If you loved the summer league version of Reed Sheppard, you might want to watch the Rio Grande Valley Vipers this week. On Monday, the Houston Rockets assigned Sheppard, the No. 3 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, to their G League affiliate. The Vipers will host the Oklahoma City Blue on Tuesday and Thursday, and they will host the Iowa Wolves on Saturday. During that stretch, the Rockets will visit Washington, Memphis and Atlanta.
This is Sheppard's first G League assignment. In a way, the fact that he is spending any time at all with the Vipers is surprising. Coming off one of the best shooting seasons in NCAA history, he was projected to be an NBA-ready offensive player, and he backed this up by being perhaps the most impressive player in Las Vegas last July.
Given the situation he's in, though, and given how his rookie season has gone, this probably wasn't a difficult decision. On Dec. 27 against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Sheppard got on the floor for a four-minute stint at the beginning of the second quarter. In Houston's four games since then, he has played just five total minutes, all of them in garbage time against the Boston Celtics last Friday. If going on the road trip would have meant more DNP-CDs, then getting some real run with RGV is likely a better use of his time.
If Sheppard were in a situation more typical of a rookie taken in the top three, it's possible he'd be making a strong case for Rookie of the Year. The Rockets, however, are 23-12 and second in the West, and their success is largely a result of their defense, which ranks third in the league. It was always going to be difficult for the 20-year-old Sheppard, listed at 6-foot-2 and 185 pounds, to steal minutes from Fred VanVleet or Jalen Green, and he's not an ideal fit next to either of them defensively, especially in coach Ime Udoka's switch-heavy scheme.
Sheppard can make heady defensive plays off the ball, but at this stage of his career, he has difficulty holding up one-on-one. I wouldn't read much into his 27.9% mark from 3-point range, given that his playing time has been limited and inconsistent, but it's worth noting that Houston has used him primarily off the ball on offense. Sheppard's gravity is helpful, but, if he's only going to have a 15.7% usage rate, it's harder to argue that he should be playing over Aaron Holiday.
Personally, I'd love to see more of Sheppard alongside Amen Thompson in the backcourt, with length and shooting around them. Those two have played only 151 non-garbage-time minutes together without another guard, though, according to Cleaning The Glass. Understandably, Sheppard's on-ball development isn't Udoka's top priority when putting together the rotation. This is why letting him cook in the G League makes a lot of sense.
