The Rockets seem they are all in on Reed Sheppard. Going so far as saying if Reed was not on the board, they would have traded the 2024 #3 pick. Several people have reported that the Rockets brass is still super enamored with Reed and genuinely believe he will be a superstar; even after his seemingly uninspiring level of play during his rookie season. It was also reported that many teams inquired about trading for Reed Sheppard, but the Rockets virtually have made him untouchable in mostly any trade. But Reed is humble and coachable, and he seems to have all world potential and talent. Rockets and mostly Stone seem to be proceeding very cautiously with his development, especially how Jalen Green was given the wheel with little accountability - and that has hindered him and his development. I am mostly still super excited about Reed’s basketball potential, but most of it is rooted by the extremely positive attitude the Rockets have regarding his sky’s the limit potential. After all, it is they who have access to all the practices and drills; all the behind the scenes stuff.
I trust guys with good work ethics and coachability. Most guys with reasonable physical talent who work hard and are eager to improve will at least turn into useful rotation players.
I actually think his brain will probably keep him in the league as much as his physical abilities, even if his shooting never comes close to the all-time levels teased in his college run. Not just good work ethics, but the brain so that the work actually achieves something and he'll improve on craftiness alone as he matures in the league and learns his tricks. He's basically relying on being an all time shooter if he's getting anywhere near to star level because he really does look undersized and nowhere close to the higher level athletes at his position. I do hope they start running some wrinkles and screens just to get him more open looks in rhythm though. We need the opportunity for his shooting to have a chance to emerge.
Right. Intelligence is one of the most underrated talent in the NBA. A lot of talented players can't make it because they are too dumb to know what they need to improve on. (Terrence Williams comes to mind.) A lot of people say that if Reed can't shoot at elite level, he has nothing else to bring to the table. I disagree. He clearly has good playmaking instinct and sees the floor very well even with his size. If he can master some craftiness in his handles and learn to use screens well, he can be a very good PG, not just an undersized shooter.
I am of the view that if Reed can't shoot, the rest of his game won't play well. This isn't to say he can't do other things, but shootng (and the threat of shooting) is how he gets an advantage to make the rest of his game pop.
Exactly how I see it too. Even if he never breaks the 40% from deep mark to become a top shooter, he's clearly got both real brains and basketball brains in his head and he seems to have the gym rat work ethic with athlete parents. I definitely think he can be a better FVV at the absolute minimum (considering he has regular FVV to learn from too) and that's still a valuable player in the league even if it's not a superstar.
"Can't shoot" is relative. If he shoots lower than 33% 3p% at the end of his second season, he will probably be out of the league. But that's very unlikely. I don't see him shooting lower than 36% from 3 when he is fully developed. It would be disappointing if he shoots at league average for his career, given the expectation out of college. But even if that's the case, it still is good enough to aid his other aspects on offense. Think of him as something similar to FVV who is a career 37% 3pt shooter, small and unathletic and not particularly quick. He still carves out a decent career in the NBA, even one of the most important players on the Rockets in the past two seasons.
You have to really convince me that Udoka is a real intelligent Coach on Offense that can make use of his so called high intelligence. This reminds me of when people said Jalen Green had elite work ethic while his work ethic was decent but nothing of that is worth hyping that up to extreme levels.
