Thursday, June 14, 2007

Good Luck To Justin Reed In Houston



Certainly, the story right now for the Timberwolves is the arrival of Juwan Howard…or is that the departure of Mike James? Either way, Minnesota made a good trade. I’m not going to go into all the same reasons why McHale and crew actually made a good deal since you can read that in countless other places.

I will, however, point out that the other piece to the trade, Justin Reed, is a good guy and I wish him well in Houston.

Reed did not see much court time in the 2006-07 season, only appearing in 41 of the 82 games--as well as only seeing an average of just under 8 minutes in those games—Reed, as a whole, remained professional and made the best of his situation. Although there were times when it seemed as if Reed was flirting with joining the destructive clique on the team, he never actually made the jump.

Prior to a late season game as I made my appearance in the Timberwolves locker room, I found Reed laying on the floor, headphones on and being stretched out by one of the trainers. When he saw that I was in the room, he took his headphones off and said, “I don’t know why I’m getting stretched out. I know I’m not playing tonight.”

As I began to think how this may be an indication that Reed had finally made that leap to the wrong side of the team, he redeemed himself. “Well, I suppose you’ve always got to be ready, huh? You never know.”

Now that this trade has become official, I’ve been reading all the other stories about Mike James and how he was a locker room cancer. Although I never truly believed that during the season, as all I have to go off is what I see with my own two eyes, I realize now that at no point during the season—not a single time—did I see James speaking with Garnett in the locker room.

Justin Reed, on the other hand, was friends with every single person on the team.

I truly hope that Reed will be given a fair shot at some meaningful playing time in Houston. When he was given that chance in Minnesota by then-head coach Dwane Casey, he was able to score 6.3 points, grab 2.4 rebounds and played some tough defense. Don’t get me wrong, Reed will always be a role player, but when given that chance, he can deliver.

Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming should love to have Reed as a teammate in 2007-08.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I couldn't agree more, Stephen. J. Reed was my 2nd favorite Wolf behind KG, and I am very sad to see him go. I loved watching his hustle and inspiring play on the court, and feel he could be a valuble role player given the right situation.

He was also a helluva dude off the court, never "too cool" to talk to the average Joe. In fact, he went out of his way to conversate with my friends & I on several occassions.

Well maybe he will get some good PT in Houston. I could see Adelman using him at the back-up 4 spot, he might thrive under the run n gun system.

Lil Dice said...

Great post, Stephen. It's nice to hear some positive things about a dude who kept a fairly low profile.

Anonymous said...

Stephen,

Great, great piece. Very well done. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and it makes me really sad to see JReed go.

I basically second everything that Bonk said above. Terrible move to include him for nothing in return.