Reed Sheppard report card

When the eyeball test matches the stats....

Starting Lineup in the 2nd half Offensive Rating below. Basically looked like a couple of the starters were content that they were going to win and decided to get some baskets on their own at the start of the third instead of playing what was working.

 

Charlotte is laughing at you and putting you on the blocked caller list if you offer that.

 

Kona a franchise player. amen and reed are pieces but not the franchise player

 

Last night's game was not typical because it was a blow out at the half against a bad team.

But at least the first half shows how the offense can be having another shooter on the floor.

 

Disagree, everyone gets to play against GOOD and BAD teams - that is why averages are the norm.

Reed isn't going to score 28 ppg against better competition, especially with his limited minutes, but he should be playing 32mpg or more every night, he makes the Rockets better.

There is a lot to learn against bad teams too, you can see how the team will fit together once the dust settles and apparently that is very well.....as long as REED initiates.

DD

 

I don't see it as that guaranteed that Kon will be significantly better than Amen. He is a defensive liability, and teams are really wary of that these days (see: Trae Young). He is already a better scorer than Amen, of course, and he is just a rookie, not a third year player about to get paid. That probably gives him more trade value, but it's not a laughable proposal. It's probably more like "we're not looking to trade him at this time, but thanks for offering". And I suspect the Rockets might actually say the same if Charlotte were to call to offer the same deal.

 

i am a fan of ron nipple's game but he ain't better than amen.
anyway, speaking of apples and oranges...

 

Elite vision and passing is a great skillset to have but it's only as good as your ability to take advantage of it by truly creating opportunities for others - like James Harden finding ways to get otherwise very limited offensive players like PJ Tucker, the opportunity to get 8 easy points a game. You need players "open" to really make that valuable which means it doesn't amount to much unless Reed is able to shake most NBA defenders and get shots off that consistently go in. Only then will he consistently force the help and then he will need to demonstrate he can make high level reads when defenses are dynamically changing coverage on him - so far he hasn't ever got that type of attention from opposing defenses - certainly not like guys like Harden and KD get.

Right now Reed is a high level connector - but that is of much more limited value because it depends on someone else creating the opportunity to get open(smart off ball cuts, KD forcing rotations and Reed getting an opportunity to read the rotations as the ball comes to him). Its the difference between being an elite finisher at the rim - but not having the skills to get to the rim and having to rely on others to get you those opportunities. I'll say Reed has improved a lot here but he really needs to get to a place where he can punish single coverage consistently before he can take advantage of that vision in more 'ceiling raising' ways. I would say Reed still needs a good screen and a specific matchup in a switch to get consistent separation from defenders - nothing wrong with that, but our best screeners are very limited offensively and our best offensive players are not necessarily versatile screeners. This is where we run into lineups issues and why I continue to contend that Stone has done a bad job of building a real "team" who enhances each others' strengths and mitigates each other's weaknesses.

 

Agreed. I think people are still underestimating how hard it is to run an NBA offense.

I strongly disagree with this as I think the FO is still unsure what type of team to build. I think KD can fit with any team or style but building a team with Amen and Sengun?

My two cents: The KD and FVV extensions in the offseason gave us a short term window to evaluate the young core with real stakes (playoffs) and pick a direction.

 

Reed needs to spend a summer watching how Curry moves without the ball, including how he uses screens. There are tons of shots available for him if he can mimic even 60% of what Steph does. Part of that is getting more comfortable with less shooting space. Of course, Steph is able to do all that because he's in an offense that encourages it instead of having him just stand in the corner. For instance, I don't know when I've ever seen Reed cross the court along the baseline, run his defender through a bunch of trash, and curl up to receive a pass.

In many ways, the incompatibility of Reed and Amen is the movement. Amen needs to be cutting and weaving through the half court and Reed should be, but having two do that at the same time is chaos. Right now, the default is to Amen but we should see what it looks like with the emphasis on Reed. So, I'm in favor of Reed and Tari playing together with the other starters to see what happens. Whether he starts or not, he needs to eat some of Amen's and Durant's minutes.

Reed also needs to get the point where he is comfortable being pressured by an in-your-face defender while bringing the ball up. Too often he lets himself get hurried and gets pushed out of position or picks up his dribble or makes a bad pass. In his defense, his teammates often don't do enough to help him out with screens and creating passing lanes when he's pressured.

On defense, one of his strengths is that he knows how to get low when going for steals. That's an underappreciated advantage as many players aren't anticipating someone coming from below their chest height and taking the ball off the floor. It's the kind of thing that can make players hesitate and feel like they need to find him before making a move. He still needs work on defensive positioning and moving his feet to stay in front though.

He's kind of like the softball player I am--if I drive in more runs than I allow to score by errors in the field, it's a good game.

 

I agree with you that I think the front office is still evaluating - my point is, I think they gotta start making decisions because old man KD isn't going to be around forever. I think this is where myself and others here were thinking we should have been playing Reed more last year and maybe done more of this 'point Amen' experimentation as well.

The problem with the current front office AND coaching is we bring in guys like Fred, KD, Stevo, Capela, etc - and we give them a lot of minutes - even at the expense of our young guys learning on the job. I agree with making informed decisions - but you gotta strategically carve out time in your playing time to make sure you are "informed". If we give all these minutes and elevated roles to players not ultimately in our future plans and it's at the expense of the guys who ARE potentially in our future plans, then we have made a mistake. I believe that is the mistake we are making right now in real time. KD isn't just 'a better version of Jalen Green's scoring' - he comes in as a vocal locker room leader...along with Fred. These young needed direction and examples of how to play a few years ago - FOR SURE....but giving the ball to KD every possession in the 4th and putting him in the role of leader of the team does NOT give Alpi or Amen or others an opportunity to stretch and learn how to put a team on their back and lead.

The goal of our current front office is to have insights other teams don't so THEY see a player's habits, personalities, and limitations that other teams can't see because they don't have a way to see how players are showing up for practices, film sessions, how they prep for game days, etc. Part of a GM's job is to extra value from the difference between what we internally think a player's ceiling is from the rest of the league's view. If we wait until it's already fairly clear who is a dud and who isn't from their on the court play, then we aren't really doing our job of extracting the most value we can out of each pick. Selling low on top 5 picks who have been in your system for years is not the stuff of responsible GMs and that's really where I take issue with Stone's reluctance to make any meaningful moves at all with any of our players/picks - Stone is not doing a great job of managing our opportunity cost. Take Jabari - he may have more left to his ceiling but you aren't trading him for a top 3 pick even in a weak draft anymore. He's a useful player - but there was a time when people considered him a #1 pick - and he has NONE of that value anymore.

 

Spurs royally effed up

 

And it’s also “unteachable”.. Either you’ve got it or you don’t. You see things others don’t see. Having said that, pulling it off IN GAME is situational and we’re an unorganized mess on offense + the high degree of bricklayers on the floor at any point. And I agree with your assessment about Reed punishing single coverage.

 

@Houstunna make a gif

 

Sheppards process is the best amongst the young core. Once his skill set develops he’ll a be scary good offensive player.

 

Ummm, the Rockets have already shown that while they will give some resources to try to win now, and the Rockets FO is not committed to throwing away resources if things aren't looking good. KD getting older isn't going to cause the Rockets to throw good money/picks after bad.

 

...but the whole point is this isn't an asset collection game - it's a "build a title contending team" game. I agree the front office has done a good job responsibly collecting "assets" - but assets don't make a team - you gotta turn those plus assets into a team and taking "best player available" year after year is a recipe for asset collection -not team building.

So I ask the question - WHEN are we going to turn this collection of assets(Bari, Tari, Reed, Amen, Alpi, Tate, Fred, KD, Stevo, etc) into a real functioning team with a real identity and players who complement each other because right now, everyone can see that the offense doesn't look great when we play "plus" individual assets like Adams, Alpi, and Amen together.

To put it another way - I can make some amazing dishes with apples or bok choy or sesame oil or chocolate.....but if I have to put them all in the same dish - it's probably not going to be very good unless you are an unreal chef(which Ime is not).

 

With Amen Sengun Reed Jabari and Tari we have a 10+ year window. Right now I am not confident on this team to go "all in". Getting KD was a great move but it doesnt mean we build around KD or are tied to his timeline. More importantly, I dont think Ime is currently good enough to be a champion head coach unless you give him an all star team he wont win a ring.

The only guy on this roster who doesnt fit is Amen, and thats because a non center who cant shoot is hard to fit in the modern NBA and we have a head coach inept at offense. The rest of the young players fit extremely well as shown in the last game vs Kings.

 

Yeah, thinking about Spurs getting Kon gives me nightmares. Good thing I wake up and realize it's only a dream.