https://thescore.com/nba/news/3236913 Houston Rockets guard Reed Sheppardwill be sidelined for at least four weeks with an avulsion fracture in his right thumb, coach Ime Udoka announced Saturday. Sheppard suffered the injury by slapping the ball down in Friday's victory over the New Orleans Pelicans.
Sad for him, especially after he’s looking more comfortable out there the last few days. You can see in the video at 9:44 left in the 2nd, he slaps down on the ball while Zion was driving and immediately looks at his hand. He ended up playing the rest of the game (albeit about 9 minutes) with that broken thumb, apparently. I’m sure that wasn’t comfortable, and given it was on his shooting hand, may have affected his shooting that game. Get well, Reed!
Disappointing, but I’m optimistic about next season. Hope we hold onto him. He theoretically has skills we need, and I trust he’s gonna work hard this offseason and come back NBA-ready. Reed is not a trade throw-in, there’s a lot of potential there. While I understand the size concerns, the bust narrative is way too premature; let’s see what we think after next season.
Damn that sucks, but his opportunity at playing time was going to dwindle being a rookie and us entering the most critical stage of the season. Just lift weights and work on your 3 this summer, Ime will take care of the rest. I still believe Reed is a big part of this team's future.
Spoiler @Bobbythegreat @Snow Villiers Fat Ime hearing the news, now that he can play Holiday all the minutes he wants:
Of all the questions I had about him, shooting, shot creation and ball handling were not remotely near the top of the list.