Reed Sheppard’s Shooting Range a Weapon for the Houston Rockets

Reed Sheppard is joining a Houston Rockets team on the rise, and the former University of Kentucky and North Laurel High School basketball star can’t think of anywhere he’d rather be.

“I can’t wait to get here and call Houston my new home and get the season started,” Sheppard said during his rookie introduction news conference with the Rockets on Tuesday. Houston selected the proven college player with the third overall pick in last week’s NBA draft.

“I’m really excited to be in the position that I’m in and to come into a young team that had a really good season last year and had a lot of really good young players,” Sheppard said. “I’m just excited, I’m not expecting anything. So I’m going to come in and help the team in any way I can. I don’t want to come in and make it harder on anybody. I want to come in and play my role and do whatever it takes to help the team, whether it’s shooting, getting in the paint and making shots and making things happen, whatever it is, just being the guy that’s going to do whatever it takes to win and whatever the team needs. I’m really excited. I think it’s going to be a really fun group to play with, so I can’t wait to get started.”

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The Rockets finished 41-41 last season, narrowly missing the NBA playoffs but earning the right to select Sheppard in the draft lottery.

Houston’s roster features several high-profile players selected in recent seasons, the “really good young players” Sheppard refers to. They include Jalen Green, Alperen Sengun, Jabari Smith Jr., Amen Thompson, Tari Eason and Cam Whitmore. The Rockets are bringing in a veteran roster under head coach Ime Udoka that includes Fred VanVleet, Dillon Brooks and Aaron Holiday.

Where will Sheppard, two years out of high school and just 20 years old, fit into such a list of professionals?

Udoka had some thoughts on Tuesday.

“You deserve what you get,” Houston’s head coach said. “I think you saw that last year for the most part. We understand we’re in a winning situation, but we’re also developing young players and they’re going to get a chance to play. I’m counting on something Reed said earlier. I want him to make it harder for other people. I want him to make it harder for me and the coaching staff to make decisions.”

“You’re going to come out and play and get the playing time that you deserve, basically, and I think you saw that last year. We put some good veterans in place, but the young guys, the core of this team, were what was going to elevate us and push us forward, so Reed is in the same situation as the previous six draft picks. Come out and compete and guys will get what they deserve. You saw that, starting is not that important. It’s who finishes games, who plays well, and that’s what I’m leaning on.”

One of the thoughts on the minds of the media gathered in Houston on Tuesday was whether Sheppard should spend time in the NBA’s developmental G League.

“I don’t think I’m going to go in with a predetermined plan as far as the G League or not,” Udoka said. “Obviously, last year was good for guys … It’s an added benefit that we can use if we need to, but in a perfect world, we’d like to have Reed come into the rotation and be a big part of it and never have to see the G League … We’ll wait and see what happens there, but we’d like to not have to do it at all, and I’m sure he would, too.”

Kentucky fans will get their first look at Sheppard as a pro on July 12 when the Rockets face the Los Angeles Lakers at 7:30 p.m. (ESPN) on opening night of the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.

Udoka repeatedly mentioned Tuesday his respect for Sheppard’s basketball skills and IQ and already has ideas about how to integrate the rookie into Houston’s rotation.

“I’m not saying we didn’t have a sniper on our team last year. Guys have gotten better in that area. (Sheppard’s ability to shoot three-pointers) is obviously an added bonus for us. We can take advantage of a lot of different things to utilize a guy with his skill set. The range. The focus that he brings on the court because of his shooting ability will open up a lot of possibilities. … It’s going to take a little bit of time to get used to the NBA game, but the range, the IQ, all of that transfers well from high school to college, from college to now, and we don’t anticipate it taking a lot of time, but what he does so well opens up the playbook and puts pressure on other guys to get better in that area as well.”

Sheppard has big plans of his own. When asked what a successful professional career would look like for him, the rookie didn’t flinch.

“Obviously, winning a championship. I think that’s the main goal of a basketball player, is to win at the highest level and become a champion. At the end of the day, he’s a guy that everybody looks up to and knows, he played really hard. He played with a lot of positivity. He was a good teammate. He was a good person off the court.

“You know, I don’t want to be known as just a basketball player. I think it’s really important to go out in the community and interact with the fans and have a good relationship with your teammates and the coaches and the management and everybody in Houston and just be that good guy on the team and in the community that 20 years later you don’t think, ‘Oh, he just played basketball.’ He was a winner. He was a competitor. But he was also a good person.”