Reeds biggest enemy is himself. He tends to make things harder for himself. Hit as many 3s and jumpers as he can is priority #1
Would like to see him be able to beat his man off the dribble. I think it messes with his confidence when he can’t do that.
Report from the Mavs game: If you’re a diehard Reed fan, you might want to skip this one. Some of the worst body language I’ve seen from him this season. So bad I wondered if he was sick. Maybe underslept? Whatever it was, he shouldn’t have been out there. And it’s a shame, because with Alpi out and KD in foul trouble, we needed Reed to generate some offense. This was his chance to shine. And he came up empty. He had almost no bounce in his step. From the time he came into the game, he was a half step slow on defense, hanging back, not closing space on the ball handler. Twice he got juked out of his shoes by a fake and drive from the corner. At least three times, he got blown by because his reaction time was too slow. On offense, he jogged through some cuts, which made them useless. Several times when he should have been running or repositioning, he was literally walking. He left a bunch of shots short, very unlike him. Even one from about 8 feet that came back off the front of the rim. Near the end of the 3rd, he tried to help Tari off the floor and failed. Dragged him 2 or 3 feet till Okogie stepped in to help. A couple of times, he reverted to bad habits, maybe because he knew he couldn’t keep up. Retreating in transition, he gambled on a dumb swipe at the ball, leaving his teammates outnumbered and leading to a dunk. I think Ime saw what was going on. He pulled Reed about 2 minutes into the 2nd quarter. Maybe he thought a little rest might help. But when he put him back in, Reed was still a step slow, circling around screens, trailing where he needed to be. He gave Reed another chance in the 3rd, but pulled him again less than 2 mins into the 4th. And that was it. I’m still a big Reed fan. But it’s more and more clear that to help the team, he needs high energy. He needs quick feet and aggression to make up for his size. When he’s slack or weak or slow, he’s creating more problems than he’s solving. And he needs to be on the bench.
When DD said Reed is a generational shooter and so much better than Castle I knew the falloff was coming
True, but that's kind of to be expected with young players. So long as he bounces back and they aren't frequent, it's no big deal. I mean, Jabari was every bit as bad and he's been around for years.
I mean, Reed is much better as a shooter. The last 10 games - a “cold” streak for Reed - he has still shot .37 from 3. Castle basically averaged his season average of .27 during that span. Castle is really good, but an Amen / Castle backcourt would be unsustainable.
I predicted that teams were going to adjust and start muscling Reed all over the floor, sending double teams at him, and targeting him on defense. It is the reason I saw him as a sharp shooter off the bench this year. Until he can find the strength and ability to consistently beat his man off the dribble, he is not going to be a starting level PG. In playoff basketball it would be ramped up even more. I am not saying he can’t overcome this during his career, but currently his elite skill is shooting the 3 ball. He needs specific plays to free him up. Ime’s Iso heavy offense does not play well to Reed’s current skill set. Reed and Amen will someday be an effective backcourt, but having 4 guys that are best at creating from the top of the circle (Amen, Reed, Durant, Sengun) is not something this coach can overcome. Reed’s value to this team right now is as a spot up shooter not on the ball. I think Ime will roll with the current starting unit and start to lean heavily into defense first players the rest of this year. It is fortunate that now we have defensive players like Tari and DFS that shoot the ball well from 3. The Durant trade has had quite a few unexpected side effects not all positive on this team. A lot of us, myself included, underestimated the impact on defense of losing Jalen and Dillon. Tari and DFS can help to fill that void if they can stay healthy. Inserting Tari into the starting unit has moved Durant away from having to play perimeter defense and has helped the overall team defense. DFS will have to take up the slack when Tari and/or Jabari go to the bench. Okogie should have some of his minutes restored. Reed still needs substantial minutes to develop, but I think those will drop down to around 20 minutes like was intended before FVV went down. I still believe this team has the ability to compete with anybody when fully healthy, but Ime is the wild card. He has to create a better flow on offense and manage his rotations better.
I think Reed is an elite shooter he just isnt a generational shooter. A generation is 10 yrs and I think Kon Kneupple is a better shooter than him already. I believe in drafting BPA not drafting for fit so I try not to think of the current roster when it comes to the draft. If we had drafted Castle last year then worst case you can trade Castle for Reed+ extra stuff now. At the end of the day I guess it doesnt matter as much as Reed is at the very worst the 4rth best player in the class so its still a great selection for the 3rd pick.
Reed is pretty smart. He is studying the tape every day and making adjustments. I think the backlash over some bad games where the defense is adjusting to him because he is a major threat (pause and think about that statement for a second) and he is learning how to handle it is part of the growing pains he was expected to have to go through when being selected #3. He is living up to the hype. I'm thrilled with watching him.
I think it is spacing and whom is setting the screens, we have just a few that actually roll to the basket. DD
Yeah, I agree with this assessment. In many ways Reed is best as a system guy today...but our offense is so iso heavy the system is really just 'be ready' for when doubles to Durant/Sengun cause an opportunity to catch a defense into their rotations and otherwise anyone who gets the ball has to utilize a screen or take their man one on one. This is really about the difference between personnel to support a singular talent like KD vs a golden state like system built to create many attack points across the court with a single talent leveraging their own gravity to facilitate getting the ball into those attack points.
