For years, the Houston Rockets have lacked options at the point guard spot, since the start of Ime Udoka’s reign as Rockets head coach in 2023. Actually, Houston has found themselves looking for a point guard for longer than that.
We can even go as far back as 2015, when the Rockets traded for Ty Lawson, hoping he could be the plug-and-play fill that was needed to take the team over the top.
(Which was a disastrous experiment, even though it was short-lived).
More recently, the Rockets hoped John Wall could turn back the clock and beat out Father Time (which no one has been able to do, not even LeBron James, although he’s come the closest).
Then they sought to be creative and innovative and move Kevin Porter Jr. to the point guard spot, which kind of worked.
Somewhat.
Fred VanVleet was the answer the Rockets sought, but his preseason injury left Houston looking once again.
And they changed the position of yet another wing, although this time is was Amen Thompson. Only to realize that wasn’t quite the answer.
This time, they were out of external options. Internally, however, one option remained.
Reed Sheppard, who they expected to give a bigger role to.
He’s proven them right, although he’s been used in an off-ball capacity in order to maximize his shooting, as the Rockets are also devoid of any shooting specialists on the roster.
He’s made a respectable 41.4 percent of his long-range attempts on a viable 6.2 attempts. He’s been inserted in the starting lineup some also, having started four of the Rockets’ games thus far and he’s Houston’s best pick-and-roll facilitating guard on the roster.
To that point, we’ve seen him look good in spurts as Houston’s orchestrator.
Regardless of the role and/or situation, Sheppard’s value is extremely high for the Rockets.
And according to Law Murray of The Athletic, Sheppard could be a large part of Houston’s ceiling, as he cited Sheppard’s assertiveness as the Rockets’ New Year’s resolution.
“Sheppard is coming off one of his least impactful games of the season Saturday in Dallas, finishing with more fouls (four) than buckets (3-of-10 shooting) while the Rockets were outscored by 24 points in his minutes despite losing by only six points. There aren’t many ballhandling options in Houston, and even fewer of those options can confidently make shots. The Rockets are 11-4 when Sheppard scores more than 12 points this season; it’s not a requirement for Houston’s success, but it could be a part of the ceiling for this Rockets team.”
The synopsis was part of Murray’s latest power rankings, which saw him rank the Rockets as the league’s fifth-best team – an improvement over their sixth-place ranking last week.
