“Sheppard is a fun player to watch,” a longtime NBA executive told HoopsHype. “He’s very crafty in everything he does. He’s a knockdown shooter. He moves the ball, and it doesn’t stick with him. He’s a quick thinker on the court. He makes winning plays. I’d be a little worried that even though he gets a lot of steals, he gambles a little bit too much at times. He’s not afraid of the spotlight playing at Kentucky, where he has a lot of pressure on him as a homegrown kid from the state. He and a guy like Austin Reaves have that inner confidence and believe in their abilities, which translates to the floor.”
“I think I’ll have Reed in my Top 5,” an NBA executive told HoopsHype. “I think where the NBA is going, where you have to make decisions so fast, he can read the game at such a high level. Reed is a culture builder. That’s something that a team that’s young and trying to get to another tier like Charlotte or Washington, who aren’t good culture pieces, Reed can come in and change the way your program looks and operates by how hard guys play, how hard guys get in the gym and work. Those things matter.”
Excerpts from HoopsHype’s Aggregate Mock Draft from colleague Michael Scotto, who contributed research to this story, can be found here.
