Early Check Ins: Reed Sheppard

By Deeper Lens

Now being 1/3rd into the college season, its time to take some early looks at potential Draft hopefuls. One of the notable players from NCAA being Reed Sheppard. Lets look into how valuable his skillset is currently, what needs to grow on, and where it places him currently on draft board standings.

Sheppard has formed into one of the best PNR scorers in the nation, averaging a scorching hot 1.3 PPP(81%TS). He’s able to generate these looks due to his first step, blazing past his man here for a quick 2.

His timing on elevation is quality. In this clip he sees the gap help and slips into space, forcing a foul call.

When defenders are on his hip, he’s able to use this timing to generate space. Vs a bigger defender, he uses a steep forward step to press on his hip, then uses a overhand layup to finish.

This combination of speed and contact aggression has lead to solid free throw rates.

However, when he’s not able to get that early contact, he lacks the aerial control to find different finishes. On this play, he could jump horizontally and use a reverse finish. However, since he lacks the control to do so, it results in him trying to release from behind, leading to a miss.

He still has a great feel for timing. Even on this miss, you can see him faking the first defender, then splitting 2 other defenders , getting a clean look.

When forced to make tough decisions however, his results have been….inconsistent. On this play he sees the laydown pass, but botches the delivery, leading to a turnover .

This struggle delivery increases when facing gap help. He lacks the ball control to move past these defenders, and the sped up decisions force his delivery to have less control.

This inability to progress past traffic makes him wary, forcing kickouts with no real advantage. if he was more comfortable with his handle, he’d press towards the rim, creating either a clean kickout, or a nice laydown for the rolling big. These issues have culminated in his PNR efficiency(when adding passes), dropping down from 1.3 PPP to 0.942.

Even so, when given the open space he has shown solid delivery, and has good awareness.

When working without the ball, he’s shown tons of value. His impact as an off ball shooter has been elite.

He’s making these shots under pressure, showing his threat as a shooter.

He’s comfortable off the catch, using his first step as a threat to set up his pull up jumpers.

Overall, this profile shows a player who could function as a great off the catch threat at the next level, but still has concerns around his passing delivery, ball control, and finishing diversity. Still, his impact is just too valuable to pass up on, and in a ambiguously ranked class, I can see him comfortably being a lottery level prospect. We’ll see what grows from here on out.