The NBA Draft and Summer League have come and gone, which means the season is now right around the corner. The talk of the league has been former Kentucky Wildcat Reed Sheppard.
During Summer League, Sheppard was incredible, averaging 20 points a game and proving he will be a great facilitator in the NBA. Sheppard was the best rookie in the Summer League by far, which has the Rookie of the Year hype growing.
Kyle Boone of CBS Sports did an NBA Draft redraft, and in it, he had Sheppard going first overall to the Hawks instead of third overall to the Houston Rockets. Zacharie Risacher was the first overall pick in the draft, and he wasn’t terrible in Summer League; Sheppard was just better.
Here is what Boone had to say about why the Hawks should have taken Sheppard, “What we saw from Risacher in Summer League was impressive — and maybe even better than I anticipated — so maybe Atlanta would roll with him again. But No. 3 overall pick Reed Sheppard looked nothing short of a superstar in his own tier for the Rockets’ Summer League team. CBS Sports’ Gary Parrish ranked Sheppard as his No. 1 player in the class for months leading into the draft in June, and while, yes, it’s way too early to draw anything from the class, he’s so far looking like he might’ve nailed his eval. Sheppard looks awesome.”
There were a lot of concerns with Sheppard’s game before the NBA Draft, but the way he played in the Summer League proved to all of the doubters that he belongs in the NBA.
The Rockets are very lucky that Sheppard slipped to three because they might have lucked into the Rookie of the Year. Sheppard will come off the bench for the Rockets, but he is going to have a really good season, which could lead to some accolades.
