Sure, obviously he’s not in his prime after less than one season of minutes. To me he is completely untouchable in a trade though, i have plenty of patience. I don’t give two ***** about the durant timeline, he will be retired before the main guys are ready to win.
In the new NBA world of tag-based defenses, rolling by Capela is not that effective. Plus it is rendered useless against zone. Adams is definitely superior screener v zone. Don’t forget Bogut and let’s not forget Bogut, who rarely rolled, and wasn’t a 3PT threat either. Yeah, he did moving screens, but Adams is such a good screener, he doesn’t need to cheat. I’d compare what adams brings to bogut, bc of adams passing iq DHOs, Split-Action and beating Zone like, it’s not as simple as Reed with the ball looking for a screen, there’s Adams DHOs for Reed, and Adams as handler when Reed’s in split-action. Or Reed with the ball v zone. A pick then short roll by adams into the middle allows him to get a pass back from Reed (should a shot not be there), and now we have the ball in the middle of the zone in the hands of one of our best passers. And I’m not inventing this, we’ve seen it. Sengun Quick Short Rolls As for Sengun, I agree (and Ime mentioned it in the Spur’s postgame), sengun and Katie need to look for shooters more. But in fairness, his ghost screens (or quick short rolls) are often because it’s just a way to get him an unhindered entry against single coverage when he has a step on them. It’s the pocket pass that FVV is noted for. This is a common NBA action for scoring big men. It’s and easy entry, started by a pick and quick short roll. but yeah, he might do it too much. last note: have we seen much of Reed vs Ice defense? That’s another classic situation where Sengun would reset the screen, but the screen inherently doesn’t need to be “good” for the ways you typically beat ICE. You’d expect Sengun to release on the reset.
I hope I'm wrong, but I don't believe in Reed Sheppard for the long term. Too undersize and slow on defense. Only reason he looks so good is because he is the only shooter on this team. If FVV was healthy...Sheppard would barely get any minutes. Again, I hope I'm wrong and he proves me wrong...but I think we should trade him when is value is high.... Sac In: Reed Sheppard and DFS Hou In: DeMar DeRozan and a unprotected 1st (Kings will do it)
If FVV played as a starter and took all of sheppards minutes our offense goes back to being putrid-er. Not to mention FVV is done as a rocket. Any thinking that he’s going to come back, spend an entire season getting back to shape, then being impactful at near 40 is rooted in pure fantasy Reed is just as undersized as half the guards in the league. Most of them are scoring guards too, so again look at stats and don’t rely on the eye test where people fixate on every 3pt Miss, every blow by etc
I don’t think either of your points are a given. Curry is much quicker than Sheppard and his passing is elite. Sheppard is a good passer, but makes a lot of mistakes still. This is not to say he might get there at some point, but asking him to give that level of gravity this year is a tall ask. Reed should be playing 25-30 mins a game. I don’t care whether he starts or not, but for this year, Ime needs to lean into more set plays for Reed off of screens and spot up 3 pointers. Durant needs to defer to Amen and Sengun to initiate the offense. Sengun needs to become less selfish and be fine with 20 points and 8-10 assists. If Ime would commit to this plan and Stone gets a backup combo guard, we can make some noise. If he continues with the Durant and Sengun ISO’s we are screwed.
You are right about FVV. Are you saying 40 mins or 40 years of age? He won’t come close to either when he comes back. That is hyperbole. I think FVV sucks and shouldn’t even be on the team, but you are being a little trollish with this take. Reed is headed toward 25 mins a game and can make an impact this year if Ime can dial back the Durant and Sengun spam and set more picks for Reed and Jabari and institute more motion off the ball. Can he do that? Doubtful, but if he can, we compete this year.
My point was FVV is in the twilight of his career he had a season ending injury and hasn’t played for a year He’s not going to come back to save anybody, and contrary to revisionist thinking he was good, not great (and majority of that was +defense) therefore FVV coming back is unlikely to change anything particularly if we start him that isn’t trollish, I said the same thing to the countless people that kept spamming DFS will save us
Adams is an excellent passer. Capela doesn't pass. This is why Capela's value has drop a lot when his quickness to the basket has diminished over the years. The problem with a pure rim runner is that it's not difficult to defend. Only if the roller has the options of passing to an open shooter or turning it into a post scoring play would it be effective. Sengun might not be a good lob threat. But he can pass and he can do low post moves. Adams is not a lob threat either because of poor finishing skill. But he is a great passing big man and he knows positioning better than anybody.
We are on the same page, although I don’t think Reed is untouchable for the right price. Screw the Durant time line. I actually would love to trade him, depending on the return. He is a bad fit.
Just the 40 part was trollish. Fvv sucked last year on offense and he will suck this year. The extension was idiotic and I wish he was in the trade for Durant rather than Jalen. I wanted to unload both of them and believe we could have got a first for Jalen.
I think Adams is a fine backup center. I think Capella is adequate as well. Neither should be playing more than 10-15 mins in a backup role and should never be on the floor with Sengun.
He's not though, he's not quicker and his passing is decent but nowhere near elite. The warriors always had to spring Curry open with moving screens and they always needed someone else to be the primary ball handler.... Steph has only lead his team in assists 5 times in his career... and most of those were worth someone else like a tenth of an assist per game behind him... he's not some Chris Paul type. The primary difference is that Curry is the greatest shooter in the history of the game and while Reed is good, he's not on that level. Also the Rockets don't have a coach to scheme Reed open and don't have the passers to get Reed the ball even if they did. Some passers are willing but not able and some are able and not always willing.
Well after this game he probably will no longer be above average TS% for a shooting guard. And honestly since his big breakout and teams actually play him legit, he's been below average for a guard. So I'm not really making a bad faith argument even if w are baking in the technicality that guards have slightly lower TS% as a group compared that of overall NBA players. In the end he's been an average efficiency scorer. That's not a great player.
There are a couple of things here. Reed being a 40% 3pt shooter and a below average TS% implies, and in his case very correctly, that he's not scoring well inside the paint. Whatever the reasons for that, I say Ime but I know that's not a popular opinion based on how people respond to my posts about Ime not being a good coach for Reed, the end result is that he's not an overall efficient scorer despite being an elite shooter. So either he scales back his scoring, in which case he will never be anywhere near what FVV has been as a defender and PG, or he continues to inefficient inside the arc which greatly reduces his strengths as a shooter. Either way, he's not going to be a low-tier all-star the way FVV was in his prime. Castle being of similar skillset to Amen isn't a detriment Rockets fans make it out to be. I know most fans don't look to the future, but when Ime runs Amen into the ground and he starts missing games or later in his career starts to lose some of his athleticism, you will probably regret that he has to play 37mpg because the Rockets gave him no backup.
If you include his 10 or so game slump asked AI since don't have the time: Reed Sheppard’s true shooting percentage (TS%) for the 2025-26 season — inclusive of recent games such as the game against the Philadelphia 76ers — is approximately 57.3%. How That Compares to the Average NBA Guard For context, typical NBA guard true shooting percentages in a given season fall roughly in this range: Average guard TS% (regular NBA season): ~56–57% (combining point guards and shooting guards across the league). Guards often average slightly above 55% TS depending on role and usage, with top efficiency guards pushing into the low-to-mid 60s. — Based on broader league norms and standard positional splits (NBA guard averages). Comparison: Sheppard’s ~57.3% TS% this season is roughly at or a bit above the average for NBA guards. He isn’t elite league-wide but performs at a solid efficiency level given his usage — especially as a second-year guard with role expansion. If you exclude the last 10 games (good and more so the bad ones since he slumped quite a bit) >60%
