Why is Reed Sheppard still not starting?

The last 20 games, Sheppard has averaged on 11 points on 36% from the field. I don’t remember Green having a “streak” like that.

 

If they are not going to try to win a title this year, let Reed start at PG. Play Davison at backup point. Lower KD's minutes to around 30mpg. If Sengun is injured sit him out. If not, also limit him to 25-30mpg and let him try to play more from the outside and shoot more shots. Let Jabari take a bigger role in the offense. Try to have the team play different defense that's not double-big related, due to it being suspect if Adams can fully recover or stay healthy going forward.

If the Rockets end up being in the play-in, so be it. It's not like going full board will result in more than a 2nd round exit anyways.

 

What’s weird is how he teased it for a few games then took it away

 

5-1 with Reed starting.

 

What's weird is you guys really don't understand he's not ready to lead an offense (as he's doing with the 2nd unit) however he is perfect as a role player in the starting lineup. He would annihilate teams if you gave him Jabari's shots, there's no doubt the defense wouldn't ever cheat off him.

Further, he has incredible gravity. The reputation he's earned as a shooter is appearing on the floor in ways it has never done for Jabari. Teams will come out to 30 feet to defend Reed. That means you can pull one person out of the play, they can't cheat onto another player and the paint is less clogged than ever for Amen/KD/Sengun.

He's also literally the only person on the team who has looked good running a basic PnR with Sengun. An extra play we can run for some relatively good efficiency. Sengun needs that.

Time to start him.

 

He won't get shots like Jabari because teams guard him completely differently.

 

That's our choice. If we put him in the corner like Jabari, teams won't leave him open 80% of the time as they do with Jabari. So the real effect of it will be we take those mediocre possessions and turn them into:

1) Leave Reed open, he annihilates you.
2) Guard him closely and the guy who was cheating off Jabari can't hassle KD/Amen/Sengun anymore.

It's a win-win.

 

I mean, in an ideal world Reed is working with Jabari. We run these pick and pops with KD and Jabari a few times in a game but what happens is Jabari is left open not because he can't hit shots, he can, but because the defense knows KD is a chucker and 90% of the times ain't passing the rock, so what it really is, it's just a screen to get KD an open lane so he can shoot a more uncontested middie.

It's a mirage basically and teams expose it as games get close because KD don't pass the ball. All love to KD, he's going to pass Jordan on the all time scoring list, but every player has a flaw, even ones as legendary as Durant, and his is he can't pass the ball. He completely sucks at it. His mindset when he's touching it is he's gonna score because most times he will, and it kind of gums up our offense a lot because both teams know he's gonna shoot it. Even Barkley noticed how the team played faster without KD on the court because everyone is working off ball knowing if they do so, it might result in a good play rather than KD ISO chuck up middie swish.

Great KD teams all have one thing in common. A great PG. From those GSW teams to the OKC teams which had Russ in his prime and to the Nets teams that had Kyrie and Harden.

All this to say, the team NEEDS a PG in the worst way. Reed might not be ready, that's true, he's definitely not ready to call off KD and tell him nah, we're running this play for a hot Jabari right now, you stay in your spot, but Reed is really all we have.

Taking Jabari and swapping him off Reed won't change that teams will still double KD when they need to, they don't care who they are leaving open because they know there is a good chance KD will turn the ball over or they will double off Sengun, Amen, DFS, WHOEVER.

The offense as a whole is broken because it utilizes KD as an initiator far too often and not the finisher he's supposed to be and it is all because Ime doesn't trust anyone to just be the PG for this team full time. It's PG by committee, they don't even have Amen doing it all the time they take turns bringing the ball up the court.

 

I see your perspective but don't agree with it. I think Jabari is left open because Jabari is a below average shooter and well below average for an open shooter. Teams prefer an open Jabari to a KD shot with single coverage. He's left open 80% of his shots.

Teams will not leave Reed open. There's a universe of difference between Reed and Jabari's shooting on open shots. It's not a small difference. It's game-swinging difference. We've never in our lives seen Jabari getting run off the line. It's happening regularly since Reed's 50th game in the league (roughly). Even if KD doesn't pass the ball, he will get doubled less often. If he gets doubled, then it's dagger after dagger from Reed.

They have to start Reed. The entire team needs it. Amen, Sengun and KD need that guy to take a massive volume of 3's and help bring up the ball and set up some offense.

 

Jabari is shooting above average 3 point percentage. Not sure if you’ve been watching the games but he’s been hitting his shots better than most on the team lol.

 

Starting? Starting? It would just be great if he got to play more than 20 min.

 

i hear that he's a 'generational' shooter... lol

 

For the season and guys entire career, he's literally below league average. Unless you pick some games out or look at recent streak or isolate by position. The fact of the matter is we have 4 years of 35%. Teams leave him open a lot now and he still can't eclipse league average. On open shots only, he's well below league average.

If he were a career above average shooter I'd happily round up. But when you're 1% below league average despite being more open than the league average shooter and this has been happening for 4 years... I'm obviously not rounding that up.

That's not the only problem. It's also the fact that league average is not good enough. If he ends this season just 36.5%, we should trade him. He's ok but we can do better and we need to do better at that position.

 

He sure is.



DD

 

#SaveReed

 

League average isn’t an appropriate statistic or indicator of shooting efficiency or player ability. League average dataset takes into account the entire league. This means players who don’t play much who shoot 100% etc. What are other PF’s in the league who play at least 30 min shooting? What about starters with at least 30 min? What about his peers? You’re also talking about 1% 1/100 shots lol.

 

Probably below league average but above average for his position. If it wasnt for that weirdo slump he'd probably be between 38-40% for the year. He's shooting 41% from 3 his last 10 games.

Of all the young guys, I'd say Jabari has made the most progress this year. Followed by Reed then Amen. Sengun seems to have gotten worse.

 

go
to hell Ime

 

But he’s not … lol. League average for all the players this year is 35.9%. Jabari for this year is 36.4%. That’s without removing any of his awful stretch games. So he’s “literally” above average this year for all positions overall, despite being a 6-11 power forward.

It’s ok if you don’t like Jabari, let’s just not use incorrect info to tear down the 22 year old who’s been playing very well for us lately.

 

He’s also above league average. League average is 35.9%. Jabari is currently 36.4%.