Reed wasn't the wrong pick at the time. Castle was not rated in a tier above. They made a call on two evenly rated players and it seems to be the wrong one. I don't think the pick itself was wrong with their process, the other guy just ended up being better. Only top pick they missed on clearly was Green over Mobley. Most of the national media had Mobley in a tier above Green and our organization pumped up Green to be the next Kobe. He was this 6-6 super athletic competitor with a 7 foot wingspan. In reality he is 6-4 on a good day with a +1 wingspan and a very low feel for the game. G League Ignite got Jalen drafted higher than he should have. The system sucked and that's why it was canned. I won't even consider missing on Barnes or Wagner. Mobley was viewed as in a tier of his own after Cade and the Rockets flubbed it. I was fooled by their messaging too at the time and felt it was more of a coin flip than it should have been. Mobley was the better prospect and now he's the better player. Amen/Jabari were very clearly viewed as BPA at the time. Some people had Jabari lower on the tier list but that's not how the pundits were viewing it. You cannot fault them for not taking Jalen Williams at #3. The only problem i have with those drafts is they attached themselves wayyy too closely to Paolo. I'm honestly shocked they didn't go all in to trade to #1 to get him. The Rockets went into a rebuild with a brand new FO and a very weak scouting department and it ****ed them to a certain extent. The thing that ****ed the organization the most is that they didn't get the PG package for James Harden that summer after the Clippers approached Morey first. Instead they ruined the future for Westbrook and now we are stuck in a new era with two dominant teams in the West and very few avenues for true contention for the next five years.
I see you are steadfast in your proclamation that Reed was the correct choice and can not be swayed. What do you see that 99% of the basketball community does not?
lmao if this dude could hit the backside of the barn on these terrible games the spurs would have won easy yesterday Trevor ariza was a better defender and player while with the lakeshow, but clutchfans has to froth at the mouth over this guy daily
Spurs fans last night…sounds familiar Again, back to the point, it's really about who closes. No matter how bad Fox plays, he won't be benched. And no matter how good Harper plays, he won't get 30+ min, or be trusted to close in Fox's place. Same double standard for KJ and Carter Bryant too. Bryant will make a mistake, get benched or yelled at. KJ will make a mistake, not see any change to playing time or accountability. It's a nasty, nasty habit Mitch picked up from Pop, having this bias against rookies. I hated it with Pop, and I hate it even more now that we've got more talented youngsters than Pop ever had to deal with.
[Highlights] Stephon Castle full highlights vs. New York Knicks (105-95 L) in Game 1 of the 2026 NBA Finals: 17 Points on 7/16 FG (43.8%), 1/5 from 3, 2/2 FT, 8 Rebounds (3 Off. Rebs), 3 Assists (2 TOV), 3 PF, and a +/- of -9 in 34:27 minutes played.
Reed wouldn't even get on the court for any team in this series. The other team would relentlessly hunt him and force him to guard 1-on-1 where he is a liability. This doesn't happen in the regular season but in the Playoffs teams will do the same thing over and over again until you stop it. This is why Marcus Smart, a mediocre offensive player, scored at will on Reed. Every single player on either the Spurs or Knicks would be looking at Reed as if he was bbq chicken.
it’s so funny how people are incapable of critical thought. Once a narrative is painted they live in it for perpetuity. Reed was actually very good defensively most of this year…does he have a few blown by or defensive blunders ? Yes but the dude put crazy pressure on the ball plus was in the top ten in stocks per 36 minutes Ahead of OG, Dyson Daniel’s and McDaniels and way ahead of Castle with his three-point shooting plus his def he would be a valued part of either team in the finals right now and that’s not opinion that’s just playing facts. Don’t udokas random/idiotic coaching style fool you on that
Citing stocks/36 outperformance of defensive studs that are leagues above Reed defensively is…. The definition of “incapable of critical thought.” I want him to be as good as you think. Maybe one day he will. That’s not now.
It does sound familiar. Rockets fans wanted more rookie Cassell in the 4th vs Knicks, too. or, are you talking about Reed …
lol Spurs fans were also talking about how he doesn’t make adjustments…literally thought I was reading CF posts about Ime there must be like 2 actual good coaches in the NBA the way fans talk
Stocks are a great differentiator when their defensive ratings are virtually the same, which is the case of OG, castle and Shepherd Shepherd Has a better defensive rating than McDaniels Defensive rating is your temperature gauge throughout the game and stocks are your home run swings whether they’re paying off or not typically lead to major shifts in momentum in the game so they play a big factor. And this is a season where he was just finally getting to be used getting used to the NBA and having teams target him by putting their best players on him on switches and he still has a solid defensive rating and it was even better than that towards the end of the season, he performed better towards the end of season than everyone on this list based on rating And if you actually just watched the games instead Mindlessly regurgitating he’s bad at defense because you see a couple of plays on highlight reals you would understand
I dont even think Castle is necessarily better the Spurs just have way better dev team while Reed is kinda left on his own to muddle through. Mobley is the better player but also became overpaid and is a role player rather than the star or face of the franchise Rockets needed. Cavs would be paying 55M for 18/8 I rather have Jalen's 23 on 30M with 55% TS that he had last year. Both Mobley and Green were wrong picks Stone just got unlucky just like Orlando who got the consensus 5th pick Jalen Suggs.
Authoring a bias laden novel to justify an awful, simple minded, comparison of the ilk you made is typical for a narcissist - no surprise. D rating lol. Castle and OG lol. Castle, whose assignment every second is SGA while Reed gets hidden and worked over by bench players. Those ratings? GTFOH Your bias is so strong you might as well be stupid b/c your conclusions and methodology driving them would be identical. I’m not sorry your charmin feelings got hurt. I’ll bid you adieu ma’am.
you are an idiot…there is no statistical indicator that Reed is a bad defender other than a few clips on the Internet from random moments in games. I’ve had this discussion plenty I’m not writing a novel to justify my position, if you were able to read competently you would understand. I’m articulating basic facts that evade you because you’re blinded by bias or r****ded or both who knows my favorite part is “lol!!!” At every defensive indicator Lol he thinks because the guy scores 30 points a game he’s a good scorer lol lol lol Ha ha he thinks because the guy shoots 50% from three he’s a good shooter lol hehe … freakin moron
