Reed Sheppard may never be the pure point guard people hope he'll become—but that isn't a bad thing.
As the Houston Rockets navigate their first season without Fred VanVleet since 2022-23, Reed Sheppard has entered the spotlight. Expectations were already high given that he was the No. 3 overall selection in the 2024 NBA Draft, but patience ran out when Houston's depth chart was shattered by VanVleet's potentially season-ending injury.
Many hoped the Rockets could shoehorn Sheppard into the VanVleet role, but what he's proven in 2025-26 is that his future is as more of a combo guard than a floor general—and that's not a negative.