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FVV is an ending contract. Doubt he’s brought back. Same with Brooks.
You liked Dillingham over Sheppard.
FVV is an ending contract. Doubt he’s brought back. Same with Brooks.
So would I
Castle will have the better all around game. Happy Houston took Sheppard and Castle was able to fall to the Spurs.
Not on draft day.
I mean, it is a easy as scrolling back two pages.
Yes exactly and for several reasons.
1. I rated Sheppard much higher than Castle before the draft and I still do. Sheppard’s floor is elite role player, which he can do RIGHT NOW and his upside is all-star PG and maybe even best shooter in NBA history. Castle is unplayable for a winning team until he learns to shoot, which may or may not happen and certainly won’t happen soon. His upside is all-star and great defender but his floor is BUST.
2. I’m wanting to build a team that can start winning in 2025, not a decade from now. This team won’t start winning until we can shoot well around Wemby.
I had Reed over Castle, no reason for that to change so far.
I think Castle's on ball flashes in terms of PG skills have looked a little better than Reed, which I was iffy on pre-draft, but Reed still being an event creator on D and being able to shoot the ever living out of the ball are still major strengths.
its not just that reed is lighting up the box scores... the reason i was high on him, particularly for the spurs, is that i believed he would be successful as a point guard and not just an undersized 2. he looks the part and thats what matters
similar to Castle who had similar questions. is he a point guard or a wing... i had less faith in Castle panning out as a PG than i did Sheppard. looks like both have the requisite handling and passing to get by, but Sheppard's shooting is going to make things way easy for him, whereas Castle is going to deal with defenders sagging off him and cramming the paint.
and at least at the summer league level, sheppard's defensive playmaking is still showing up. even though he is already getting beaten off the dribble as expected, he makes up for it with impact plays
Sheppard is going to be good, but there is a lot of summer league overreaction here. Certain things translate in the SL, and other things don't.
Scoring and shooting is probably the most overrated and non-translatable. I saw Marco Belineli score 37 in his summer league debut. I thought he was going to be the Italian Michael Jordan. The teams in the summer league haven't been together long, so team defense ranges from nonexistent to piss poor. Guys will get looks in the summer league that they won't sniff in the NBA, so the numbers don't reflect reality.
Another thing that is piss poor is ball control. For the same cohesiveness reasons that SL defense is disconnected, players on offense aren't used to their teammates, they don't know where they are going to be, and turnovers and steals are aplenty. I wouldn't put any stock into steals numbers in the summer league.
The things that do translate? Basketball IQ. Watch how players move without the ball. Watch how they see the floor, create looks and find their teammates. On defense, watch how they rotate and move in space on the weakside, or pick up cutters. Effort translates -- players who seem to always be around the ball and come up with 50/50 balls. Athleticism and physicality translates to a certain extent, but in a negative way. You can tell if a guy doesn't belong athletically more so than if he does. Most of the players in the SL are great athletes. If you are overwhelmed there, you are really going to be overwhelmed in the big league but even if a player stands out athletically, it is not an indication that he will stand out physically at the next level. Because the next level guys are really next level athletes.
My take on Sheppard is that he's got a high IQ and will make plays. He's going to hit shots from the moon if you leave him alone for a split second. I still believe he's going to have trouble creating his own shot. He's going to get exploited on defense. I saw Bub Carrington go right around him without much resistance, and you saw it over and over in college. He's going to probably put up impressive steals numbers because he's more inclined to play the passing lanes instead of sticking to his man, and people will confuse that with good defense. It's a risk/reward thing that you can get away with in the SL, but you will get burned more often than not playing that way in the real league.
I'd still take Castle over him, and I think Houston not having a rim protector behind him is going to make things tough for them on defense.
Yeah I remember Champeanie looked good in summer league play last year as well.
champagnie was 22yo who had both G-League and NBA experience with a 3 year college career whereas Sheppard just turned 20 and coming off his freshman college season
This is gonna age well.
You think Reed Sheppard is going to make an All Star team? I don't.
At this point I'm not sure how spurs pass rockets...even in 2025
I think he’s gonna be the Luka of this draft, dropping when he should have been #1 cause he doesn’t look like the prototypical star, but actually an absolute no brainer star in a weak draft hiding in plain sight.
But yeah I think def NBA all star, a weird amalgam of Nash and Curry!
Yeah looks like Reed and Edey will be at the top of the redraft articles in a few years.
Spurs passing on both reed and Sheppard for castle will live in ST infamy along with trading away paul George.
They’ll both be behind Castle, don’t worry. And in EDs case, way behind
That will be great. I hope you're right.
Hmm... I wonder why.
I appreciate your take & I misread your post- overlooked it was Zac OR Reed.
I largely agree, I wanted Reed and think he’s one of the best shooting prospects ever. I slightly disagree on his floor as an “elite role player” because of size/D concerns against oversized guard, but I also think Reeds the mostly likely All-NBA players out of this draft.
But love hyperbole huh? Seriously, “a decade from now”- you sure can beat the outta those straw men.
I guess everyone’s floor is a bust, including Reed, but Castles realistic floor isn’t bust. He was an elite defender at the highest college lvl as an 18 from the get go. He stepped into the most complex system in college & was elite (66.4%) within 3’, where he took over 40% of his shots. Maybe that’s cause he’s a terrible shooter, or just maybe it’s bc he was mature enough & coached well enough to defer those mid & deep shots to other guys & focused his games where it would help his team, D, getting to rim & hitting the boards (which he is also very good at for a guard). Add in great size, strength, body control & a high FTA rate (37.6%, hitting 75.5%) & that’s a very unlikely “BUST”. Many, many, many guards have some into the league (at an older age) & developed their shot.
Id rather have all those assets & Castle potential to be a huge PG vs Reed, & we can disagree without hyperbole.
I would also love to build a defensive juggernaut bc that’s is VW’s biggest core compentency. Shooters are easy to find at the 2-3-4, especially if you have a very good to All-D @ the 1 & the best D anywhere (maybe ever) at the five.
But I’m also wanting this to be another dynasty, so I’m not wanting them to push all-in (or even too much in) to “win (43 games) NOW”. Pick your spot, don’t overpay, especially for a flawed prospect (every player in this draft has significant flaws, Reed included). Maybe Reed is Curry 2.0, but I think there’s a much better chance Steph is Jrue 2.0 (who is better at the rim, a better rebounder, & draws more FTAs), & you add that the VM for a decade and that is an easy team to put role players around.
Hyperbole is fun.
I’m rooting for Castle for all of the reasons you state.
He’s a riskier pick than Sheppard imo but there’s no doubt the upside if he learns to shoot is huge.
Yup, and Belinelli played like 4 years as a pro in top teams in Italy before being drafted.
Let's see how Castle develop but Reed would have been just fine to space the floor for Wemby and vice and versa.
they had no choice, and maybe were after Sheppard but in this draft, with Wemby in and the imperial necessitiy of adding some shooting, I would have privileged the more sure thing and bet on next year and/or trades to add bigger and less risky upside.
Really bummed we couldn't get Reed. He was my #1 for this draft.
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