{"id":873013,"date":"2026-11-01T02:21:45","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T02:21:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/873013\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T02:21:45","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T02:21:45","slug":"central-notes-reed-holland-mcconnell-furphy-bulls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/873013\/","title":{"rendered":"Central Notes: Reed, Holland, McConnell, Furphy, Bulls"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the Pistons traded Isaiah Stewart<\/a> to Memphis during the offseason, the expectation was that Paul Reed<\/a> would be in for a bigger role in the team\u2019s frontcourt. Reed\u2019s role has been even more significant than anticipated in the early going due to Jalen Duren<\/a>\u2019s hamstring strain<\/a>, but the seventh-year big man certainly doesn\u2019t look overwhelmed by the increased responsibilities.<\/p>\n

As Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press<\/a> writes in a subscriber-only story, Reed has expanded his game along with his role so far this season, having been more willing to shoot mid-range and three-point shots when the defense is sagging off of him. The approach is paying off in the early going, as Reed\u2019s 13.8 points per game and 63.0% field goal percentage are both career highs. He\u2019s also contributing 7.0 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 1.2 steals per night.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe plays to his own beat, and I think that\u2019s hard for opponents to catch a rhythm when he is doing that,\u201d head coach J.B. Bickerstaff recently said of Reed, per Sankofa. \u201cThere\u2019s so many things that he does. I\u2019ll just say this, there\u2019s no person I\u2019ve been around that works harder on his game than P-Reed, and you\u2019re seeing that work pay off. You talk about each guy has a role in leadership for this team, he leads by example by his work ethic, and it\u2019s paying off for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s more from across the Central:<\/p>\n

After scoring just 14 points in his first five games of the season, Pistons forward Ron Holland<\/a> had his best game of the fall on Friday, scoring 18 points and racking up four steals in 22 minutes of action in Brooklyn. After the win, J.B. Bickerstaff observed that the team doesn\u2019t rely on Holland for scoring and that it\u2019s \u201call the other stuff that he does that makes him unique\u201d (Twitter link<\/a> via Sankofa). Still, the Pistons\u2019 head coach acknowledged that he loves seeing the 21-year-old \u2013 who will be extension-eligible next July \u2013 make strides on the offensive end. \u201cIt\u2019s the growth that he\u2019s shown, it\u2019s his commitment to the work,\u201d Bickerstaff said (Twitter link<\/a> via Hunter Patterson of The Athletic). \u201cTo be able to do it on both ends of the floor, to play in a position of confidence \u2026 I thought he did a great job of that today. He\u2019s going to keep getting better.\u201d
\nThe Pacers assigned guards T.J. McConnell<\/a> (right hamstring strain) and Johnny Furphy<\/a> (ACL surgery recovery) to the G League on Friday so they could get in some work with the Noblesville Boom, per Tony East of Circle City Spin (Twitter link<\/a>). While McConnell could be nearing his season debut, I\u2019d be surprised if Furphy is close to returning, given that he suffered his ACL tear<\/a> less than nine months ago. As East notes (via Twitter<\/a>), when former Pacer Victor Oladipo<\/a> was coming off a major leg injury during the 2019\/20 season, he had some G League assignments in November and December but didn\u2019t make his NBA return until late January.
\nRookie forward Caleb Wilson<\/a> wasn\u2019t the only Bulls player disappointed<\/a> with the way the team played in Friday night\u2019s loss to Boston. As Joel Lorenzi of The Athletic<\/a> writes, forward Isaac Okoro<\/a> spoke after the game about needing to consistently \u201cplay harder,\u201d while veteran wing Buddy Hield<\/a> delivered that same message during an impassioned in-game lecture on the bench shortly after 6\u20199\u2033 forward Matas Buzelis<\/a> was out-muscled by 6\u20191\u2033 guard Payton Pritchard<\/a> for an offensive rebound and a layup in the second quarter (Twitter<\/a> video links<\/a>). K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Sports Network (Twitter link<\/a>) adds that there was a \u201ccollective disgust\u201d at the team\u2019s first-half effort in the locker room after the game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the Pistons traded Isaiah Stewart to Memphis during the offseason, the expectation was that Paul Reed would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3773],"tags":[7,1328,296,188,3860,3891,1252,973,6,2617,297,9002,3886],"class_list":["post-873013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-detroit-pistons","tag-basketball","tag-buddy-hield","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-detroitpistons","tag-isaac-okoro","tag-johnny-furphy","tag-matas-buzelis","tag-nba","tag-paul-reed","tag-pistons","tag-ron-holland","tag-t-j-mcconnell"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117538801784571131","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}