Reed Shepherd’s NBA career has started slower than most third overall picks, but he is already expected to launch some glow this summer and rise on the Houston Rocket’s depth chart.
Most of the NBA’s third picks are Day One starters, or at least quality role players from the jump.
Reed Shepherd joined the already deep Houston Rockets team, benching most of the season, playing just trash time.
After filming 52.1% from deep in college, he only earned 33.8%, 33.8% in his rookie season, and was too small and too late, often looking scary to have a lot of impact on the NBA.
NBA year-round practice can do something amazing as Shepherd looked like a man among the boys during the Rockets’ summer defeat to the LA Clippers in the 95-92 Summer League.
In loss, Shepherd recorded an absurd 28 points, four assists, four steels and three blocks, whilst shooting 40% from both floor and three-point range.
He was still small, only 6 feet 2 for the shooting guard and he managed to pull contact and get into the paint.
“Reed Shepherd was funny last night,” Sam Vessy said.
“It’s completely different to the level of his thinking of the game differently from everyone else in terms of his decision-making, his confidence to go out and make a play.”
His incredibly terror of pulling out his touch and reaching the paint last season, despite his ball handling and shooting, Udoka couldn’t play him.
In the summer league, due to less pressure, Shepherd appears to have straightened the kinks, successfully demonstrating that he has improved rapidly.
“I thought he was more physical at the time of the attack.
“Did you feel like you didn’t meet the physical standards you had to meet to absorb contact at the time of the attack?
If Shepherd appeared as a shotmaker who could hold himself against a large NBA player, Rocket had no choice but to play him, and they already made room for him by trading Cam Whitmore for the Wizard.
Sheppard is primarily used as a shooting guard, but he shows off the flash of being a high-level facilitator, like in his game with the Clippers.
After trading Dillon Brooks and Jalen Green, Rocket needs a scoring punch in the backcourt.
Fred Vanbeat and Amen Thompson are comfortable in the starting lineup, while Green, Brooks and Whitmore can head to the other teams, while Shepherd and Aaron Holiday can share the backcourt from the bench.
With shooting threats like Kevin Durant and Dorian Finney Smith folding, and Jabari Smith Jr. and Tali Eason still in town, the Rockets need a pervasive facilitator to round out their roster.
Shepherd could be that guy.