Is Reed Sheppard too undersized/unathletic to succeed in the NBA?

[AFM]

Surprising to hear a guy with a 42 inch vertical being called “unathletic”. But then again, sadly, it’s not that surprising and we all know the ugly reason why.

He doesn't have a 42 inch vertical lol. This happens every year. Guys like him purposefully fudge their standing reach so their vertical looks better. You really think he has the same vertical as Vince Carter?

[LarsV8]

He will be fine, just needs time.

[Optms]

if Castle went third, and Reed fourth to the Spurs, would that change anything?

Sheppard would be in the ROY running while Castle would likely be in the G-League right now.

Castle is the kind of player Udoka would find minutes for.

He can't shoot so who would he get PT over? Definitely not FVV, Amen. It took an injury to even get Amen in the starting lineup. He would have gotten the same PT Sheppard did when coming in.

Castle in the corner shooting 3's wouldn't work.

[draftbarnes]

zero patience...he is very small on the court and will need to navigate some moves to fix that

[Godymas]

see the worrying part about Reed Sheppard is..he's supposed to be some godly 3 point shooter and he shoots 22% on corner 3s as a rookie.

Dillingham basically ends up with the same job on a worse offense and shoots 62.5% on corner 3s. Jabari Smith Jr. as a rookie shot 34% on corner 3s.

Like when you're a rookie trying to earn minutes and your SKILL is literally 3 point shooting and you can't make corner 3s, it's really concerning.

Like a guy like Corey Kispert who was drafted PURELY for his ability to shoot the ball. He shot 35% on 3s as a rookie and his corner 3 was 42%.

Reed Sheppard is almost always open on corner 3s btw, that's the way the offense works in Houston, there are much more important players to guard.

[shangrila]

Sheppard would be in the ROY running while Castle would likely be in the G-League right now.

Castle is the kind of player Udoka would find minutes for.

He can't shoot so who would he get PT over? Definitely not FVV, Amen. It took an injury to even get Amen in the starting lineup. He would have gotten the same PT Sheppard did when coming in.

Castle in the corner shooting 3's wouldn't work.

He's an aggressive and effective defensive player. Udoka would have loved him and gone out of his way to find minutes for him.

I don't know specifically who over, but it would have happened.

[Prince187]

Surprising to hear a guy with a 42 inch vertical being called “unathletic”. But then again, sadly, it’s not that surprising and we all know the ugly reason why.

He short armed his standing reach(7’9.5”) to game his max vert. Steph Curry had 8’1” standing reach for comparison.

Lot of guys with weirdly high verts been doing this for years, not sure how it’s not being caught on to

Rob dillingham was in the same combine as Reed and they had extremely similar height, standing reach, and wingspans. And Dillingham didn’t even bother measuring his vertical. Even if what you’re saying is true that sort of thing isn’t going to add more than a couple inches at best. He’s still got a higher vertical than 95% of the league. If you saw him play at Kentucky he had crazy hops

[Prince187]

Surprising to hear a guy with a 42 inch vertical being called “unathletic”. But then again, sadly, it’s not that surprising and we all know the ugly reason why.

He doesn't have a 42 inch vertical lol. This happens every year. Guys like him purposefully fudge their standing reach so their vertical looks better. You really think he has the same vertical as Vince Carter?

“Guys like him” huh? What do you think his vertical is? Let me guess 22 inches right? Guys like him can’t possibly jump as high Vince carter for some odd reason. Forget about Mac McClung who actually has a higher vertical than Vince carter. But you probably think he fudged his combine numbers too while there’s no chance Vince also would have

[DBCJUN]

It was his third game in 3 nights. Rockets played wednesday and thursday aswell. Probably tired legs

[nate33]

There are two types of PG's: the hyper-athletic get-into-the-lane-at-will types of guys like Ja Morant, Derrick Rose, John Wall and Scoot Henderson, and there are the hyper-skilled game-manipulators like Jalen Brunson, Tyrese Haliburton, Fred VanVleet, Darius Garland, Steve Nash and Mike Conley.

Typically, the hyper athletic ones are pretty good right away. Those are the guys that are often in the running for rookie of the year.

The hyper-skilled game-manipulators usually take a couple of years to come around, and they often look like busts in their rookie years. It just takes some time for these guys to learn all the tricks to get the necessary separation to shoot and pass. Darius Garland was terrible his rookie year. Conley was pretty mediocre. Brunson was lousy, Nash was terrible early, etc. Plenty of other less touted high-skill game-manipulator types also had slow starts, guys like Fred VanVleet, TJ McConnell, Payton Prichard and Tyus Jones.

I think Sheppard falls into the latter category. I'm not 100% sure that he will pan out to be a star or anything, but I also didn't expect him to be very good in Year 1, so I'm not particularly concerned yet. In fact, if Houston is starting to panic about him, I'd be looking to buy low.

[zeebneeb]

11.6mpg 40 games

[AFM]

Surprising to hear a guy with a 42 inch vertical being called “unathletic”. But then again, sadly, it’s not that surprising and we all know the ugly reason why.

He doesn't have a 42 inch vertical lol. This happens every year. Guys like him purposefully fudge their standing reach so their vertical looks better. You really think he has the same vertical as Vince Carter?

“Guys like him” huh? What do you think his vertical is? Let me guess 22 inches right? Guys like him can’t possibly jump as high Vince carter for some odd reason. Forget about Mac McClung who actually has a higher vertical than Vince carter. But you probably think he fudged his combine numbers too while there’s no chance Vince also would have

Yes guys like him. The knock on him is that he’s not athletic. These guys are scouted in depth for years. You don’t think GMs are aware who is athletic and who isn’t.
You seem hyper obsessed with making this about race.
Yes there are white guys that can jump like McClung.
If Reed is one of those, where is the footage of him dunking like Vince Carter then?

If he has the same vertical as Vince, where’s the footage of him jumping like him?
Oh that’s right. There is none. Because he doesn’t have a 42” vertical.

[dballislife]

all great small guys make up for their lack of size with great ball handling, great passing, and the ability to really hit the 3...he has a lot of improving to do, he could do it cause hes still young, but hes got to get really good at these main basketball skills

[pr0wler]

see the worrying part about Reed Sheppard is..he's supposed to be some godly 3 point shooter and he shoots 22% on corner 3s as a rookie.

Dillingham basically ends up with the same job on a worse offense and shoots 62.5% on corner 3s. Jabari Smith Jr. as a rookie shot 34% on corner 3s.

Like when you're a rookie trying to earn minutes and your SKILL is literally 3 point shooting and you can't make corner 3s, it's really concerning.

Like a guy like Corey Kispert who was drafted PURELY for his ability to shoot the ball. He shot 35% on 3s as a rookie and his corner 3 was 42%.

Reed Sheppard is almost always open on corner 3s btw, that's the way the offense works in Houston, there are much more important players to guard.

Small sample size. He's taken less than 100 3-pointers the entire season. It normally takes like 500-750+ 3's to get a more accurate picture of someones true shooting ability.

[Prince187]

He doesn't have a 42 inch vertical lol. This happens every year. Guys like him purposefully fudge their standing reach so their vertical looks better. You really think he has the same vertical as Vince Carter?

“Guys like him” huh? What do you think his vertical is? Let me guess 22 inches right? Guys like him can’t possibly jump as high Vince carter for some odd reason. Forget about Mac McClung who actually has a higher vertical than Vince carter. But you probably think he fudged his combine numbers too while there’s no chance Vince also would have

Yes guys like him. The knock on him is that he’s not athletic. These guys are scouted in depth for years. You don’t think GMs are aware who is athletic and who isn’t.
You seem hyper obsessed with making this about race.
Yes there are white guys that can jump like McClung.
If Reed is one of those, where is the footage of him dunking like Vince Carter then?

If he has the same vertical as Vince, where’s the footage of him jumping like him?
Oh that’s right. There is none. Because he doesn’t have a 42” vertical.

The knock on “guys like him” is always that they’re unathletic and it doesn’t matter whether it’s true or not. Any scout who actually watched him play at Kentucky and said he was unathletic should be fired. Just look up his highlights. And yeah he can’t dunk like VC cause he had a 7ft wingspan while Reed only has a 6’2 wingspan.

And in an earlier comment I said that let’s say maybe he fudged his combine numbers a little. That’s only gonna add like a couple inches. That means he still has around a 40 inch vertical and that’s higher than at least 90% of NBA players if not more

[Chokic]

Dude is hair under 6'3 in shoes but he looks tiny out there. He looks 5'11 bc of his narrow frame short arms. Also his 42" vertical combine measured vertical isnt exactly the same as in game athleticism. He can jump that with not much traffic in lane and alot of steps to gather but how often does that opportunity present itself aside from a breakaway.

I do believe reed was put in the doghouse by udoka early on in favor of FVV bc of politics not bc of lack of ability. Reed sheppard is a really skilled player and wouldn't have been drafted as high lottery pick as a non physical specimen archetype guard one and done from a blue chip school otherwise. Theres plenty of players in the past where they didnt succeed in the league bc they landed on team where they didnt have alot of favor by the coaches. If he gets traded to a different team with a coach that believes in him I believe he can salvage his career to star level but if he sticks around with Rockets for few more seasons at that point he is what he is just a role playing journeyman.

[hardenASG13]

Surprising to hear a guy with a 42 inch vertical being called “unathletic”. But then again, sadly, it’s not that surprising and we all know the ugly reason why.

He's being called unathletic because he can't get by anyone.

[wemby]

Small sample size. He's taken less than 100 3-pointers the entire season. It normally takes like 500-750+ 3's to get a more accurate picture of someones true shooting ability.

His 99 3PA sample in the NBA is too small, yet he was crowned the second coming of Steph Curry with just 144 3PA in College with a different range and defense... but since he's shooting bad, now it takes 500+ to get an accurate read, right?

For the record, I think he's going to be alright shooting, but he was never close to what he was billed as. Super overhyped.

[Dr Aki]

Sheppard showed enough playmaking in the pick and roll to simply be a spot up shooter in the NBA

[Pelly24]

What's funny is that he tested out as one of the fastest and most explosive athletes at the combine, and his height itself is solid. The *issue* i think is a hidden one: a very low standing reach at 7'9.5." For reference, Chris Paul's standing reach is 7'9," Dame's is 7'11." Kyrie Irving's is 8'3," i think Westbrook's is 8'4." So westbrook functionally has 7 inches in size over Reed. That's just small.