking about it the other way: You have an amazing physical talent like Jalen Green, and you're trying to figure out how well he can learn to apply and manage that talent. Sheppard is kind of the opposite: at a young age, he seems to be pretty good at learning to apply his physical abilities, but defensively those abilities are limited. He's short in height and wingspan and relatively clumsy at staying in front of his man. My best guess is that he'll learn whatever can be learned. Looks like he's already gotten marginally better at guessing which way the attacker will go (though maybe others of you disagree? I'm just going by eye test and recollection here). He's definitely cut down on the dumb out-of-position swipes. And he's gotten more judicious about when to gamble. I see fewer and fewer dumb steal attempts that leave his man an open path to the basket. Physical improvement is so much harder. Depending on how his body responds, Reed might be able to build enough strength to hold his ground more effectively. He has to stop being an automatic 2 when he gets isolated in the post. Even on drives, he gets chucked aside like a piece of paper. Beyond that, I'm skeptical that his defensive footwork will improve much. Reaction time is pretty baked in. So we have to hope that his mental improvement at reading attackers will compensate for his subpar reaction speed. The other thing I bet he can improve on, just from learning, is getting around screens. When he's playing with high energy, he often steps forward to take away options before the attacker moves. Guys who are good at getting around screens do this all the time. He has to stop waiting for the screen and being a victim. He should be able to do this more reliably, given that he's demonstrated the ability to do it now and then. He's just not reading the situation or seizing the initiative fast enough. I thought Reed achieved game-long baseline defensive competence against the Kings and the Wizards. Against the Warriors he reverted, though his offense was awesome. So I'm curious to see how often he can get back to that level, especially against better teams. Would be curious to hear what others think about your question.
I'm sorry but even in the stretches he's shooting poorly it's undeniable he's the best fit at PG. He makes us look like a basketball team at times, as soon as we rely on Amen, KD and Alpi to initiate we look like ****ing trash. Reed's the one man, he may actually be the one who could hit of the draft picks if we put the jets behind him on that Rocket push. Idgaf if I'm smashed and super high, the man's got it.
There was something odd about those minutes though. Ime put him in the game with 4 minutes and 27 seconds left in the first and left him in without a break until the 2nd quarter ended. It was almost like he was like, "Everyone keeps saying to give you more minutes. I'll give you minutes, and see how long you last." Seriously though, everyone else was in and out and in and out getting little rests except Reed. I just found that bizarre.
