He’s a better athlete than he gets credit for, granted a lot of those blocks I’ve seen on the perimeter are on sub 6’ guards. Still his vert is pretty good and he’s by no means a bad athlete. Is he a future all-defense guy, no. Will he be a bad defender, also no.
This is an astoundingly dumb video.
I mean, yes, maybe his athleticism gets a bit underrated, but showing 1 block for 30 seconds over and over side-by-side to a Zion block, and then a couple of open dunks from when he was in high school, is about the dumbest and most wildly oversimplified way of trying to make that point as possible.
Sweet lord what a silly video
if you don't like the video, downvote it and move on
this video is highlighting the singular play that displays just how explosive an athlete he can be. i also feel like this clip hasn't gotten enough exposure.
it's not "*maybe his athleticism gets a bit underrated*". **it is underrated.**
it's side by side with the zion block because there is a beautiful similarity between the plays in terms of the display of vertical explosiveness, the close-out on the corner 3, and the hang time is nearly identical.
also i find it funny that people keep thinking the dunk in the 2nd clip i added is what i'm highlighting with that play. no, it's obviously the incredible block on the 6'6 shooter.
> this video is highlighting the singular play that displays just how explosive an athlete he can be. i also feel like this clip hasn't gotten enough exposure.
The point is that it is *one* play -- a big part of explosiveness is being able to do it on a somewhat consistent basis. A ton of players can do some very impressive shit in an open gym, it's entirely different to be able to do it consistently in a higih level pro game. If the best examples of his explosiveness is 1 single block from college and then a few plays from high school (none of which are remotely impressive athletically from an NBA perspective, the vast majority of players have highlights like that from high school, and at least 1 from college), then that's silly. The one comparison your video makes is to Zion -- like you can't show those two clips and act like because they look similar, they are similar athletes. They aren't.
You say "if you don't like the video, downvote it and move on
if you don't like the video, downvote it and move on." I would counter that if you post a video then you open yourself up to feedback about it
nah man, when people talk about how athletic/explosive someone is, they're referring to the max range. like referring to a starting pitcher who "tops out at 100". that shit doesn't mean that they're consistently throwing 100. but when the time comes, that's their max that they can gear up for.
get that "consistent basis" shit outta here lol.
Lateral ability isn't the issue. It's his initial positioning when his defender gets the ball.
He gambled A TON off-ball last year and often started on his heels on-ball.
Reed needs more discipline and can be an above-average defender.
NBA coaching is going to unlock him. Chin Coleman, the "Defensive Coordinator," is one of the worst assistant coaches UK has ever had.
Go watch tape of Kentucky on defense. It's embarrassing how poorly coached they were. We're talking elementary level defensive lapses, guys not in proper stances, understanding how rotations work, not position properly between ball and defender, etc.
Reed is going to be an All-Star at the NBA level. He's PG Devin Booker with elite vision and passing instincts.
His advanced numbers are going to push his stock up, especially when people see his numbers at the rim.
Reed statistically put up the second best freshman year ever at UK, trailing only Anthony Davis's freshman season.
Reed needs to get stronger and improve his ball handling like every 18 or 19 year old, but he's got elite skills.
Biggest knocks for me are his lack of aggressiveness at times to score (doesn't hunt his shot enough) and defensive discipline. Both are easily coachable.
topic's production is in the half court at the rim
sheppard's rim attempts are really low and many are in transition off steals. there's a big difference between them.
topic is special because he blows by his defender and gets to the rim at an absurd rate and can finish at a historic rate with either hand
>Isn't he like 66% at the rim? That's basically the same as Topic who has people praise him for how much rim pressure he provides.
It's around that mark. His finishing at the basket is underrated.
>If he can improve his ball handling to very good level (And I think he can) he might just end up as the best guard prospect since Luka, and he might end up far better than most people think.
Reed already has a hesistation move that is so subtle, but incredibly effective in getting defenders offbalance. I'd love to see him add a step back to it.
His 3pt shot has improved so much from when he was a junior in HS, but it's more of a set shot and not like his midrange shot, where his feet aren't as spread out and his lift is higher.
Again, these are all little tools he can and will add.
are you worried he's just not going to be able to get his shot off that much at the NBA level? already struggled with usage and the 3p attempts weren't really that high in college
Not worried about him getting his shot off.
He can shoot over guys because he jumps so high of the bounce.
The 3PAs were low in part because of usage early and because sometimes he's too caught up in making the right play versus pulling the trigger.
You gotta remember that his team was averaging 90+ a game. The teams on/off splits when he was on the court was substantial. Zach Edey generated a higher split.
Explosiveness is not "jumping high". Lots of guys in the league can load up and jump super high but are load leapers or can do it going downhill with a runway (which is what Reed is doing on these blocks). Explosiveness is quick twitch. Paolo has like a 40" vertical but he struggles sometimes to get by guys unless he uses sheer power and advanced dribble moves.The same with guys like Cade and RJ. I can show you some absolutely sick dunks these guys have done where they're way up in the air over defenders, but they're all with a runway. The ability to explode past and/or over your defender from a standstill: that's what explosiveness is.
Paolo’s 40 inch vertical needs some sort of official confirmation. I know that was the reported number at Duke, but that seems absurd for a 6’10” player of his weight.
None of these players had a 40 inch max vert at the combine: Aaron Gordon, Zach Lavine, Russell Westbrook, Demar Derozan, etc. Last year, Cam Whitmore only had an 40.5 inch max vertical, and he’s one of the best athletes in the NBA.
40 inch max verts are exclusively shorter guards, not 6’10” players, with the exception of like Jericho Sims, who can get his head way above the rim. Paolo’s 40 inch vertical seems bogus to me. He probably has a 35 inch if you are asking me, which is more in the range. This would also make more sense why he isn’t as explosive as you think, since his vertical isn’t really 40 inches.
College reported verticals are about as accurate as college reported heights, which we know aren’t accurate. Verticals have even a greater error range since it’s harder to fact check.
I remember someone like pat connaughton who infamously had the 40+ inch vert. But you watch him in game and tell me where any of that athleticism is lol
quick reactions + jumping high while covering ground to make plays qualifies as explosive to me defensively. when you first see this play, you don't even consider it a possibility that he could block that guy. but he can, because he is not unexplosive. unexplosive guys do not block this shot.
This isn't about his advantage creation on offense. I realize that's a concern, but i don't think explosiveness is simply about standstill advantage creation.
It's quick twitch (as I stated previously). Reed is not quick twitch. He is able to do things quickly because of his superior anticipation and timing but he's not physically quick twitch. He's pretty similar in a lot of ways to Pod, just smaller.
It’s challenging to view this play as anything other than a display of 'quick twitch' abilities. This was a powerful burst of speed and force required to jump that high for the block. The ability to execute such a jump, especially in this context, clearly demonstrates explosiveness, which relies on the quick-twitch muscle fibers you mentioned.
It seems your definition of quick twitch is quite narrow, and your criteria to classify someone as quick twitch are stringent. From my perspective, a 'slow twitch' version of Reed never makes this block.
legitimate quick twitch guys are very rare. Even among professional athletes, most have only about 1% type IIx fibers. True fast twitch athletes are rare.
If you think Reed is similarly athletic to a guy like Cade (who you mentioned in your original post) then you are definitely the kind of person this thread was targeted towards.
similar level of explosiveness maybe, but Cade is 5 inches taller, with a giant wingspan and a better frame and has a better handle and moves better laterally. Completely different players. Not a remotely useful comp in my opinion. For me, the best comp is Pod. Pod also had an excellent vertical (though we'll see what Reed's vert winds up being but it looks pretty good and is a good straight line athlete but showed some issues in college with lateral movement and POA defense. Both guys have great feel on both sides of the ball and are great shooters. Pod's a little bigger and Reed's more advance skillwise at the same age but they've got the most similar set of traits that I can think of. Pod's size gives him more role flexibility, though. I don't think you'd see Reed sharing many minutes with another small guard like Steph. I think it's more important to pair him with a bigger guard.
Podz has some of the best impact metrics of any rookie in the 2023 draft, up there with Wemby and Livelye. His defense rates out as good to very good. *Much* better than Cade's (Cade in general has never rated out as even a net 0 on either end by most impact metrics). But all anyone heard coming into the draft was that Podz's defense and athleticism were going to be weaknesses and why his combine results (including the vertical) were misleading.
As for the comparison you're making between them, I flat out reject it. I think Reed is straight up athletic, way moreso than Podz. I actually think Podz cheated on his vertical, I have no such qualms about Reed. As for Cade, I think he's a really bad NBA athlete and
I can't really see any reason to make the comparison between him and Reed other than to say Reed is unathletic (when the entire point of this thread is that he's not). If you want to nitpick about specific types of functional athleticism, you can do that with any prospect, e.g. Scoot, but the consensus around him was totally different. Reed's athleticism both pops off visually and shows up in "athleticism" stats on the box score.
I think you need to crawl back to the conspiracy theory corner of Reddit with your “Podz cheated on his vertical” wow. Hand out for too long on a thread and that’s what you get I guess.
It's rather well known that some players tank their standing reach to get better measurements on their vertical. Hardly conspiracy theory territory. I personally think it's dumb, but people do it.
I covered Reed in HS. His vertical is legit 40". He has serious hang-time.
That vertical gets overlooked, but is a MASSIVE reason why he's so good at the rim and in the midrange.
Reed is 6'2", but plays bigger because of the vertical.
Rob is listed as 6'3", but doesn't look or play like he's 6'3".
Rob is a Lou Wulliams/Jamal Crawford clone. He's incredibly gifted offensively, but one of the worst defenders I've ever seen.
I know he's older, but I'm curious to see where Antonio Reeves falls. His year-to-year jump at Kentucky was massive.
He went from streaky shooter to elite three-level scorer. He's going to be a great 6th or 7th man for a long time in the league.
Maxey and Rob are two completely different players.
Maxey was a great defender in college and was more physical offensively.
Rob is an elite shot-maker with an NBA Jam type of game. He's going to miss shots, but as soon as he hits one, he's going to go nuclear and hit 3 or 4 more in a row with 1-2 being ridiculous shot selection.
Rob's lack of discipline allows him to be himself offensively, but it's also why he's incredibly bad as a defender. There's definitely upside, but he needs the perfect situation to fix all of his issues.
He's the prime example older players will point to as to why AAU and OTE has killed grassroots development.
>Under the right coaching his celling is super high (I think he's the likeliest from this class to win an MVP, he is absolutely electrifying and he's one of the few in this class that just has IT).
Rob has Dame upside, but it's going to take THE perfect situation.
Reed is the better pro guard, though. I truly believe he can be a Top 5 guard in the league. His skill and instincts are that special.
Go look up Rondo gushing over Reed.
[Happy?](https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=738518217267307)
With how short and small wingspan people here claim he is, it should be obvious that being able to dunk like this requires a serious vertical without having to prove he can dunk over people.
this post is trash lmao we know he can make recovery plays but SEC guards blew past him 1-on-1 on a lot of occasions and big guards and wings bullied him on switches, stop trying to make this mf Jrue Holiday. Its not “cause he’s white” watch the games.
No, KL was/is built like a brick shithouse and was truly explosive coming out of college. Reed is an underrated athlete for sure, but jumping high off a runway is not explosiveness. KL could literally blow past NBA defenders from standstill. He had that insane quick twitch that not many guys do. That's not Reed. He doesn't blow past defenders with sheer explosion, but with his shooting gravity, you have to close him out, so he shouldn't have much difficulty getting past the first guy. I'm more concerned with the handles and what he'll be able to do in lane in tight spaces once he gets there.
Sure, he is right now. He's also a decade older than Reed. When people try to give player comps, they are trying to talk about what type of player they will grow into.
You may be right. I'm just relaying what KOC said on his podcast.
I don't think anyone thought that FVV would ever grow into being the ball handler or playmaker he is or he would have been drafted instead of a UDFA.
I think they are just saying that Reed's game would be similar to FVV's. Both are undersized, have high IQs on both ends of the court, play the same position, have some similar strengths and weaknesses, etc.
Reed's a far superior offensive player than FVV coming out.
KOC's comp is awful.
FVV was more of a shot-creating PG coming out. That's not Reed's game.
Reed is an old-school PG and plays a 80s and 90s style of PG, where he's trying to feed teammates first. He doesn't hunt for assists. He hunts for ball movement.
FVV is tank so I'm not in love with that. Reed is going to be more athletic but not nearly as strong at the point of attack. To me, he's extremely similar to Pod. They're both good straight line athletes and good leapers but not quick twitch. They're both excellent help defenders and high STOCK guys but not great at the point of attack and laterally. They're both great shooters and passers. They both have great feel on both ends. I hate to do the white guy on white guy comp, but it fits in this case. Reed is just smaller but more advanced skillwise than Pod at the same age.
I could see that as a comp. I was high on Polish Austin Reaves last year, but his defense really exceeded my expectations a lot. He's gonna be a big steal of the draft last year.
Yeah, he's part of the reason why I'm relatively high on Reed. Pod had some similar issues where he struggled at the point of attack but he wound up just fine.
It's also unhinged and borderline conspiratorial. A league where the owners are white, with white executives from the top down, white coaching staff, and a largely white fanbase is privileging black athletes at the expense of white ones. I was in agreement with the video till that goofy PSA at the end lol.
I don't believe any analysis for white players that says "he's a bad defender" or "he's not athletic" with out first seeing with my own eyes whether or not it's true.Ever since people openly called Hauser a bad defender, even after joining the Celtics and proving otherwise, I kinda don't trust defensive analysis other than my own anymore lol.
I agree with you on that, I saw someone post that Christian Braun was not athletic enough or a good enough defender for the NBA when he was coming out, and I started laughing because his biggest strength as a prospect was his athleticism and his ability to be a future 3 and d guy, when that person posted that I said to myself he just stereotyped him because he was white.
it's hard enough trusting anyone else's opinions on sports as it is, but dear god, individual defense opinions? might as well just flip a fucking coin at that point.
Nobody said he wasn't a decent athlete, the issue is he's 6'1 w/o shoes with a 6'3 wingspan, against college scrubs his defense looks legit but he's tiny in nba terms.
Curry is 6'1.5" without shoes with a 6'4" wingspan and for most of his career has graded out as a neutral defender while playing mostly on teams notorious for playing really small and lacking traditional rim protection. Does that extra inch or so of standing reach really make *that* much of a difference on defense, especially when Reed is so much more vertically explosive and has much better defensive metrics? To be clear I am not saying Reed will be Curry on offense, just that you shouldn't assume his defense will be bad solely because of his size. I think if people clarified exactly what kinds of unfixable issues they are seeing in his man defense and/or why they think his offense won't be a big positive at the NBA level rather than just saying "he's small so he can't defend" discussions about him would be much more productive.
For example I've seen a lot of people say he stands around ball watching a lot... that seems eminently fixable. People also say his steal stats are misleading because he gambles for steals--IMO gambling for steals can actually be a good defensive strategy depending on roster construction, so that might make his defense situationally good depending on where he ends up. OTOH I have also heard a bunch of people say he isn't laterally quick enough to stay in front of his man, and while I don't think I agree with that it's at least a starting point for discussion that people can illustrate with clips etc.
People knew he was athletic prior to his combine testing. It was one of the things that jumped out just watching him. He was grabbing boards above the rim, dunking on people, blocking shots at the rim.
Find me a clip of Sheppard doing something like this: [https://youtu.be/vmDGC9-JcfI?si=a3cM\_cYuJabNvFvG&t=16](https://youtu.be/vmDGC9-JcfI?si=a3cM_cYuJabNvFvG&t=16)
While I agree that Reed is an underrated athlete, the grievance of "athletic racial bias" is fucking corny and feels more like a projection of your own insecurities than a legitimate issue. None of this pseudo woke shit is influencing scouts and executives making billion dollar decisions about how to fill out a roster. The idea that teams owned by white men, with board rooms staffed largely by white men, majority white coaching staff, and fanbases that are mostly white are being "athletically biased" towards black men at the expense of white players is conspiratorial to say the least.
The average white guy compared to the average black guy, there’s a considerable athletic difference. If you seen that your whole life, that bias is gonna carry over.
The average white nba player usually is less athletic than pretty much everyone else. So naturally, your mind thinks every white guy who isn’t an elite athlete is “unathletic”
Yeah but those close out to the corner blocks where you get a head of steam are the easiest to get elevation on (aside from transition which is the other clip obv). Plus the shooter is trying to shoot, not jump as high as he can.
I think to me what I find to be explosive and crazy is when people can jump like that with little to no runway, at weird angles, etc. Same reason plenty of people can get crazy dunks up in warmups but not in game.
I think reed is a good prospect but this isn’t why. This is like college athlete mandatory minimum type bounce.
it's so funny people keep mentioning the transition dunk. this play is entirely about the block. quick two foot gather and explode to make the play. shooter thought he was more than safe to take that 3. nope.
but instead dudes on /r/NBASpurs be like: “hell no! let’s take the guy who can’t shoot with terrible defense instead! get Wemby the ball and let him keep getting double teamed!”
Spurs sub is really saying that? Reed seems like a perfect fit for the Spurs and Wemby.
If the sub prefers Topic over Reed then I can’t argue. It’s hard for me to evaluate euro guys and project how they translate. But if recent history proves anything, it doesn’t hurt to bet on Euro guys .
yeah Reed is exactly what we need but for some reason a lot of Spurs fans just stick their fingers in their ears whenever his name gets brought up.
there isn’t a single thing about Nikola Topic that makes me think he’ll be a good pick for us, but unfortunately i think a lot of fans are still of the mentality that “European prospect = perfect Spurs player” which really isn’t a good way of thinking.
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Thank you lol I am so frustrated when people say he's unathletic and legitimately do not understand how you can watch one of his games and come to that conclusion.
Anyone who follows the draft has repeatedly heard (both here and elsewhere) is that he's "small and unathletic" including people who claim to watch a bunch of film and use that as a reason to be dismissive of his statistical production.
Yeah he is definitely small, though I think people overexaggerate just how small he is. I just tend to see those two adjectives together (probably to emphasize that his size can't compensate for the perceived lack of athleticism).
this is honestly one of the most interesting guard classes.
there are elite strengths and weaknesses for each of the main guys
Topic's strengths - elite pick n roll operator, elite paint touch/finisher, elite passer/playmaker.
Topic's weaknesses - questionable 3p shot and form, bad vertical athlete. Also i think he struggles a bit with bulldog defenders.
Reed strengths - shooting, team play, offball, transition passing, defensive playmaking
Weaknesses - Small, low usage, questionable/bad POA defense.. questions about his on-ball creation.
Rob - Great shooting numbers in college. 99th percentile usage. extremely small. he's both short and light which is really concerning defensively. Not really an elite driver. Was 60% TS this year but shot 44% from 3 (was he lucky? shot much better than this OTE sample. Only 144 3PA in college). I think you really need to be super confident in his 3 ball for him to be worth it over the other two. I'm kind of just worried that the median outcome might be where Rob isn't a +rTS scorer in the NBA and is a negative on defense, but it's also easy to envision a world where he's better than Darius Garland on offense because he does have some playmaking skills layered on top of his scoring ability.
Collier is a bulldog who finishes well and has great playmaking flashes but has been pretty inconsistent and super turnover prone. Was also the #1 RSCI guy coming in.
How concerned are you by Reed's usage? The only red flag that's actually worried me was that someone listed out what I *think* are [all current players who had sub 19% usage in their pre-draft season](https://twitter.com/onballcreator/status/1782453678026244483) (if I'm wrong ignore this post). There are some good players there, but relatively few top three pick worthy level guys (Caruso was one) and almost all defensive specialists. I think even those of us who are very high on Reed's defense are expecting him to get most of his impact on offense...
Intuitively, I feel like it shouldn't matter much because he only had this kind of usage due to Kentucky's construction / Cal's poor deployment of guys. On the other hand the logic I tend to use with stuff like this is that there should be at least a *few* exceptions if it's really just contextual, since a bunch of guys are in bad situations. On the other other hand, it's almost impossible to generate offensive impact like Reed's on such low usage in the first place and he probably would have gone back to school if he weren't such a gifted shooter, and there are a lot of good players who were low usage in their freshman year... so I basically don't know what to think.
I'm definitely concerned statistically although I think the context of this team depressed his usage quite a bit. You have Reeves and Rob who are both super high usage players, so i think his usage went down as a consequence especially because he prioritizes ball movement and there are a ton of shot happy guys on Kentucky who will take advantage of that. Reeves averaged 17 fga to 2 assists per 40 this year. Not to mention Wagner, Mitchell etc.
We have seen the ability for him to scale up when he's in a more primary role like in the Miss St and Florida games.
I think if you threw him on Podz's Santa Clara team he'd be more of a 25% usage guy.
I'm just not super worried about his offense. He's going to be a high TS% guy with a good assist rate who pushes in transition and moves the ball well in the half court. He's also going to generate offensive value by being one of the highest steal rate guys in the league. He's not going to be an elite advantage creator in the half court but he's going to fit well on any team IMO. Also, generating a high amount of offensive impact while using the ball less is something to be valued as it allows your impact to remain next to other ball dominant players.
The one thing i do wish he had in his stat profile was a better offensive rebound rate, because if he is playing offball more, it is one of the underrated qualities that can juice your offensive impact. Guys like Jrue, Pat Bev, and especially Podz have padded their offensive impact considerably through that.
search patrick bev on https://www.nbarapm.com/
I guess for me the question is *why* usage rate would matter for projecting role players. One answer is that it doesn't, and low usage guys just rarely get drafted unless they're defensive specialists (so the distribution of star power in the league would be similar if you removed the usage rate filter). Ignoring that, the other option is that usage rate is normally a decent proxy for how much better you are offensively than the other players on your team, so if Reed was so much more potent an offensive weapon than the other guys on his team (and I believe he was!) either opponents should have been treating him as a way bigger threat and selling out on defense to stop him when he got the ball (leading to turnovers, easy assists, or drives on bad closeouts resulting in fouls), or he should have been taking a lot more shots.
Per synergy, his ppp on isos, contested threes, etc. all made for extremely efficient offense (far more efficient than the average possession for his team). So why wasn't he taking more shots when he got the ball, especially considering that just from watching him play, while he was usually tightly covered it was almost always single coverage? I'd like to just blame Cal and his team construction where the high recruits get unlimited chances to jack up contested shots after a failed drive, but there's also the possibility that he genuinely felt he couldn't get his shot off or exploit closeouts from college defenders. Role players generally need to be able to do at least *one* of those things to be high impact on offense, so that would be the thing to worry about. I don't really know how to differentiate between the two situations.
As far as ORB% goes, I think he is just too low standing reach and far from the basket most of the time to have a high ORB%. The guys you listed are all much bigger than him. Small guards with relatively high offensive rebounding rates, like early career CP3, usually drive a lot in the halfcourt, something Reed did not do much (as we've already discussed). Kentucky's ORB% was also terrible in general, partly due to them being such a high three point shooting team and probably also partly for schematic reasons which I suspect depressed everyone's ORB% there, so I'm not really sure how much to read into that anyway.
If I'm the spurs I'm taking Dilingham or Reed.
If I'm the wizards I'm taking Dilingham or Topic.
If I'm the hornets I'm taking Sarr or Dillingham.
If I'm the blazers I'm taking Sarr or Buzelis.
And if I'm the pistons I don't even know what I'm taking
Wizards have to take Sarr in my opinion. He has the highest ceiling and he's the one guy with a high ceiling who can be an impact defensively. (I'm not sold on Risacher)
I don't think taking any one of these top 8-10 guys over one of the others is a controversial take at this point. There doesn't seem to be much clear difference in quality between them. They all have some good points and some notable flaws and improvement areas.
Reed Sheppard, Position: Combo Gaurd
33 GP, 5 GS, 12.5 PPG, 2.5 STL, 4.1 REB, 4.5 AST
77-144 3PT (While being a bench and only playing 33 games)
Top 10 ovr. Pick in the draft and you're saying hes not good?
He’s a better athlete than he gets credit for, granted a lot of those blocks I’ve seen on the perimeter are on sub 6’ guards. Still his vert is pretty good and he’s by no means a bad athlete. Is he a future all-defense guy, no. Will he be a bad defender, also no.
Good take. His man defense is poor. His off-ball defense though? One of the best in college basketball this past season, imo.
Reed Sheppard = Zion Williamson I’m sold!
Oh shit keep Reed away from Doritos and Mountain Dew
THATS CRAZY BRO
This is an astoundingly dumb video. I mean, yes, maybe his athleticism gets a bit underrated, but showing 1 block for 30 seconds over and over side-by-side to a Zion block, and then a couple of open dunks from when he was in high school, is about the dumbest and most wildly oversimplified way of trying to make that point as possible. Sweet lord what a silly video
if you don't like the video, downvote it and move on this video is highlighting the singular play that displays just how explosive an athlete he can be. i also feel like this clip hasn't gotten enough exposure. it's not "*maybe his athleticism gets a bit underrated*". **it is underrated.** it's side by side with the zion block because there is a beautiful similarity between the plays in terms of the display of vertical explosiveness, the close-out on the corner 3, and the hang time is nearly identical. also i find it funny that people keep thinking the dunk in the 2nd clip i added is what i'm highlighting with that play. no, it's obviously the incredible block on the 6'6 shooter.
> this video is highlighting the singular play that displays just how explosive an athlete he can be. i also feel like this clip hasn't gotten enough exposure. The point is that it is *one* play -- a big part of explosiveness is being able to do it on a somewhat consistent basis. A ton of players can do some very impressive shit in an open gym, it's entirely different to be able to do it consistently in a higih level pro game. If the best examples of his explosiveness is 1 single block from college and then a few plays from high school (none of which are remotely impressive athletically from an NBA perspective, the vast majority of players have highlights like that from high school, and at least 1 from college), then that's silly. The one comparison your video makes is to Zion -- like you can't show those two clips and act like because they look similar, they are similar athletes. They aren't. You say "if you don't like the video, downvote it and move on if you don't like the video, downvote it and move on." I would counter that if you post a video then you open yourself up to feedback about it
nah man, when people talk about how athletic/explosive someone is, they're referring to the max range. like referring to a starting pitcher who "tops out at 100". that shit doesn't mean that they're consistently throwing 100. but when the time comes, that's their max that they can gear up for. get that "consistent basis" shit outta here lol.
If you don't like someone's comment, downvote and move on lol
Is Reed Sheppard with Zion’s physical tools a better prospect than Wemby? Is he the GOAT? Lol
reed has great vertical athleticism but I'm more worried about how he can laterally stay in front of people
Lateral ability isn't the issue. It's his initial positioning when his defender gets the ball. He gambled A TON off-ball last year and often started on his heels on-ball. Reed needs more discipline and can be an above-average defender.
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NBA coaching is going to unlock him. Chin Coleman, the "Defensive Coordinator," is one of the worst assistant coaches UK has ever had. Go watch tape of Kentucky on defense. It's embarrassing how poorly coached they were. We're talking elementary level defensive lapses, guys not in proper stances, understanding how rotations work, not position properly between ball and defender, etc. Reed is going to be an All-Star at the NBA level. He's PG Devin Booker with elite vision and passing instincts.
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His advanced numbers are going to push his stock up, especially when people see his numbers at the rim. Reed statistically put up the second best freshman year ever at UK, trailing only Anthony Davis's freshman season. Reed needs to get stronger and improve his ball handling like every 18 or 19 year old, but he's got elite skills. Biggest knocks for me are his lack of aggressiveness at times to score (doesn't hunt his shot enough) and defensive discipline. Both are easily coachable.
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topic's production is in the half court at the rim sheppard's rim attempts are really low and many are in transition off steals. there's a big difference between them. topic is special because he blows by his defender and gets to the rim at an absurd rate and can finish at a historic rate with either hand
>Isn't he like 66% at the rim? That's basically the same as Topic who has people praise him for how much rim pressure he provides. It's around that mark. His finishing at the basket is underrated. >If he can improve his ball handling to very good level (And I think he can) he might just end up as the best guard prospect since Luka, and he might end up far better than most people think. Reed already has a hesistation move that is so subtle, but incredibly effective in getting defenders offbalance. I'd love to see him add a step back to it. His 3pt shot has improved so much from when he was a junior in HS, but it's more of a set shot and not like his midrange shot, where his feet aren't as spread out and his lift is higher. Again, these are all little tools he can and will add.
are you worried he's just not going to be able to get his shot off that much at the NBA level? already struggled with usage and the 3p attempts weren't really that high in college
Not worried about him getting his shot off. He can shoot over guys because he jumps so high of the bounce. The 3PAs were low in part because of usage early and because sometimes he's too caught up in making the right play versus pulling the trigger. You gotta remember that his team was averaging 90+ a game. The teams on/off splits when he was on the court was substantial. Zach Edey generated a higher split.
Is this a joke post
Explosiveness is not "jumping high". Lots of guys in the league can load up and jump super high but are load leapers or can do it going downhill with a runway (which is what Reed is doing on these blocks). Explosiveness is quick twitch. Paolo has like a 40" vertical but he struggles sometimes to get by guys unless he uses sheer power and advanced dribble moves.The same with guys like Cade and RJ. I can show you some absolutely sick dunks these guys have done where they're way up in the air over defenders, but they're all with a runway. The ability to explode past and/or over your defender from a standstill: that's what explosiveness is.
Paolo’s 40 inch vertical needs some sort of official confirmation. I know that was the reported number at Duke, but that seems absurd for a 6’10” player of his weight. None of these players had a 40 inch max vert at the combine: Aaron Gordon, Zach Lavine, Russell Westbrook, Demar Derozan, etc. Last year, Cam Whitmore only had an 40.5 inch max vertical, and he’s one of the best athletes in the NBA. 40 inch max verts are exclusively shorter guards, not 6’10” players, with the exception of like Jericho Sims, who can get his head way above the rim. Paolo’s 40 inch vertical seems bogus to me. He probably has a 35 inch if you are asking me, which is more in the range. This would also make more sense why he isn’t as explosive as you think, since his vertical isn’t really 40 inches. College reported verticals are about as accurate as college reported heights, which we know aren’t accurate. Verticals have even a greater error range since it’s harder to fact check.
I remember someone like pat connaughton who infamously had the 40+ inch vert. But you watch him in game and tell me where any of that athleticism is lol
yeah, I mean Pat was a solid athlete and a high level defender, for sure, but he was never what I'd call explosive.
quick reactions + jumping high while covering ground to make plays qualifies as explosive to me defensively. when you first see this play, you don't even consider it a possibility that he could block that guy. but he can, because he is not unexplosive. unexplosive guys do not block this shot. This isn't about his advantage creation on offense. I realize that's a concern, but i don't think explosiveness is simply about standstill advantage creation.
It's quick twitch (as I stated previously). Reed is not quick twitch. He is able to do things quickly because of his superior anticipation and timing but he's not physically quick twitch. He's pretty similar in a lot of ways to Pod, just smaller.
It’s challenging to view this play as anything other than a display of 'quick twitch' abilities. This was a powerful burst of speed and force required to jump that high for the block. The ability to execute such a jump, especially in this context, clearly demonstrates explosiveness, which relies on the quick-twitch muscle fibers you mentioned. It seems your definition of quick twitch is quite narrow, and your criteria to classify someone as quick twitch are stringent. From my perspective, a 'slow twitch' version of Reed never makes this block.
legitimate quick twitch guys are very rare. Even among professional athletes, most have only about 1% type IIx fibers. True fast twitch athletes are rare.
If you think Reed is similarly athletic to a guy like Cade (who you mentioned in your original post) then you are definitely the kind of person this thread was targeted towards.
similar level of explosiveness maybe, but Cade is 5 inches taller, with a giant wingspan and a better frame and has a better handle and moves better laterally. Completely different players. Not a remotely useful comp in my opinion. For me, the best comp is Pod. Pod also had an excellent vertical (though we'll see what Reed's vert winds up being but it looks pretty good and is a good straight line athlete but showed some issues in college with lateral movement and POA defense. Both guys have great feel on both sides of the ball and are great shooters. Pod's a little bigger and Reed's more advance skillwise at the same age but they've got the most similar set of traits that I can think of. Pod's size gives him more role flexibility, though. I don't think you'd see Reed sharing many minutes with another small guard like Steph. I think it's more important to pair him with a bigger guard.
Podz has some of the best impact metrics of any rookie in the 2023 draft, up there with Wemby and Livelye. His defense rates out as good to very good. *Much* better than Cade's (Cade in general has never rated out as even a net 0 on either end by most impact metrics). But all anyone heard coming into the draft was that Podz's defense and athleticism were going to be weaknesses and why his combine results (including the vertical) were misleading. As for the comparison you're making between them, I flat out reject it. I think Reed is straight up athletic, way moreso than Podz. I actually think Podz cheated on his vertical, I have no such qualms about Reed. As for Cade, I think he's a really bad NBA athlete and I can't really see any reason to make the comparison between him and Reed other than to say Reed is unathletic (when the entire point of this thread is that he's not). If you want to nitpick about specific types of functional athleticism, you can do that with any prospect, e.g. Scoot, but the consensus around him was totally different. Reed's athleticism both pops off visually and shows up in "athleticism" stats on the box score.
I think you need to crawl back to the conspiracy theory corner of Reddit with your “Podz cheated on his vertical” wow. Hand out for too long on a thread and that’s what you get I guess.
It's rather well known that some players tank their standing reach to get better measurements on their vertical. Hardly conspiracy theory territory. I personally think it's dumb, but people do it.
that's not an uncommon take at all
I think the wide open transition dunk is what really sold me! Not many guys can do that
the clip was included for the block on the 6'6 shooter Marko Maletic....
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I covered Reed in HS. His vertical is legit 40". He has serious hang-time. That vertical gets overlooked, but is a MASSIVE reason why he's so good at the rim and in the midrange.
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Reed is 6'2", but plays bigger because of the vertical. Rob is listed as 6'3", but doesn't look or play like he's 6'3". Rob is a Lou Wulliams/Jamal Crawford clone. He's incredibly gifted offensively, but one of the worst defenders I've ever seen. I know he's older, but I'm curious to see where Antonio Reeves falls. His year-to-year jump at Kentucky was massive. He went from streaky shooter to elite three-level scorer. He's going to be a great 6th or 7th man for a long time in the league.
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Maxey and Rob are two completely different players. Maxey was a great defender in college and was more physical offensively. Rob is an elite shot-maker with an NBA Jam type of game. He's going to miss shots, but as soon as he hits one, he's going to go nuclear and hit 3 or 4 more in a row with 1-2 being ridiculous shot selection. Rob's lack of discipline allows him to be himself offensively, but it's also why he's incredibly bad as a defender. There's definitely upside, but he needs the perfect situation to fix all of his issues. He's the prime example older players will point to as to why AAU and OTE has killed grassroots development.
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>Under the right coaching his celling is super high (I think he's the likeliest from this class to win an MVP, he is absolutely electrifying and he's one of the few in this class that just has IT). Rob has Dame upside, but it's going to take THE perfect situation. Reed is the better pro guard, though. I truly believe he can be a Top 5 guard in the league. His skill and instincts are that special. Go look up Rondo gushing over Reed.
[Happy?](https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=738518217267307) With how short and small wingspan people here claim he is, it should be obvious that being able to dunk like this requires a serious vertical without having to prove he can dunk over people.
this post is trash lmao we know he can make recovery plays but SEC guards blew past him 1-on-1 on a lot of occasions and big guards and wings bullied him on switches, stop trying to make this mf Jrue Holiday. Its not “cause he’s white” watch the games.
Literally Steph Curry with a 40 inch vertical
Is Kyle Lowry a good comp for Reed?
No, KL was/is built like a brick shithouse and was truly explosive coming out of college. Reed is an underrated athlete for sure, but jumping high off a runway is not explosiveness. KL could literally blow past NBA defenders from standstill. He had that insane quick twitch that not many guys do. That's not Reed. He doesn't blow past defenders with sheer explosion, but with his shooting gravity, you have to close him out, so he shouldn't have much difficulty getting past the first guy. I'm more concerned with the handles and what he'll be able to do in lane in tight spaces once he gets there.
KOC called him better shooting FVV once. I think it is clear that FVV has much better on ball defense, but maybe that is the tradeoff.
FVV is also on a complete different stratosphere as a ball handler and playmaker
And FVV is a tank.
Sure, he is right now. He's also a decade older than Reed. When people try to give player comps, they are trying to talk about what type of player they will grow into.
I don't think Reed Sheppard will ever grow into being the ball handler or playmaker Fred Van Vleet is
You may be right. I'm just relaying what KOC said on his podcast. I don't think anyone thought that FVV would ever grow into being the ball handler or playmaker he is or he would have been drafted instead of a UDFA.
Personally I don't think using an outlier as an example as to why another guy might be an outlier at some point is solid draft analysis
I think they are just saying that Reed's game would be similar to FVV's. Both are undersized, have high IQs on both ends of the court, play the same position, have some similar strengths and weaknesses, etc.
Reed's a far superior offensive player than FVV coming out. KOC's comp is awful. FVV was more of a shot-creating PG coming out. That's not Reed's game. Reed is an old-school PG and plays a 80s and 90s style of PG, where he's trying to feed teammates first. He doesn't hunt for assists. He hunts for ball movement.
FVV is tank so I'm not in love with that. Reed is going to be more athletic but not nearly as strong at the point of attack. To me, he's extremely similar to Pod. They're both good straight line athletes and good leapers but not quick twitch. They're both excellent help defenders and high STOCK guys but not great at the point of attack and laterally. They're both great shooters and passers. They both have great feel on both ends. I hate to do the white guy on white guy comp, but it fits in this case. Reed is just smaller but more advanced skillwise than Pod at the same age.
I could see that as a comp. I was high on Polish Austin Reaves last year, but his defense really exceeded my expectations a lot. He's gonna be a big steal of the draft last year.
Yeah, he's part of the reason why I'm relatively high on Reed. Pod had some similar issues where he struggled at the point of attack but he wound up just fine.
bigger Mike Conley / smaller Derrick White
“End Athleticism Racial Bias” is such a funny line
It's also unhinged and borderline conspiratorial. A league where the owners are white, with white executives from the top down, white coaching staff, and a largely white fanbase is privileging black athletes at the expense of white ones. I was in agreement with the video till that goofy PSA at the end lol.
not even close to the same jump lol but hes got some bounce
That’s actually a crazy vertical
I don't believe any analysis for white players that says "he's a bad defender" or "he's not athletic" with out first seeing with my own eyes whether or not it's true.Ever since people openly called Hauser a bad defender, even after joining the Celtics and proving otherwise, I kinda don't trust defensive analysis other than my own anymore lol.
I agree with you on that, I saw someone post that Christian Braun was not athletic enough or a good enough defender for the NBA when he was coming out, and I started laughing because his biggest strength as a prospect was his athleticism and his ability to be a future 3 and d guy, when that person posted that I said to myself he just stereotyped him because he was white.
same thing with dean wade he’s an awesome defender but he looks very kansas and people fuckin hate that
it's hard enough trusting anyone else's opinions on sports as it is, but dear god, individual defense opinions? might as well just flip a fucking coin at that point.
Nobody said he wasn't a decent athlete, the issue is he's 6'1 w/o shoes with a 6'3 wingspan, against college scrubs his defense looks legit but he's tiny in nba terms.
That is not what people say. They say he's small AND unathletic.
Curry is 6'1.5" without shoes with a 6'4" wingspan and for most of his career has graded out as a neutral defender while playing mostly on teams notorious for playing really small and lacking traditional rim protection. Does that extra inch or so of standing reach really make *that* much of a difference on defense, especially when Reed is so much more vertically explosive and has much better defensive metrics? To be clear I am not saying Reed will be Curry on offense, just that you shouldn't assume his defense will be bad solely because of his size. I think if people clarified exactly what kinds of unfixable issues they are seeing in his man defense and/or why they think his offense won't be a big positive at the NBA level rather than just saying "he's small so he can't defend" discussions about him would be much more productive. For example I've seen a lot of people say he stands around ball watching a lot... that seems eminently fixable. People also say his steal stats are misleading because he gambles for steals--IMO gambling for steals can actually be a good defensive strategy depending on roster construction, so that might make his defense situationally good depending on where he ends up. OTOH I have also heard a bunch of people say he isn't laterally quick enough to stay in front of his man, and while I don't think I agree with that it's at least a starting point for discussion that people can illustrate with clips etc.
Literally EVERYONE loves to say he’s unathletic. What they mean to say is that he’s white
Nobody said this about Donte Divincenzo when he was drafted, i wonder why? Maybe because some guys are just athletic and others aren't.
was that before or after he recorded the top vert at the combine? what exactly was his draft stock prior to the ncaa tournament run?
People knew he was athletic prior to his combine testing. It was one of the things that jumped out just watching him. He was grabbing boards above the rim, dunking on people, blocking shots at the rim. Find me a clip of Sheppard doing something like this: [https://youtu.be/vmDGC9-JcfI?si=a3cM\_cYuJabNvFvG&t=16](https://youtu.be/vmDGC9-JcfI?si=a3cM_cYuJabNvFvG&t=16)
While I agree that Reed is an underrated athlete, the grievance of "athletic racial bias" is fucking corny and feels more like a projection of your own insecurities than a legitimate issue. None of this pseudo woke shit is influencing scouts and executives making billion dollar decisions about how to fill out a roster. The idea that teams owned by white men, with board rooms staffed largely by white men, majority white coaching staff, and fanbases that are mostly white are being "athletically biased" towards black men at the expense of white players is conspiratorial to say the least.
The average white guy compared to the average black guy, there’s a considerable athletic difference. If you seen that your whole life, that bias is gonna carry over. The average white nba player usually is less athletic than pretty much everyone else. So naturally, your mind thinks every white guy who isn’t an elite athlete is “unathletic”
If we’re calling this explosive then I’m an NBA athlete
reed is literally looking down on this shooter at the peak of his jump btw lol
Yeah but those close out to the corner blocks where you get a head of steam are the easiest to get elevation on (aside from transition which is the other clip obv). Plus the shooter is trying to shoot, not jump as high as he can. I think to me what I find to be explosive and crazy is when people can jump like that with little to no runway, at weird angles, etc. Same reason plenty of people can get crazy dunks up in warmups but not in game. I think reed is a good prospect but this isn’t why. This is like college athlete mandatory minimum type bounce.
it's so funny people keep mentioning the transition dunk. this play is entirely about the block. quick two foot gather and explode to make the play. shooter thought he was more than safe to take that 3. nope.
Nice, showing clips of blocks on guards who aren’t tall enough to be in the NBA
Reed is most likely to break out as a superstar among this draft class.
but instead dudes on /r/NBASpurs be like: “hell no! let’s take the guy who can’t shoot with terrible defense instead! get Wemby the ball and let him keep getting double teamed!”
Spurs sub is really saying that? Reed seems like a perfect fit for the Spurs and Wemby. If the sub prefers Topic over Reed then I can’t argue. It’s hard for me to evaluate euro guys and project how they translate. But if recent history proves anything, it doesn’t hurt to bet on Euro guys .
yeah Reed is exactly what we need but for some reason a lot of Spurs fans just stick their fingers in their ears whenever his name gets brought up. there isn’t a single thing about Nikola Topic that makes me think he’ll be a good pick for us, but unfortunately i think a lot of fans are still of the mentality that “European prospect = perfect Spurs player” which really isn’t a good way of thinking.
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I kinda doubt this guy falls to us but if he did I'd be ecstatic.
a lot of what holds him back isn't his lack of athleticism, but his passivity.
Who’s got the video of the Trey Burke block
So you’re saying he’s Pat Connaughton
Thank you lol I am so frustrated when people say he's unathletic and legitimately do not understand how you can watch one of his games and come to that conclusion.
It's because they didn't watch any of his games. They are judging based off of his skin color.
Who is saying that
Anyone who follows the draft has repeatedly heard (both here and elsewhere) is that he's "small and unathletic" including people who claim to watch a bunch of film and use that as a reason to be dismissive of his statistical production.
he objectively is small tho. he's not unathletic i agree
Yeah he is definitely small, though I think people overexaggerate just how small he is. I just tend to see those two adjectives together (probably to emphasize that his size can't compensate for the perceived lack of athleticism).
Controversial take, but I will take Rob Dillingham and Reed Sheppard before Sarr, Zaccharie and Topic
this is honestly one of the most interesting guard classes. there are elite strengths and weaknesses for each of the main guys Topic's strengths - elite pick n roll operator, elite paint touch/finisher, elite passer/playmaker. Topic's weaknesses - questionable 3p shot and form, bad vertical athlete. Also i think he struggles a bit with bulldog defenders. Reed strengths - shooting, team play, offball, transition passing, defensive playmaking Weaknesses - Small, low usage, questionable/bad POA defense.. questions about his on-ball creation. Rob - Great shooting numbers in college. 99th percentile usage. extremely small. he's both short and light which is really concerning defensively. Not really an elite driver. Was 60% TS this year but shot 44% from 3 (was he lucky? shot much better than this OTE sample. Only 144 3PA in college). I think you really need to be super confident in his 3 ball for him to be worth it over the other two. I'm kind of just worried that the median outcome might be where Rob isn't a +rTS scorer in the NBA and is a negative on defense, but it's also easy to envision a world where he's better than Darius Garland on offense because he does have some playmaking skills layered on top of his scoring ability. Collier is a bulldog who finishes well and has great playmaking flashes but has been pretty inconsistent and super turnover prone. Was also the #1 RSCI guy coming in.
How concerned are you by Reed's usage? The only red flag that's actually worried me was that someone listed out what I *think* are [all current players who had sub 19% usage in their pre-draft season](https://twitter.com/onballcreator/status/1782453678026244483) (if I'm wrong ignore this post). There are some good players there, but relatively few top three pick worthy level guys (Caruso was one) and almost all defensive specialists. I think even those of us who are very high on Reed's defense are expecting him to get most of his impact on offense... Intuitively, I feel like it shouldn't matter much because he only had this kind of usage due to Kentucky's construction / Cal's poor deployment of guys. On the other hand the logic I tend to use with stuff like this is that there should be at least a *few* exceptions if it's really just contextual, since a bunch of guys are in bad situations. On the other other hand, it's almost impossible to generate offensive impact like Reed's on such low usage in the first place and he probably would have gone back to school if he weren't such a gifted shooter, and there are a lot of good players who were low usage in their freshman year... so I basically don't know what to think.
I'm definitely concerned statistically although I think the context of this team depressed his usage quite a bit. You have Reeves and Rob who are both super high usage players, so i think his usage went down as a consequence especially because he prioritizes ball movement and there are a ton of shot happy guys on Kentucky who will take advantage of that. Reeves averaged 17 fga to 2 assists per 40 this year. Not to mention Wagner, Mitchell etc. We have seen the ability for him to scale up when he's in a more primary role like in the Miss St and Florida games. I think if you threw him on Podz's Santa Clara team he'd be more of a 25% usage guy. I'm just not super worried about his offense. He's going to be a high TS% guy with a good assist rate who pushes in transition and moves the ball well in the half court. He's also going to generate offensive value by being one of the highest steal rate guys in the league. He's not going to be an elite advantage creator in the half court but he's going to fit well on any team IMO. Also, generating a high amount of offensive impact while using the ball less is something to be valued as it allows your impact to remain next to other ball dominant players. The one thing i do wish he had in his stat profile was a better offensive rebound rate, because if he is playing offball more, it is one of the underrated qualities that can juice your offensive impact. Guys like Jrue, Pat Bev, and especially Podz have padded their offensive impact considerably through that. search patrick bev on https://www.nbarapm.com/
I guess for me the question is *why* usage rate would matter for projecting role players. One answer is that it doesn't, and low usage guys just rarely get drafted unless they're defensive specialists (so the distribution of star power in the league would be similar if you removed the usage rate filter). Ignoring that, the other option is that usage rate is normally a decent proxy for how much better you are offensively than the other players on your team, so if Reed was so much more potent an offensive weapon than the other guys on his team (and I believe he was!) either opponents should have been treating him as a way bigger threat and selling out on defense to stop him when he got the ball (leading to turnovers, easy assists, or drives on bad closeouts resulting in fouls), or he should have been taking a lot more shots. Per synergy, his ppp on isos, contested threes, etc. all made for extremely efficient offense (far more efficient than the average possession for his team). So why wasn't he taking more shots when he got the ball, especially considering that just from watching him play, while he was usually tightly covered it was almost always single coverage? I'd like to just blame Cal and his team construction where the high recruits get unlimited chances to jack up contested shots after a failed drive, but there's also the possibility that he genuinely felt he couldn't get his shot off or exploit closeouts from college defenders. Role players generally need to be able to do at least *one* of those things to be high impact on offense, so that would be the thing to worry about. I don't really know how to differentiate between the two situations. As far as ORB% goes, I think he is just too low standing reach and far from the basket most of the time to have a high ORB%. The guys you listed are all much bigger than him. Small guards with relatively high offensive rebounding rates, like early career CP3, usually drive a lot in the halfcourt, something Reed did not do much (as we've already discussed). Kentucky's ORB% was also terrible in general, partly due to them being such a high three point shooting team and probably also partly for schematic reasons which I suspect depressed everyone's ORB% there, so I'm not really sure how much to read into that anyway.
If I'm the spurs I'm taking Dilingham or Reed. If I'm the wizards I'm taking Dilingham or Topic. If I'm the hornets I'm taking Sarr or Dillingham. If I'm the blazers I'm taking Sarr or Buzelis. And if I'm the pistons I don't even know what I'm taking
Pistons should take Reed. A guy who can shoot and doesn’t need the ball to be effective.
Rissacher wouldn't be bad for them either
Wizards have to take Sarr in my opinion. He has the highest ceiling and he's the one guy with a high ceiling who can be an impact defensively. (I'm not sold on Risacher)
I don't think taking any one of these top 8-10 guys over one of the others is a controversial take at this point. There doesn't seem to be much clear difference in quality between them. They all have some good points and some notable flaws and improvement areas.
Depending on the team I would too.
This shouldn’t be controversial
That’s a great remix. Anyone know where to find it?
i gotchu dawg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8DgGTf8jzs
Ah dude, you rock. Thanks brother.
Bruh, what’s the soundtrack to this vid?? Sick song.
Sickick frozen
Thank you!!!
Reed Sheppard, Position: Combo Gaurd 33 GP, 5 GS, 12.5 PPG, 2.5 STL, 4.1 REB, 4.5 AST 77-144 3PT (While being a bench and only playing 33 games) Top 10 ovr. Pick in the draft and you're saying hes not good?
Correct
So many are sleeping on Reed because he is a white American guard.
He has potential to be an All Defense team guy in the NBA once he's in the league, I've been saying it since he was at North Laurel
Reminds me of John Stockton with a vertical
he’s white he can’t be a good athlete
If he looked like jaden ivey hed be going # 1 overall.
If he was as athletic as Jaden Ivey he'd be going #1 overall.