Hey! Has anybody seen @Bobbythegreat?? He hasn't posted in this thread for nearly a week! Maybe he's somewhere hidding with Rafael Stone
For Sheppard to turn into a playoff rotation player, he needs to add another 15 lbs of muscle, as Brunson has. Even 8–10 pounds with tons more strength would be a huge bonus. But Sheppard can't afford to lose even a step in quickness. Brunson has found a way to stand in and defend, so it can be done with Sheppard's height and wingspan. It was year 3 that Brunson was 4th in the 6th Man of the Year award (playing for Dallas) at age 24. Reed will be 22 in year three. Another curious factoid: Brunson didn't average 31 minutes a game until year four. Give Sheppard more strength, seasoning, and skill (he has to do more with change of pace off-the-dribble), and he'll have a fine career. But that's with everything falling into place. Castle, on the other hand, seemed like a sure-thing, playoff rotation player who would have challenged for minutes from day 1. But I'm not sure Stone wanted another guy to compete for minutes with Green and FVV as his starting backcourt. He also had the dream of Amen as a PG. So Stone threw his gamble on Sheppard, a guy who would need at least 3 years of development time, with higher upside potential. To date, Stone lost on that one.
I want people to comment on my post who still will take Reed over Castle? I'm still collecting receipts...
Everything is all what if… as much as I hope and wish Reed succeeds, we will never know if it actually happens whereas with Castle, he’s already proving it in real time right now. All we can do is hope Reed becomes the Steph/Nash/Stockton combo but he has to get stronger and his handles has to get better.
Welcome to the world of cornball stat lines where they try to convince you of .... something ambiguous. Anytime they throw totals and age into the mix, you know something hilarious is going on.
Congratulations Spurs fan on Wemby carrying your team to the finals.... but why are you in the GARM? Spurs fan content goes in the Dish.
Castle is def better than Reed, I have said so since Day 1 and got a ton of flack from Reed fans. As I said back in the draft combine, Reed is a 6'1.5 guard with Trex arms while Castle is a 6'5 athletic beast with POA defense and ball handling capability. It was a no brainer to take Castle just like it was a no brainer to take Amen. However, the 2nd season has made think Reed will still be a good player. He made such a drastic improvement from 30% from 3 to 39% on 7 attempts. He has a high feel for the game and while not a natural playmaker he still capable of making passes and being an enabler. Defense is bad RN but if FVV and Cp3 can be good defenders so can he. Next thing for him is to improve his handles and work on his release even more.
Castle is going to the finals averaging roughly 19, 5, 7 and 1 on 48/36/82 splits, .575 TS, greater than 2-1 A/TO ratio, 1.6 made 3P per, 6FTA per And then... Reed, he... well 12, 5, 2 and 2 on 30/29/75 splits, 41% TS, less than a 2-1 A/TO ratio, 2.7 made 3P per, 0.7 FTA per That got to sting brother. It stings for all of us, but you in particular, oh boy. Are you GOING TO TAKE THE L MISTER? I think Reed can be good, maybe he'll be better than Castle by the end of things, but clearly Castle isn't a bum like you've been begging for him to be.
I have been a fan of Shepherd, but in this comparison, Castle is clearly the better player. He is more athletic, stronger, faster, and aggressive. Castle was a turnover machine in the first two series games, especially. On down the road, who knows. Castle has a MUCH better coaching staff. If I were Shepherd's agent, I would get him out of Houston.
The board lost on this one, like 95% of this board wanted Reed lol Now everyone wants to play hindsight and pretend Castle was the only choice and picking Reed was stupid
Jeesh! You mean he gets to the basket too! I wish Reed could do that, if he can just get past his man I would be happy.
Most definitely not a Spurs fan, Im cheering on the Knicks!! Just pinpointing what a mistake drafting Reed Sheppard was.
How come you don't bring this energy against Stone for the Jalen pick? That was an even bigger miss, he was picked higher and was a worse player.
There’s still a couple loyalists fighting till the end. @Bobbythegreat @DaDakota @LosPollosHermanos But overall those die hard faithful Reed fans said many things that weren’t true. They said Udoka was racist. They said he was Curry like. They said he was a “rhythm” player. They said his confidence is rocked since he gets pulled out of games. They said he is still a rookie. They said he can’t play well with inconsistent minutes. They said he deserved to be a starter. They said he is better than Castle. They made excuses for him.
Yes. A large part of the game is mental. The physical can be addressed through an excellent off season conditioning program. Reed can get stronger. He can improve technique. He can improve agility. He can be coached up on defensive technique. AND, he can definitely improve mentally by someone who genuinely has confidence in him.
Seems that Rockets were hoping to find their own version of a Stephen Curry type player. And perhaps the Rockets talked themselves out of taking a fella like Castle. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves here, the Spurs are in the Finals because they won the generational lottery in Wemby. Heck for all we know Reed could have been the perfect compliment to Wemby with his style of play. Nevertheless, as of now you can’t argue that Castle has been a lot more instrumental to the success of the Spurs, than Reed has been to the Rockets. Unfortunately the Rockets and Ime have treated Reed with kid gloves, if not for the injury to VanVleet, Reed might only have averaged 15-20 points a game.
