The Curious Case of Efton Reid III

[Herb]

Efton Reid is a 7' 238 pound true freshman center for LSU who has tremendous potential and as smooth as a guy beneath the basket in terms of getting the ball to the hoop as you'll see when he's clicking on all cylinders. He is undersized and can stand to add some pounds to his frame.

At IMG, Reid averaged 16 points per game but is only averaging 6.6 points per game at LSU.  What is hobbling Reid is that he is the poster child of personal fouls at LSU. Reid gets into foul trouble early, gets placed on the bench to prevent him from getting onto "foul trouble", and isn't getting the playing time to get the passes and opportunities in the paint.

Reid often gets 1 or 2 fouls before the 1st minute of playing time ticks off the clock at the start of the game. Opposing teams are coming into games with the strategy of trying to draw an early foul or 2 on Reid to get him onto the bench.

In his defense, Reid often gets called for some pretty ticky tack stuff while the big men on opposing team literally mug some of our players with impunity. I do think that refs might be quick to call fouls on Reid that they'd let slide on others because he has a rep of getting into foul trouble and refs are looking for reasons to call a foul instead of looking for reasons to let some things slide.

However, Reid  does need to clean up his game. I have a lot of faith that we'll see an improved Reid over the rest of the season and into next season.

 I've read some criticisms of Reid where he has been called a 'dud' so far in light of the expectations he had coming into the NCAA. That is short sighted criticism. Seriously, he is only a freshman and should not have been prematurely bucketed in with some of the recent players at LSU who were "one and done" before getting drafted into the NBA.

Reid probably needs 2 main things in his development right now: a little more meat on his bones and developing his game to be a little less "handsy" by using his core more in blocking out opponents. These are somewhat interrelated. As mentioned before, he also needs to play a little smarter and clean up some of the unnecessary fouls he gets called on him.

We haven't really seen Reid's floor yet, much less his ceiling. 

I've got a suspicion that Reid's sophomore season will be worth watching.

 

[Fishhead]

He's soft. We talked early about how smooth he is for a big. But we didn't realize he was soft. 

He needs to hit the weight room and find an aggressive bone. 

He'll be an NBA guy eventually

[Herb]

I'd describe him as a late bloomer, physically. You're absolutely right that he needs to hit the weight room and toughen up.

I think he will grow into his bones, but you look at players like Oscar Tshiebwe - who is only a year older - and its like night and day in terms of physicality. Not sure Reid can be that kind of "solid" but maybe more of a Christian Laettner type of body.

[Herb]

Perhaps not so surprisingly, Efton Reid entered the transfer portal.