Peaked Vegas Summer League Rockets pranked by Pistons 87-73

A tired and tiresome learning experience.

Well, there go Cam Whitmore’s chances of the dubious distinction of repeating as Vegas Summer League MVP. 1-15 shooting will do that.

There goes the Reed Sheppard Isn’t Just A Very Promising Rookie But A Literal Basketball God narrative.

There goes the Rockets perfect Vegas Summer League record, and most likely their shot at Vegas Summer League Championship glory.

A few nice things, like gushing praise from outsiders, and a sense of invincibility for these baby Rockets are gone, too.

Is my sense that both Cam Whitmore (younger than Reed Sheppard) and Reed Sheppard are going to be fantastic NBA players gone? Is the non-cross-racial comparison to Reed Sheppard from the man himself, Mark Price (is it just the hair?) over?

Nope.

Well, maybe Mark Price (1 time first team All NBA, 3 time third team All NBA, 4 time All Star) has doubts about Reed, despite the tweet below, but I doubt it.

I’d imagine that Mark Price knows that young players sometimes aren’t at the conditioning level they need to reach for the NBA grind. Sometimes when playing 3 games in 4 days in Sin City they could be a mite worn out by the third game, itself a back-to-back.

I’d say that the young (future) stars of the Rockets hit a bit of a wall today. Whitmore and Sheppard’s legs went out from under them, and it cost the Rockets the game. They’d played a lot of minutes in the previous games, and they played a lot in this one, too. Sheppard played 36 of a possible 40 minutes, for example, today.

The Rockets were actually ahead after one quarter, down a single point at half-time, and won the third quarter. But there were ominous signs as that quarter closed. The Pistons minus Ron Holland (perhaps good for their shooting?) went on a tremendous run to close the third quarter, erasing a Rockets lead, and then blowing the doors off the Rockets in the fourth quarter.

The Rockets after scoring 16, 20, 28 points in the previous three quarters managed a paltry 9 points in the fourth, so a game that was either close, or a Rockets lead, became a Pistons blowout. I think the scoring numbers speak for themselves. The Rockets were running on empty by the end of the third quarter, and missed at least 10 bunnies at the rim or nearby.

Reed Sheppard’s previously nearly flawless floater game deserted him. He missed layups. He missed wide and/or short on 3pt shots. He made bad passes, and pressed to score and pressed on defense, committing six fouls, trying keep the Rockets in the game or bring them back.

Sheppard ended up going 6-17 for 15pts, with 4rbs, 2ast, 3stl and 4 TO in 36 minutes. He’s human, after all.

Cam Whitmore had a day to forget. 1-15, 0-5 3pt, 5pts, 3rbs, 5ast, 1stl, 0 TO. Cam was passing pretty well today, so even if the shooting was awful (it was as awful as that line looks) he did show some passing chops. Where in the first two games on getting near the basket Cam would have thrown it down with authority, today he shot mid-ranges and floaters, and even the good looking ones didn’t go in. Nor did layups, three pointers, or anything else. Was he being selfish? Not really, because other than Reed and Orlando Robinson, no one could do much of anything.

Well, there was AJ Griffin. Griffin went 7-13, 2-3 3pt, with 5rbs, 0ast, 1stl, 1blk for 18pts. I’m not really sure what to make of Griffin. Some of his drives would have lead to smooth easy baskets in the NBA. Some would have looked just as bad at the YMCA. When his shot is on, it’s perfect. When it’s off, it’s way off. His defense is generally as bad as advertised. On the other hand, 6’7” shooters don’t grow on trees, despite the Rockets maybe making it look that way with Cam. This was better than his first two games. Let’s see what the last game brings.

Orlando Robinson had another good game, displacing N’Faly Dante as the Rockets main big. He went 5-11 and a surprising 2-3 3pt for 13 points, along with 13 boards, 3ast, 1blk and only 3PF. He’s a legit 7ft player, who seems to have good instincts inside and can shoot it a bit. Maybe he’s the Rockets spacing center if he actually can shoot the three? There’s really not much NBA evidence in favor of it, or really, against it. He shot a great percentage on almost no volume for the Heat. Even Heat Culture and being 24 years old couldn’t stop him from wearing down, as he too missed bunnies in the 4th quarter.

Not playing Dante more probably cost the Rockets in certain ways as Robinson played hard, and grabbed boards, but he also played selfishly. He took tough shots rather than easy passes near the basket all game. Almost no one set picks or moved, at all, (Dante actually did the first two games, but hardly played in this one). Even a guy going into his third NBA season like Griffin.

The Rockets deep bench guys only saw real minutes for Nate Williams, who had a better game than you might have thought, given his terrible antics to finish the game – 14pts on 6-14 shooting, 10rbs, 3ast, 3stl, 1blk (but also 4 TO – mostly on ill judged basket attacks).

I’d hoped for the best for Kira Lewis, but I do wonder if he’s actually a PG at all in the traditional sense, or more a small scorer like Collin Sexton? 7 minutes probably isn’t enough run to actually know anything.

I’d say that Rockets VSL coach Garret Jackson basically played his best guys too much, and when he needed them, they were just out of gas. Sometimes you have to play worse guys, even if it’s going a bit wrong with the bench, in order to have the better guys when you really need them. He reached for Sheppard and Whitmore in the past two games whenever the opponent made a bit of a push, even fairly late in the fourth quarter of games that seemed out of reach. Whitmore and Sheppard salted those games away for sure, but it appears that there was a cost to it.

Today the Rockets bench, minus Robinson, played all of 32 minutes. That’s just silly low, and I’ll call it bad coaching, because I think it was.

In the end this is a learning experience for the players, and I hope to a real extent, the coaches. Sheppard and Whitmore clearly hit a wall. Missing shots isn’t a character flaw, especially when anyone can see how tired the players are. It’s up to the players to be conditioned enough to get the job done, but it’s also up to the coach to manage minutes appropriately and get a tune out of his bench. I think Garret Jackson failed that test fully as much as the young Rockets. Unlike a lot of decisions in Las Vegas, this one was low stakes, so let’s just chalk it up to experience.

Now, we’ll see if Sheppard and Whitmore decide to be ready to run through that wall the next time. Being a great NBA player demands it, and I believe they’ll get there.