He's a little smaller and not the same degree of rim protection, also he can't finish inside on the roll like Capela. If he could he'd be an all star - I actually don't think he's good enough at any one thing. Maybe he's mildly better fit than Sengun becuase he can space the floor a bit more and guard in space but if he's your starting center, you're going to get absolutely bossed by teams with big guys inside (San Antonio, Dallas)
I'm certainly not a hater of Reed Sheppard, but I have always tried to temper enthusiasm about him because I understood what level of prospect he was coming out of the draft. I do think he has a chance to become a very good starter in the league; as you said, he's young and inexperienced right now. But based on his combination of demonstrated skills and physical tools, it's not looking like his most likely outcome right now. There is considerable improvement to get from where he is now (decent 6th man level play) to that point. And I simply don't see any real possibility of him becoming a superstar level player. I don't believe he will ever have the elite playmaking or the rim pressure necessary to get there as a 6'3" guard with no elite physical traits. Who is the best player his size in the league today? Brunson? For me, Brunson, while really good, is not a top 10 player. Do we think Reed will be as good as or better than JB? Because I think the odds of that are nearly nonexistent, unfortunately. I do agree that the Rockets' young guys need to get better at drawing fouls, by the way. We did see some improvement from Amen in that area this season.
If Reed can’t learn to dribble he’s gonna be a clear bust as a #3 pick. Very disappointing handle. A failure of our scouting. You don’t draft an undersized guard with a bad handle. Completely ridiculous.
if Jalen Green can tighten up his handle then so can read. We need to give him the ball and put him in favorable positions.
I still don’t think Jalen’s handle is all that great, but obviously I’m rooting hard for Reed to make big improvements there. I’m just generally disappointed that we didn’t go BPA, which to me was Castle. Reed was a need pick. I thought we were still rebuilding so I want BPA. But I was happy with the pick at the time because we haven’t had good shooting in the Stone era. I didn’t evaluate Reed a ton. My big surprise and disappointment is that he didn’t have better handles coming out of college. And to me that’s a really big factor in deciding to draft him. Hope u are right and that he shores that part of his game up.
I think Castle is a great player, but I also feel like it would have doubled the already glaring lack of shooting. Having Castle/Amen/AlP play together in significant minutes is begging the other team to play zone.
Watching Castle in this game 4 witnessing how good he is. What a waste of a pick on Sheppard. Not even close talent and ability wise.
I’ve been thinking about which team drafts a player plays such a role in how that player’s career goes. Reed may not end up being a starting caliber player. Stone May have gotten that pick wrong. We don’t know for sure yet. But one thing I’ve very sure about: Reed is in a terrible system with the wrong coach to maximize his skill set. You don’t draft a guy like Reed to pair with a coach like Ime. There is zero offensive structure; no system. It would be interesting to see what Reed could do on another team in a different system. We are a terrible fit for Reed.
I think they can make it work especially if Castle is a 6th man. But even if they play together. He’s still a better midrange shooter and 3 pt shooter than Thompson and teams still guard him out there plus he’s an additional driving threat. They would have been hard to stop
I see the exact opposite in the type of coach. You need someone that can negate the negative effects. When Reed made shots, the Rockets looked very good on offense. Maybe Udoka is a horrible coach that will never do anything. Saying he's the wrong type for Reed is just narrative when I think the data is pretty clear that Reed depended on defense help, and his offense was really variable on his ability to knock down shots (i.e., his defense depended on coaching and the offense seemed to depend on him mostly making shots). I'd like to see Reed play with 3 other shooters. I think this is probably more important than the coach for Reed's offense. The Rockets just didn't have the personnel with FVV hurt to do that much last season and maintain a defense.
Jalen can at least do behind the back or between the legs dribbles. We have seen him just cross guys over and break guys ankles. Reed has the most basic dribble package. He can't even do a between the legs in game.
