Rondo on Reed
- Thread starter Smashcat
- Start date
I’ll take Rondo’s opinion over a fan who thinks Reed isn’t ready for the League, just because they hope he returns to play for the guy who benched him (and Rob) because of a couple of snowflakes potential broker hearts💯
Lol, you think Reed, who averaged the most minutes of all the freshman, was benched?
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You can’t get through to stupidity.
There’s wanting change/fixes and then there’s just pure unbridled idiocy.
Wish Rajon would show our guards how to defend the high ball screen!
Yes, starting off every game down 12-4 was brilliance.
Nobody has questioned Reed's skill level, his b-ball IQ or approach to the game. His physicalness, strength, quickness, those are the areas that leads to questions/concerns about him quickly becoming an NBA contributor. And this story does not say Rondo thinks he should or should not go. It's simply about how he plays the game.
Anybody know if RR is pursuing his degree so he can get into coaching?
How many games this year were we trailing when the starters came out?
Also, you all do realize Reed wasn't realistically going to play every minute of the game. He was going to have to have breaks. So, the outcomes are all realistically going to be the same.
Our starters were outscored by 31 points on the year. the nerlens NIT team couldnt even accomplish that feat. Not many teams play to a 3 seed and have their starters be outscored on the season.
Yes at the start of the game when we always started down eight points . Same to start second half . Idiocy
He can’t coach while he controls an AAU team and does not want to give up his AAU team from what I’ve read.
The time to rest reed was after he had played ten minutes . Then put the lesser talented guard in for two minutes to spell him . It was insanity to not start reed and Dilly . No coach in college ranks has ever not started his two best players . Klutch rules
Are there still boot licking kal slurpers pretending like not starting your best lineup is an ok strategy? Wow… just wow
I think it’s basically been admitted that Calipari didn’t start him because he was afraid of killing Wagner’s confidence. It’s essentially an admission.
When you look at how many games we started down because the wrong guys were in it’s pretty telling. Not to mention rarely playing the most efficient lineup together is just head scratching.
People still making excuses for Calipari, I just don’t get it. Nearly everyone has finally woke up but I guess there’s still some that need more losses to be convinced. It’s surprising to see.
The national media, guys who played and talk about basketball for a living, have called it out. There shouldn’t be anyone coddling that kind of nonsense anymore.
Not a defense of Cal, because he should have started Reed and Rob, but the bolded part was worse in my opinion. Reed, Rob, Reeves, Random 4, and Big Z was far and away our most efficient lineup, and he barely played them. He barely played Reed, Rob, and Reeves together and they were still +50 something in SEC play
Same thing he did (didn’t) do last year with the Bennie lineup being the most efficient in college basketball. He doesn’t believe or maybe doesn’t care about analytics, but they don’t lie.
If Wagner was that fragile, that he had to start to keep his confidence, then he's not an elite basketball player. Basketball players need to learn to take the good with the bad and learn from their mistakes...not pat them on the back and say "there, there, you did your best and it's okay that it's not good enough for elite status. You did just fine." And nothing changes. I'm not picking on specifically just DJ, but Cal seems to do that quite a bit. Just my opinion.
Yes sir. I would love for Reed to come back but he’d be foolish to return. Pass up $20 million dollars to potentially come off the bench. AGAIN.
Not to mention Cal doesn’t even really coach. So what’s the advantage of returning?
Kinda like bringing two highly productive lottery picks off the bench for two highly unproductive guys that most likely wont be drafted?! Talk about idiocy. Lulz
Meh. It was just Cal’s excuse for starting him.
Cal should have started his best players, which would have included at least Reed and maybe Rob (tendency to foul would be the reason to to start him). There is really no reason not to play your best line-up, unless someone who doesn't care whether you win or not is in charge. Also, as Matt Jones has brought up many times, why would you start a group in either half that you never play outside of the first few minutes each half? I think Cal knew who the best players were, and played them the most, but he absolutely has no feel for groups of players and often puts bad combinations on the floor together.
Having said all of that, the whole starting every game in the hole is way overblown. Not only was that not the case, of the 31 points they were outscored on the season, 10 of them were against UT at Rupp. They didn't start every game in a big hole, as it was mostly a couple of points either way when the starters came out. Of the 9 losses outside of the Kansas game, UK was ahead in 4 of them when the starters came out (including against Oakland), was tied in one of them, and was behind in 4 of them (UT and Gonzaga were big holes). But Sheppard also started in all 4 home losses, and started in 3 of the 4 times we trailed when the first sub was made.
Cal should have started his best players and played them together as much as possible, but evidence suggests that it wouldn't have done anything about the slow starts. They tended to start slow regardless. The much bigger issue is that it doesn't appear as though all our talented players had any kind of coaching during the year. Cal needs to go, but the actual starting line-up is pretty far down the list of reasons why.
Having said all of that, the whole starting every game in the hole is way overblown. Not only was that not the case, of the 31 points they were outscored on the season, 10 of them were against UT at Rupp. They didn't start every game in a big hole, as it was mostly a couple of points either way when the starters came out. Of the 9 losses outside of the Kansas game, UK was ahead in 4 of them when the starters came out (including against Oakland), was tied in one of them, and was behind in 4 of them (UT and Gonzaga were big holes). But Sheppard also started in all 4 home losses, and started in 3 of the 4 times we trailed when the first sub was made.
Cal should have started his best players and played them together as much as possible, but evidence suggests that it wouldn't have done anything about the slow starts. They tended to start slow regardless. The much bigger issue is that it doesn't appear as though all our talented players had any kind of coaching during the year. Cal needs to go, but the actual starting line-up is pretty far down the list of reasons why.
Where are you getting this?
What games did we start off down 8?
When Reed started against UNCw we got down to start the game, and we did the same against UT when Reed started, we lost both. When he started against UF and the Zags, we got the lead and still lost.
So your argument is very logical.
Sure they have. We brough Booker off the bench is 2014 and he we easily our best guard. We also won 38 games. So it wasn't a bad decision. Similar, in 2012, we brought Lamb off the bench and he was easily our best guard.
If you have a great player that plays well off the bench and it provides a spark, you bring them off the bench. Reed was 1-4 as a starter. That's not somebody you keep starting.
You can’t use those numbers because basketball like most sports is a game built off momentum and we never could find any momentum to begin games because our best players sat out. The eye test tells a lot, and had Rob and Reed and Reeves been the starters like they should have been, eventually it would have taken this team to another level.
Again, no coaches are sitting 2 of their best players on the bench to start games. I have no doubts Reed would have turned into a totally different player had he been given the keys to the team and started. As mental as sports are, Reed never assumed the captain role because he was held back game after game, coming in cold, starting the second half cold.
JJ Reddick never came off the bench. Jodie Meeks didn’t come off the bench, AI never came off the bench, Chris Lofton didn’t come off the bench and on and on. It’s so odd that there are still people who don’t get this. Even Calipari has basically admitted them not starting was not a game plan, he just didn’t want to upset Edwards and Wagner. Meaning they really shouldn’t have been starting and there was no real reason for it.
It’s okay to have a really good 6th man who could start coming off the bench, say Darius Miller. But you’ve got to have the spot covered and we didn’t. It’s not okay to keep your entire team out of sync because you start every game with 2 underwhelming players. Not to mention, the other team knows who’s starting and they get momentum out of the gate. Just listen to people that do this for a living talk about it, every one of them that I’ve heard doesn’t agree with not starting them. There are reasons for that.
Lamb absolutely did not come off the bench in 2012.
What’s even crazier is Calipari BRAZENLY admitted it.
Right. Damn! Is this the real FrankUnderwood?! 🤣
In the flesh! I forgot my login information for my OG account.
Exactly. We woukd have been much better off with a good high school coach. Than what we have .
Like yesterday. We need him bad.
Yeah, you just can't fix stupid.
I think Reed should have started.
I also don't think it's too big of a deal that he didn't, since he played starter (30-35) minutes.
I think though that it's not that Wagner was "fragile", but any athlete performs better when they are confident. And Cal likely believed that for us to be our best team possible, we needed more than the 3 R's playing well. And since he already had 2 of those 3 playing well from the bench, he probably thought starting might help get one (or both) of those 2 (Wagner & Edwards) to jumpstart their games to what he believed they could be.
Again, not saying I agree with him doing that, but it is one understandable approach.
Including Reed. Anyone else think Rajon doesn't care for Cal, and feels that in some ways Reed was misused? That conversation with Cousins the other day didn't help.
He will NEVER be on the staff as long as Cal is here.
Do you guys remember how some of our moron fans used to trash Rajon Rondo because he didn't walk the party line? And now it turns out he actually puts the program ahead of Calipari. He's the one who stood up to Boogie and told him that Kentucky comes before Calipari. He's actually been the biggest defender of our program since the debacle began.
Yes, he is. I'm betting that if he was on the staff Cal would be incredibly frustrated from having to constantly remind his recruits about why they're there (for the NBA draft). Rondo would have the recruits incredibly frustrated because then they would have to WORK for playing time. My bet is also that there would be a lot of drama behind the scenes with recruits threatening to quit, transfer or just outright not play. That's what we NEED at UK for this to all change.
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