Is Reed Sheppard the missing piece for the Houston Rockets?

Is Reed Sheppard the missing piece for the Houston Rockets?

to Smith Jabari for three and the win he got NBA draft the Houston Rockets select Reed Shepard from the University of [Applause] Kentucky Reed Shepard has been called the best shooter in this draft we are here to few of Rockets news is Rockfield podcast course I’m your host lar Bley you can always find me on Twitter at Bley Hoops on my RW over at s Nation or the dream shake and of course today we are talking about the NBA draft and the Houston Rockets specifically unfortunately Tobias wasn’t able to join us so it’s just me flying solo as my co-host Vader is out at the draft party so I want to give my a quick recap of the Houston Rockets of course I uh leading up to this I’ve been saying for a while I’ll be surprised if they kept a pick and that’s exactly what they did they kept the pick they picked at number three the first two picks Zachary rochet and uh Alexander sh SAR uh went one and two so no big surprise there and then the Rockets made the number three pick and they went with the shooting guardo guard out of Kentucky combo guard Reed Shepard uh I want to talk a little bit about Reed Shepard before I give my take on this the overall pick and what that means for the Rockets want to give you a little bit background on Reed Shepard of course Reed Shepard was born in Kentucky he played his high school ball in Kentucky his college ball in Kentucky uh he led the state of Kentucky in scoring his sophomore year goingn over 30 points a game he was named kuy’s Mr basketball um so he he already had a long lineage of basketball and his family like I said with both his parents playing at the University of Kentucky his father played a handful of games in the NBA so he already had the basketball uh line in blood so you knew that he was going to be you know a good player right off the bat he showed that in high school like I said um being named Mr uh kuy’s Mr basketball and averaging 30 points a game I don’t care what level you do that at that’s definitely a great accomplishment of course he made his decision to go play for uh University of Kentucky for one year as freshman year and we all know the stats he shot over 52% from three-point range 53% from the field but what impressed me the most about uh Reed sheeper was looking at his other stats some stats that people maybe not talk about as much and as he over average over four point or four assist and four rebounds a game while he was at Kentucky along with two and a half steals per game which I don’t think a lot of people talk about and another thing about um a re Shepard that you know definitely stands out everywhere you hear people talk about him is him just being a locker room guy and being type of person that can um get along wherever he’s at doesn’t matter what team he’s on what teammates he have he’s going to be a really good locker room guy and we saw that a lot at Kentucky um so that definitely should translate to the NBA as well but like I said those two particular stats to rebound assists averaging four for both even though he wasn’t starting a lot of the year that’s a huge number for him but of course the big number when it comes to Reed Shepard is his shooting him being one of the best and not the best shooter in the NBA and funny enough Kentucky had two or three of the top 10 three-point Shooters last year along with Rob Dillingham as well who also went in the top 10 uh so Kentucky had some really good shooting last year and hopefully re bring some of that shooting over to the uh Houston Rockets um so that’s a little bit about Reef a little bit about his background as he is drafted about the Houston Rockets at the number three overall pick um also of course wanted to give you my quick thoughts we’re going to have another show this weekend where we’re going to really break down what it means for the Rockets what it means for um him being joining the Rockets this upcoming season Rafel Stone’s gonna have a press conference after the first round so we’ll get even more in depth on why they decide to keep the pick and decide to go re Shepard because of course we heard all the rumors that they could possibly move back uh Poss move back with Memphis Charlotte Portland all these teams that wanted Donovan kingan and it it turns out that Donovan King ends up going to Portland and then Memphis end up drafting Zack Edy as kind of a backup plan so that’s kind of how that that felt but we heard a lot of rumors and we also heard the rumors after the Rockets made the huge trade yesterday with Brooklyn where they gave Brooklyn back their two picks they picked up additional picks um from the Phoenix Suns over the next several years um as they’re kind of playing the long game when it comes to their draft picks because they’re figuring that Phenix is eventually going to blow up the team so either those picks are gonna be really valuable to the Houston Rockets or they’re gonna use those picks to try to go give somebody like a Devon Booker from Phoenix if he decides he wants to leave um so that’s part of the reason why the Rockets gave up those picks is because yes that pick next year from Brooklyn is going to be really valuable considering that Brooklyn just traded away Mel Bridges for basically nothing and they’re gonna be one of the worst teams in the league next year but one thing real quick on that you got to think about the only reason Brooklyn made the pick or trade to trade Mel Bridges the main reason because they got back their picks from Houston so yes seeing Mel Bridges go to New York and now you don’t have their picks that’s kind of a downer but it’s kind of a cause and effect they wouldn’t have made that trade if the Rockets get back to picks and the rockets are looking more long term because they don’t want to continue to bring in 19 20 year old guys at some point you’re going to have to pay these guys and at some point they’re not gonna be fine playing five 10 minutes a game or 15 minutes a game so you’re got have to start making some moves where you’re gonna solidify your roster so you don’t want to keep bringing in player after player after player that’s 19 20 years old when you’re trying to take that next step so I think that’s why the rocks are kind of playing a long game as far as these picks are concerned may not be anything big that’s happening right now as far as trading for a star player I know some R by Kevin Durant but uh sham pretty much shut that down earlier we said there was z% chance that the Phenix TS were gonna be straighten Kevin Durant anytime soon so we can kind of move on from that whole Kevin Durant thing that really didn’t make much sense for the Houston Rockets timeline to begin with but back to Reed Shepard um again I like said I want to give my quick thoughts on Reed Shepard coming to the Houston Rockets um like I said I was expecting him to trade that pick just because it was so much interest in that number three pick especially with teams wanted to trade up and get a player like a Donovan kingan um but like I said it turned out that that didn’t happen they select ree Shepard and he absolutely feels the number one need for the Houston Rockets and that is shooting um the Rockets have been one of the if not worst teams in the league last four season when it come to shooting the highest they they finished in three-point shooting the last four years has been 21 uh number 21 overall um last year they finished 23 overall which was actually kind of an improvement from uh previous years actually shot 35% but still to be a top team even on a top 10 defense last season to be a contending team you have to be able to shoot better from the field or from three-point range and be somewhere at least closer to the top 10 instead of near the bottom of the rankers where the rocks have been the last four seasons like I said last year they finished 23rd 35% overall from the field um they did have a couple couple players that shot pretty well like Fred Van v shot pretty well from three-point range Dylan Brooks started off well kind of fell off um but outside of that they didn’t have a lot of guys they didn’t have really a lot of good really good three-point Shooters and that caused a lot of problems especially when Alper Shang was in the game and teenss just started to double team and leave the Houston Rockets wide open because they know they couldn’t make shots so you bring in a reed Shepard the main thing you got have to figure out with Reed sheeper now is where they see fit I know a lot of people were talking about the Aaron holiday minutes but also Aaron holiday got a lot more minutes because of injuries to Amy Thompson to cam Whitmore at the end of the season to Al shenon which moved Amy and Thompson to the fourward position out of the guard position and that gave Aaron holiday more minutes so now they’re gonna have to figure that out also with tar een coming back into the fold that’s another guy they gon have to add more minutes because he’s gonna be playing at least 20 minutes a game so when it comes to being able to shoot teams are always going to find a way to get you on the court so I’m sure the Rockets will maybe take away some minutes from a fresh van v even take away some minutes from a Jaylen green whatever they have to do they’ll find a way to get a re Shepard on the court they may even run a three guard rotation at times where you have a Fred vanle Jaylen green and Reed Shepard um playing as a three guard rotation just so they can get that shooting on the court because when you’re shooting 52% from three-point range on a team that a lot of times couldn’t hit the wide side of a barn you definitely want to be able to get re sheeper on the court so that’s the one thing I’m sure Ma and his whole coaching staff have already been working on because I’m sure they had an idea that re sheeper was going to be the guy long before the you know we got to draft night so I’m sure they’ve been working on that plan and of course um we’ll be able to ask ma that um hopefully in the next couple of months next time we get to talk to him as far as that on the court but also I’m be asking hopefully asking Rafel tonight when did they make the decision to go at Reed sheeper had they already kind of decided a while ago that was going to be the guy did they have an idea they want to go with somebody else and kind of went back and forth those definitely questions I’ll ask um him tonight and we’ll definitely try to give you an update on what he says in the press conference after the first round tonight but again back to re Shepard kind of going back into how he’s gonna fit with the rotation it’s just going to be a matter of hey long as he’s able to hit those shots like he did in college they’ll find a way to get him on the court how many minutes that’s a whole different story because um I’ve seen reports and a lot of Scouts said that he can play some point guard he has some point guard skills so probably he’ll end up being that backup point guard and our men ends up being more of a forward which um he actually excelled at last year more than when he played the backup point guard so the Rockets it’s a good problem to have it’s a lot better than it were when they trade away James Harden and they were devoid of any Talent before they finally started drafting some of their young guys like jayen green aler and shanon and when we were out they were out there running the wild lineup quote unquote of John Wall Victor Oland Depot and player like that so they come a long way when it comes to Talent so it’s going to be interesting to see how they fit that in but the very least the one thing you can say they did fill a need tonight A need they’ve been having for the last three or four seasons uh so another thing I want to kind of go into I want to talk about is the kind of the pros and cons of a reed Shepard like I’ve already talked about with his shooting he’s a really good shooter um he’s also above aage Defender something I don’t think a lot of people talk about and we know with Ma you have to be an above aage Defender at the very least or you’re not GNA get on the court we saw a lot of time where Jaylen and Alin were on the bench because it wasn’t because they were missing shots you may not the type of Coach that’s gonna sit you down because you’re missing shots he’s gonna sit you down if you’re getting beat on the defensive end or you missing defensive assignment so at the very least uh if Reed Shepard is able to at least be a credible Defender um he should still be able to get time um especially like I said with them needing the type of shooting that he can bring he’s also so a decent I wouldn’t say he’s a um above average playmaker he’s more of a connector he’s not going to make a mistake he’s not gonna hold on to the ball he’s gonna be able to hey get that ball from Jaylen green or get that ball from Fred vley get it over to the next guy and he’s not gonna hold up the offense so he can make some plays as an as a facilitator but that’s not really his main thing when it comes to uh his play on the court so that’s something that is still a good thing you don’t want somebody that’s going to hold the ball it’s G to slow down the offense um another thing that he is he’s he’s sneaky sneaky athletic he had a 42inch vertical um he can play above the rims at time he is slight a frame that’s something more I go into when we talk about the the cons of AR Shepard but like I say he he can play Above the Rim that time which is definitely something you have to be able to do especially at 62 because with that he’s not gonna be able to bully anybody you know into the paint um that’s not going to be really his game he’s going to be more of a finesse type player or somebody has to be able to play the Angles and be able to get in certain spots um I’ve seen people compare them to Mike Bibby uh Mark Price players like that Kirk HR players like that um that have been in the NBA uh before so um that’s something definitely also to keep in mind when you’re talking about the cons again kind of going back to the size he is only 6’2 63 he’s a tweener he’s not really a point guard he’s not totally a shooting guard um he’s more of a shooting guard that has point guard skills um but he is kind of slight a frame it is going to be a question of can he guard the bigger guard faster guards in the NBA especially one onone he’s a really good off ball Defender but can he guard those guys one-on-one especially when you know how the NBA likes to run a lot of isos a lot of pick and roll is he gonna be able to play with those guards is he gonna be able to at least hold his on when they run that pick and roll he has to switch on to a small forward or sometime even a center um because we seen players like Fred Van Ved who’s only six feet tall at times he was able to hold his own against much larger players especially larger centers so you not expect him to shut anybody down especially bigger guys but you at least want he you don’t want him to play Olay defense to where once they get that switch they are automatically gonna score so that’s going to be another question with Reed Shepard as far as is he gonna be able to hold his own also will he be able to develop better handles to where he’s able to get to the basket because yes it’s great to be a three-point shooter but if you’re only a three-point shooter guess what category you go into you go into the category of being just a specialist which is perfectly fine but as a number three pick I’m sure the Rockers are hoping for more than just being a specialist um so that’s another thing to keep in mind when you’re talking about re sheer when talk kind of talk about pros and cons like I said we’re gonna get a lot more into it uh this weekend hopefully we’ll be able to have Tobias on who’ been watching them ever since he played in high school so we’ll definitely get him on and talk a little bit more about it um I don’t like really giving draft predictions as far as whether I think it’s is going to be a bust or he’s going to be this or that you really don’t know like we had players at the Rockets drafted two or three years ago we still have no idea what they are we still don’t know what Jabar Smith’s gonna be we still don’t know if Jaylen Green’s gonna take take it from being at times a top 10 player in the league and at times being a bottom 50 player in the league so we don’t even know what we getting from Jaylen green Jaylen Green’s been in the league for three years now so I like to give it time and see what Reed sheeper definitely at least see him on the court at least on the practice court hopefully the new practice court uh I guess they’ll announce that pretty soon but I least want to see him on the court how he looks with the other player before I just automatically say hey he’s gonna be this or be that or be I don’t like calling anybody a bust because if you make the NBA you’re not really a bust you’re a success you may not be one of the better players but you’re still a success in the NBA so it’ll be really interesting to see how all that plays out um like I said we’ll definitely be talking more about that this weekend hopefully be giving a recap on the raell stone PR conference tonight uh of course we’ll definitely be out once they have the press conference for Reed sheeper I definitely be out at that and have video of that and let them know down in the comments what do you think of the pick are you excited did you want the Rockets to trade the pick what do you think of Reed Shepard and what do you think he’s going to bring this season to the Houston rocks so leave that down in the comments as usual we appreciate the support and make sure you like And subscribe we over 21100 subscribers so we definitely appreciate that so like I said um definitely leave a comment let us know what you think as usual appreciate the support and make sure you check out the next episode of The Rocket Fuel podcast [Music]

The Houston Rockets select Reed Sheppard with the 3rd overall pick. The Rockets decided not to trade out of spot 3 and went with sharpshooting combo guard Reed Sheppard out of Kentucky. What does he bring to the Rockets?

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