Reed Sheppard is doing his part in preseason, launching 8.3 threes per game and making 44.0% of them. The problem for the Rockets is that the backcourt around him looks much fuller than it did a year ago, which makes every minute harder to find.
That is why his name keeps coming up now. He was the third pick in an awful draft to a contender, but as a rookie he played just 12.6 minutes per game. That number jumped to 26.2 in his sophomore season, and it did so in Fred VanVleet’s absence. VanVleet is back for the Rockets, and Marcus Smart and Bogdan Bogdanovic are now in the rotation too. For a player who needs the ball and space to show what he can do, that is a very different setup.
The preseason numbers help explain why the debate is real. Bogdanovic is hitting 41.2% of his 5.7 threes per game, Smart is at 33.3% from deep on six attempts, and VanVleet has averaged 7.5 assists with just 0.5 turnovers per game. Sheppard can point to his own shot-making, and he has looked like a guard who can stretch a defense. But there is another side to the decision that preseason box scores do not settle.
His defense may be the part that keeps him from the floor. That is the hard part of the calculation for Ime Udoka, because a young guard can shoot well and still lose minutes if the rest of the rotation has more trust on the other end. Sheppard can make a case with the ball in the air, but he has not yet answered every question when it comes to surviving possessions without it.
The Rockets do not need to decide this in preseason, and that is part of the point. These games are about sorting roles before the schedule starts for real. Even so, the math is plain: more guard depth means fewer easy minutes, and Sheppard’s path back to a larger role now runs through a coach who has to fit him around VanVleet, Smart and Bogdanovic without giving away too much on defense.
What happens next is not whether Sheppard can shoot. He already can. The question is whether Udoka sees enough in the rest of his game to keep him on the floor when the rotation tightens.
