Reed Sheppard opens up about the moment he decided to pursue basketball professionally: "I stopped playing all the other sports"
Despite having a rich Kentucky Wildcats culture in his background, Reed Sheppard was not handed a basketball blueprint. The dynamic combo guard decided to pursue basketball after testing his love for other sports.
In his interview with NBA insider Shams Charania, Sheppard talks about the time when he discovered his passion for hoops.
"I played all the sports growing up. I played soccer, I played baseball, basketball, football. And it was until sixth grade really when AAU started, I stopped. I stopped playing all the other sports and just started playing basketball," Sheppard said.
"And at that moment I started picking it up a little bit and going to working out more and getting to the flow of going to working out and going to shooting and really knowing basketball is what I wanted to do", he added.
Despite not being projected as a solidified first pick in the 2024 draft, Reed Sheppard has emerged as several teams' favorite prospect. While the coming talent pool makes it tough to project their impact in the big league, Sheppard is already drawing comparisons to key role-players like Austin Reaves and Donte DiVincenzo.
Despite coming off the bench, Sheppard averaged 12.5 points, 4.5 assists, 4.1 rebounds, and 2.5 steals in his freshman season with the Wildcats. He was also named the SEC Rookie of the Year.
Reed Sheppard possesses 3-point shooting potential
Reed Sheppard brings high basketball IQ, passing vision and unique defensive instincts to the draft. However, the most threatening aspect of his game comes from beyond the arc.
Sheppard made 52.1% of his three-point shots last year. From a distance, his long-range efficiency might fail to radiate its significance. However, he possesses huge promise when diving deeper into the stats.
Since 2013, there have been 63 players to touch the 50% mark from the three-point range. However, only 17 of those have managed to maintain similar efficiency when attempting over 100 shots in a season. It is exactly where Reed Sheppard's caliber skyrockets; he attempted nearly four three-pointers each game last season.
With that, Sheppard ranks 5th in 3-point efficiency on the list. Micah Mason of Duquesne Dukes tops it with 56.0% in 2013-14, while Nick Masterson of Kennesaw St. Owl is the only player to repeat the feat (2017 and 2018).
Moreover, Sheppard is the only sniper to make it to the list while coming off the bench in his freshman year.
Nevertheless, given the intensity of the NBA and Reed Sheppard's unfamiliarity with the global league, a decline in his 3-point touch can be expected. However, the young guard has delivered enough to keep himself high on NBA teams' radars. With that, Sheppard's name is expected to be called somewhere early in the NBA draft on June 26.