Showdown At The Mustache Saloon?
I’ve written extensively about Reed Sheppard’s college bonafides, that the comparable statistical players I’ve found are all pretty much Hall of Fame players, or were wildly ahead of their time (Mark Price).
I pounded the table for him to be the Rockets draft pick, and clearly, they listened. Or rather, it was the obvious pick if you value stats at all. If you value competitive makeup at all, and if you value on court vision and sense of the game at all. I’d argue he should have been the first pick. I’ve said that the picks before him (and around him) remind me a lot not of Wemby, or Giannis, or Chet, but of Thon Maker. We’ll see, surely one will work, right?
I argued that no, 6’2” really isn’t that undersized for a point guard, that there are at least 10 NBA point guards 6’3” or shorter who have done Quite Well. (Steph Curry, Dame Lillard, Chris Paul, Jalen Brunson – for example).
Now, though, comes the test. Or really, the first of many tests for Reed Sheppard. It’s so sad to realize it could all be derailed, it could all go so wrong. For one foolish reason. The Mustache. Sure, I actually didn’t think Reed could do it, and his young life his been about proving the doubters wrong. But just as Jock Landale shaving the mullet doomed the first half of last season for him, it could be that growing the ‘stache might have doomed Reed’s shooting. The initial results aren’t promising.
1-for-5 overall from Three With Mustache.
I think we owe it to Reed to give him and his facial hair, one more pre-season game. But no more.
With that important topic out of the way, what will Reed’s role be? If the first game of the pre-season is something to go by, and I hope it is, Reed will be Fred VanVleet’s primary backup, with Amen Thompson and perhaps Jalen Green taking on some of the role.
Reed is simply, even now, a 20-year-old rookie, a more complete player than Aaron Holiday. Reed looks to pass, and is aggressive about it. He threw a beautiful cross court dime to Amen Thompson (who looks to have perhaps made a leap) in his first game. He’s not Chris Paul, though, when the right move is for him to shoot he shoots, rather than attempting to find the perfect play elsewhere. Or at least I think so.
One thing I find interesting is that defensive obsessive Ime Udoka is thus far allowing Sheppard’s unorthodox defensive positioning. Sheppard when facing up against an offensive player will overplay one side, thus more or less guaranteeing that the player will drive to the side Reed left underplayed.
He then likes to dart in behind that player for a steal attempt and also to be behind the driver for a trap with the help big, because usually the opponent drives to the side Sheppard deliberately opened up. So while it looks like Reed was beaten, he deliberately allowed the opponent a driving lane for a reason.
Will this kind of gambling defense work? I suppose the Rockets must want to find out. Between the front office and the coaches they’re interested in seeing the player who averaged (averaged!) 3.2 “Stocks” (steals plus blocks, because they’re sort of the same with Sheppard especially) in college a chance to try it out, in pre-season at least.
In Sheppard’s 20 minutes of playing time in Utah he had…3 Stocks. He had another last night in OKC.
It’s important to understand that the Reed block, based on the video I’ve watched, isn’t a swat into the stands mostly, it’s basically a steal/defelection on a shot motion. Steals (which the Rockets are great at) are one of the better predictors of defensive success, partly because of the sort of ball pressure most good basketball thieves create, and partly because they’re a purely negative play for the offense. A block might just go back to the shooting team, a steal is a live ball turnover.
So watch for that with Reed Sheppard in the pre-season. Let’s see if the novel positioning on defense pays off, and that the Rockets have appropriate help, and can trap off the move.
One further note, Teroya Eason and Stacey Sheppard have made contact on Twitter. This can only be good.
