Great satisfaction from the Las Vegas summer league with its maturity and efficiency, Reed Sheppard should not start meetings with the Rockets. In front of him, there are Fred VanVleet and Jalen Green, and it's difficult to steal their place. On the other hand, what is certain is that the rookie will be able to perfectly replace one or the other, as a 6th man.
“It’s still basketball, and I had to do it with John Calipari at Kentucky” he answers. “We really have a lot of good backs capable of playing with and without the ball. It's pretty easy to play without the ball here because Fred can handle the ball, Aaron (Holiday), Jalen (Green) too… They know how to play, and they make the game a lot easier.”
Great gaming intelligence
What is also difficult for Sheppard is that he joins a group where the 12 main players remain! Clearly, he will have to steal playing time from an almost unchanged squad, which already knows all the systems. “But he’s a very intelligent person, with great game intelligence. He’s very cerebral” believes Ime Udoka. “So he will integrate everything very quickly. »
And then Sheppard can count on a mentor of choice to facilitate his integration with VanVleet. The former Raptors leader immediately took his young teammate under his wing. “He talks to me all the time, just encouraging me. He's great. He's a great leader, and a great role model. Fred is a phenomenal player, a phenomenal playmaker…I watched him when I was younger and now I get to play with him, and that's really cool for me. »
VanVleet behaves with Sheppard like Kyle Lowry behaved with him when he arrived in the NBA. And then he finds that their games are similar even if he gives a good ten centimeters to his young partner.
VanVleet, an undrafted mentor
“It’s always funny to see that I’m considered a role model even though I wasn’t drafted,” recalls VanVleet. “I see a lot of similarities in terms of rhythm, control and reading. We really saw it in summer league. I'm happy to have him by my side, and he's another player with the same mindset on us. I will use him to improve myself. And he will use me to improve himself. It's up to me to accelerate its development process. He’s 20 years old, and I wasn’t as good as him at the same age…”.
A prospect that delights Reed Sheppard, especially since not every rookie is lucky enough to be able to count on a mentor from his first season.
“Whenever we are on the field together, he addresses me all the time, whether it is talking more, communicating or teaching me little things which he does very well,” Sheppard concluded. “I think that’s what’s going to happen throughout the year. I think we'll have a really good relationship and it will be someone I can trust to tell me what to do, not just what I want to hear. »
