Reed is the only one who gets a pass. He has no playoff experience and is just not physically there yet. I was happy with his season and can see him taking another major step. A packed paint isn't an issue for shooters.
But Michael Jordan played with the flu in the playoffs! Just joking. What I saw last night from this team, I dont even know replacing the coach would matter. Get them easier shots maybe. Put them in the right positions defensively maybe. What I saw though, was everybody from this rebuild, were doing too much. Coming down jacking up shots with out moving the ball. Driving in the lane with no intent of passing the ball. I think this team is selfish and how do you fix that as a coach? How do you get someone in here, thats going to make these players realize they are role players?
We’ve been doing that for 2-3 seasons now, not going to magically get out of it. remember the excuse last year after we lost as the 2nd seed? That we didn’t have a closer and KD would fix everything. It’s the same issues with one constant. I agree that the coach alone won’t fix it. But you have to understand that Udoka was integral in roster construction. We didnt just randomly get defensive wings that can’t shoot similar to Ime… the best thing to do is clean house from top to bottom
I understand that. I just dont think Udoka is going anywhere. He got a pass when Fred went down. It was telling by the things Stone said. Unfortunately cleaning house may have to wait 1 more year, though. Too much money on the books that is going to be hard to get rid of. Veterans and rebuild players.
It’s all a value proposition. What is Reed’s value on the market? It’s silly to trade him without good value coming back. He was pretty instrumental in winning 5-6 games this year if not a few more. He has value right now as a sharpshooter off the bench and potential to be more in the future. I don’t think his ceiling is as high as some, but he certainly progressed as a player this year and shot 39% from 3 in the regular season. He is not the first young player to choke in the playoffs. His main limitation is physical. You can’t teach height or wingspan and he is not fast. Can he put on enough muscle to be an FVV type PG with better shooting? Maybe. My take is if you are not getting back a lottery pick in this draft or a player like Ayo (that you have to extend), it’s not worth trading him, although there is one other factor: His trade value is likely to go down, because Ime is going to relegate him back to 20 mins off the bench when FVV gets back.
What’s concerning is his tools. He can’t beat centers off the dribble, and a 40-year-old Mike Conley had him in jail. That game basically gave Ime a get-out-of-jail-free card. And I don’t know how Reed and AlP work defensively. I just hope we actually fix the issues instead of bandaiding them. Losing to that lakers team is really embarrassing.
Yea that’s a very valid point. He really didn’t get around anyone, I honestly attributed it to being sick, he went off for a runner and looked like he had to work extremely hard just to get the shot off Udoka is not to blame for reeds poor showing. To the extent that everyone shot poorly…I do blame the lack of an offensive system that favors going out and playing 24 hr fitness ball let’s give Sheppard another year. I feel that’s an appropriate amount of time. He’s already improved a lot from his first season
Reed needs to work heavily on his handles - he needs to get better at beating guys off the dribble, would like to see him working with someone like Nash or CP3 in the offseason. If Ime had his way, he would only be a 6th man bench scorer - it is up to Reed to break that mold. DD
Disgusting team performance last night, especially Reed's. Reed showed a lot of progress overall, year-over-year. He showed flashes of PG skill. He and Fred should work out together this summer, and study endless loops of tapes of Nash/Kidd/Stockton. Reed needs to get stronger and meaner. His only long-term NBA future, if he's going to have one, is at the point. I still have hope he'll validate that #3 draft pick and turn into our version of Peyton Pritchard. It takes time and patience. I wouldn't blow the roster up, though I wouldn't mind losing Sengun and Tari if that'd fetch us a valuable two-way player. Hoping Fred and Adams/Capela and Durant return 100% healthy. What to do with DFS, Tater, JDD, Holiday, I just don't know. And for goodness sake fire Ime and/or hire an offensive coordinator. Our half court offense was a clown show all year.
Even outside of this series, you can see it in the regular season too—he struggles to consistently get to his spots. Some of the misses are understandable, but there’s really no excuse for how often he’s missing wide-open looks. It feels like a focus issue, and honestly, that applies to the team as a whole at times. I’m not giving up on Reed, but right now I just don’t see star potential. And for where this team wants to go, they need more from him. I also feel like he needs a true rim protector behind him to help mask some of his defensive flaws.
To dribble like the players you ask Reed to work with, he would have to have some level of FLEXIBILITY and Reed does not have that. He's very stiff, like Jabari. I think Jabari would make an awesome SF but since he's so stiff in his movements, he's better served as a PF. Which brings me back to Reed. Since he is so stiff, he will never be able to get past his man consistently, especially in Playoff situations. Which brings up my next predicament with Reed. Is he a PG, SG or tweener? I think he is a small SG. His decision making in the half court is nowhere near good enough to be a PG. Which brings me to another point, do we need a small SG who can’t get to the basket next to Amen? I SAW, NO!
Don’t mind at all that he’s inconsistent this season as long as Udoka is the coach. All shooters are inconsistent. All of them in NBA history except Kevin Durant and including the greatest shooter of all time in Steph Curry. What brings consistency for wings is a steady diet of drives which reduce your standard deviation from the norm. It’s not reasonable to expect a 6’3 lightweight to navigate this paint. If you were pinning your hopes on that happening, blame yourself.
I didnt realize Durant signed an extension. He's here for 2 more years, jesus. Welp that changes what i said of rebuilding in one year.
If we're going to pick one game where Reed was horrible, let's pick on Jamal Murray who was beyond terrible in an elimination game versus Minnesota. It happens to the best of players, and Murray has a chip and many years of experience over Reed Sheppard.
Reed was the least of the problems that doomed the Rockets. It was a whole team breakdown starting with the coach down to their main players. Reed was the least experienced of everyone in the whole team and to put so much blame on him for this disaster is silly, to put it mildly. Alpi and Amen were supposed to be the foundations of the team and they were the most responsible among the players for the results. I do not think trading for any of the main players will change anything at this point. Ime will not be replaced, unfortunately, due to financial reasons. Hopefully, Stone will be replaced but he is Fertita's crutch and soul mate. The only remedy going forward, I think, is for Stone to acquire a couple of veteran shooters, and an offensive coach who will take over the offensive system while serving as assistant to Ime in other facets. Most of Ime's sycophants should be dismissed as they are useless.
I dont know whats up with Reed. Whether he just doesn't have the skill set or what. In PnR with Alpi, Ayton had bad close outs on Reed and he either A) picked up the ball and tried to pass or B) Not make a move until Ayton was able to get his defensive balance again and try to drive past him, which he was not very successful at. On defense, he couldn't even do the intangibles of chopping your steps and squaring up the offensive player. Letting Austin Reaves blow past him and it usually involved Sengun in that mix as well of PnR. It's the look on his face when he's on the defensive side of the ball that has me worried. Every player on this team is flawed, but I just dont know if you can correct them or if the positives outweighs the negatives. Only positive I see is is his shooting. Every other facet of his game to me is a negative, that you just can't get around. That's why I say he's not a keeper. I wish him well in his journey, but if I was a betting man, Reed would be like a 8th guy off the bench in a 9 man rotation on any other team.
