Reed Sheppard is one of the most impressive shooters to come out of the draft in years and has a high floor as a role player and his ceiling could be incredible if he ends up on a team beside a bigger primary playmaker.
On Tuesday, February 27th, Kentucky’s Reed Sheppard hit a game-winning runner to help the Wildcats beat the Mississippi State Bulldogs at the buzzer. That shot capped one of the best prospect performances of the college basketball season, as Sheppard scored 32 points and had seven assists, five rebounds, two blocks and two steals in a difficult road environment.
Nothing about Sheppard’s 12.5 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game jumps off the page. But the 19-year-old is doing it on 53.8 percent shooting from the floor, and he’s also hitting a ridiculous 51.7 percent of his threes. Sheppard is one of the most impressive shooters to come out of the draft in years — especially as a freshman. His 67.3 effective field goal percentage is also completely outrageous.
Offensively, playing next to another elite ball handler will allow Sheppard to focus on his shooting. Even if he’s a bit small for an off-ball guard, Sheppard’s quick release and ability to shoot off movement will allow him to be an elite shooter in the NBA. We really don’t see players with his type of accuracy from deep in college. But when we do, they hardly ever flame out at the next level. If anything, Sheppard will be playing with a lot more space than he does with Kentucky.
It just feels like the draft process can occasionally skew a little too negative. Sure, there might be things preventing Sheppard from being a franchise changer, but at what point do we ignore that and focus on the fact that this kid is just really freaking good at basketball? After all, no other freshman guard in the Sports Reference database has averaged at least 10.0 points per game with a Defensive BPM of 4.0 or higher while also shooting at least 45.
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