Who should Reed have been matched up with defensively last night?

We saw Reed mainly on Kennard and Smart, with spot possessions on Rui.

Kennard got him to commit on the closeout facing up then burned him to the rim.

Smart immediately flipped into the post up (with no help for miles smh) and just beat Reed to pieces bullying him.

And Rui dove to the rim off ball where Reed had no chance on the lobs and weak side boards.

My opinion:

Kennard was the best matchup. Ime should have left Reed on him and let Reed attack his handle and learn that matchup.

Reed is essentially a rookie. He's got to learn. And it's sad that he wasn't given the opportunities to learn this season.

But he has to be put in places where he can learn.

For contrast..... Steph, a future HOFer has learned.

However, if you replaced Reed with Steph in that matchup with Smart and then left him alone with no defensive help....Steph would get chewed up just like Reed got chewed.

I saw that coming the FIRST TIME Smart caught the ball in iso. In fact I started looking to see who the help defender was going to be and how the rotation string was going to work to figure out who was going to be stuck with LBJ.

Smart is possibly the best post up guard we've seen since Chauncey. Why in the world would you even try Reed on him? And then not only put Reed on him but not send help? I don't get that.

Kennard burnt Reed to the basket yes. But.....Reed could learn that matchup. Kennard cannot overpower Reed. He's simply more experienced.

What would I have done as coach?

Defensively....I would have doubled the ball out of LBJ and forced the ball to Kennard and forced Kennard to be the playmaker. It's not his forte. Kennard has a weak handle. Ime should have kept Reed on him and coached Reed positively through every possession.

And then I'd cover LBJ AND smart with length. And make them beat me shooting 3's off Kennard creating.

In my opinion..... we should NEVER see Reed in iso against Smart without help. That is the most ridiculous matchup other than expecting Reed to take LBJ 1 on 1 with no help.

 

It's really pretty simple...... whatever defensive matchups Steph cannot handle in iso without help, even in his prime, our coach should not expect Reed to handle. He should not put Reed in that situation.

Ime is proving nothing doing that other than his own stupidity, especially here in the playoffs.

And no.......FVV (who is and has been one of the most versatile and great defenders as a small) cannot handle Smart iso'd in the post either even though FVV has great strength and a tremendously low COG that Smart would likely have bounced off of for the totally uncontested 7 footer.

 

Only comparing Reed to Stephen DEFENSIVELY because they have similar DEFENSIVE ISSUES!

No quality coach trying to win the game would leave Steph on an island defending Smart. Especially in the playoffs!

If no decent coach would do that to a fully mature vet player of similar build to Reed then why would Ime do that to essentially a rookie in the playoffs?

I guess I should have said Jared McCain instead of Steph so you could have texted up another stupid post that you wish Reed was as good as Jared or some other tarded something.

Same thing though. Do you think Daigneault is going to leave Jared on an island defending Smart?

Ime is coaching like a re tarded bigot.