A glimpse into the play of Davon Reed

We haven’t seen much of Davon Reed, but we have seen enough to look at his skills. What is he bringing to the Indiana Pacers in his limited minutes?

Last night, in the Indiana Pacers ridiculously dominant win over the Detroit Pistons, Davon Reed logged 3:11 of playing time, which vaulted him up to around 10 minutes for the Pacers on the season. That’s not a lot, but it is close to enough to evaluate some of the intricacies of his game.

It’s almost hard to believe, but in Reed’s 10 minutes of playing time, he has accumulated 0 counting stats. Not a point, not a rebound, and not one assist. But that doesn’t mean he has been devoid of impact or shown us nothing.

For starters, we finally got to see him take a shot against the Pistons last night:

So, let’s get this out of the way. He airballed it. That’s rough.

But, on the bright side, the burst he showed flying around the off-ball screen was nice, and he shifted his weight to get around the defender and get himself open. Those are some nice adept subtleties that will only help him in his career. But the result of the shot needs to be better.

He’s done some other things that are good for guys his age. In his brief stint against Utah, he showed off his competence as a team defender and a quality offensive player. Here, he rejects the screen, a rare decision from young players in the NBA. His decision gets the defense scrambling, which leads to a mismatch at the rim for Kyle O’Quinn, which didn’t go as planned:

Manipulating the game to get opportunities for others typically is done by good players. Here, Reed does that. That’s encouraging.

Defensive stats can be finicky, but Reed has a -0.3 Defensive Box Plus-Minus, which is right around league average. He’s long and dedicated, the perfect combo for a guard to be effective, and he plays the Indiana Pacers way – he gives tons of effort on every possession.

Watch him here as he stays with his man and fights over a screen to disrupt a Spurs set and keep the ball stuck in the post:

He’s a disciplined defender who is capable of keeping his matchup in front of him at all times. That is part of the recipe for being a good team defensive player. Watch here as he closes out effectively, keeping his hands in position and his man in front of him. That forces a pass to another bad shot, which gets missed, and Reed scrambles into good rebounding position before the ball caroms out of bounds:

Between the ball going off his knee there and the airball against Detroit, it hasn’t always looked pretty for Davon Reed.

But on each possession, you can see Reed doing little things that impact winning basketball. He hasn’t put it all together yet, but he’s doing some good stuff. Keep an eye on his growth throughout the season.