Reed Sheppard wasn’t purported to be a one-and-done prospect, however his freshman season at Kentucky was so excellent that it vaulted him to the No. 3 total decide within the 2024 NBA Draft. The Houston Rockets chosen Sheppard for his knockdown taking pictures, sturdy really feel for the sport, and razor-sharp fingers that specialised in forcing turnovers. Whereas he’s struggling to carve out rotation minutes on a deep and gifted Rockets group to begin his rookie 12 months, he reminded everybody of why he was such a excessive decide with one particular play towards the Portland Path Blazers on Friday night time.
Because the Rockets had been blowing out the Blazers within the third quarter, Sheppard stripped Rayan Rupert on a drive to the basket, chased down the free ball, after which dove into the stands whereas firing a behind-the-back cross that landed completely within the fingers of teammate Tari Eason for a straightforward dunk. Watch the play right here:
Sheppard is tiny for an NBA participant at 6’2 with a 6’3 wingspan, however he’s so good in so many areas that he can overcome his lack of dimension. This play is a premium instance of that.
Whereas this isn’t fairly pretty much as good as DeMar DeRozan’s spinning help final season, it appears like among the finest passes this 12 months, made even higher by the good defensive play initially of the sequence.
It could be enjoyable to see Sheppard get extra minutes, however the Rockets are taking part in nice ball proper now both method. He’s solely going to have extra of those spotlight reel performs as his minutes improve.
