To me Im not as worried about his footwork on ball as as I am about his anticipation and strength. A lot of times hes able to get in front of his man when they attack downhill but they just go right through him. I think with better anticipation/experience he should be able to get some charges and when hes not in position for that hopefully some added strength will help him not get pushed back so easily. When there is physical contact he almost always loses that battle. He's got to work on his lower body strength and improve his leverage this offseason. In the weight room, legs and core should be his primary focus. For now though, I think what he does offensively plus his ability to get stocks is more than enough to win with and for him to keep getting high minutes.
That's a really good point. He already gets some favoritism from the refs for being small, e.g. they let him shove bigger guys. They might give him the same leeway on charge/block calls. He needs to learn the art of planting his feet and taking the hit. Tate can give him some pointers.
I agree Reed needs to learn to take charges… but I’m fully convinced that Ime doesn’t believe in them. We are tied for the 4th lowest number of charges drawn in the league at 11. (Apparently no one believes in them anymore because more than half the league has under 20)
It's not bizarre. All you're seeing is Ime figured out he can now use Reed to mask his offensive deficiencies the same way he did with Fred. See: FVV's minutes under Ime for reference.
Ime is right not to trust charges. It is often a subjective call and the league is still all about favoritism to stars and to certain teams. Reed’s anticipation and bbiq might allow him to be an average defender, but his physical limitations will always prevent him from being a plus on that side of the ball. The Rockets need his shooting on the court, so it is imperative that Ime bites the bullet and let’s him play 30+ mins the rest of the year more to work on his defense and offensive synergies with the starters. A team that cannot beat GSW in it’s current state and barely hold on to victories against the Washingtons and Portlands (without their best player) of the world, should be concentrating on development the rest of the year.
Yeah we're looking cooked We need to trade KD, FVV, Adams, DFS in the offseason, see what the offers are for Sengun (although I doubt anything will be worth pulling the trigger on). See if we can trade back into the 2026 draft, acquire young players/picks, take a step back and do a re-tool / soft rebuild.
We are on the same page. I’m not sure Stone can pull it off, but with the right returns on Durant, FVV, and maybe Sengun we could be ready to compete again in 28 or 29 when Ime is no longer our coach. I see no hope for that unless we completely collapse the rest of the year and Tito takes charge.
I appreciate the honest assessment of Reed's D game and believe he can get better to be at least serviceable throughout his career. I think his greater importance is actually as the PG starting on offense to cut down the TOs from others. I see Reed as triage until we get an offensive coach. We see his offensive value in what he creates but I think it is also what he stops on offense that matters even more than his D. With 10 games of starting I think he could help eliminate a lot of Sengun and Durant's bad habits from having to do too much this season. SenHUB needs to be retired to the back seat. He's not Magic.
My eye test says that's true: I wince when Reed loses the ball or throws a bad pass that gets picked off, but it seems like our other guys lose it more than he does? What do the stats say? Not per-game stats, but proportionate to how much each player is handling the ball?
That his assist to turnover ratio is the best on the team of those handling the ball. KD is 4.5 apg to 3.3 TOs for a 1.36 A/TO Alpi is 6.2 apg to 3.3 TOs for a 1.87 A/TO Amen is 5.3 apg to 2.5 TOs for a 2.12 A/TO Reed is 3.3 apg to 1.4 TOs for a 2.36 A/TO https://www.espn.com/nba/team/stats/_/name/hou/houston-rockets TOV has the same but listed from highest to lowest. https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/turnover-ratio-per-houston-rocket-player KD - 192 Apli- 183 Amen - 152 Reed - 89 Outside of like JD Davison and other part timers, Reed is far and away our best ball protector of those initiating the offense. Usage to TOs tells the same story. KD 27.4% usage 192 TOS Alpi 27.1% usage 183 TOs Reed 22% usage 89 TOs Amen 20.1% usage 152 TOs Still looks like Reed is leader here too as if you took all the usages out to the same it would increase his TOs by 5% to catch up to Alpi and Durant and that is still way below theirs. https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/best-usage-rate-to-turnover-ratio-for-houston-rockets DD
outside of dickerson, reed is the only one who knows and can score at 3 level however, 1st level is still a lot to be desired but he's slowly figuring it out. he's already attacking the basket a lot more compare to early on in the season. would love steve nash, chris paul, calvin murphy, or rajon rondo to spend one summer with reed.
Assists-to-turnovers is a great stat for measuring PG-worthiness, but total turnovers doesn't work well in this case. Reed has averaged 10+ fewer minutes than the other three, so of course he'd have far fewer overall TOs. TO/36min would be more valid since it represents the same playing time for everyone. That said, Reed is still the best, though he's only half a TO better than Amen: KD - 3.3 Apli- 3.2 Amen - 2.5 Reed - 2.0
I don't think Reed's numbers matter at this point. It's just the eye test of what happens when he controls the offense. Reed has never been a full-time starter so his familiarity with his teammates and actions can only grow over the course of 20 or so games. He has the tools, awareness, and nature/instincts to be a good PG. A good offensive coach over the offseason is necessary to reset the way this team plays.
