How the Rockets can Help Make Life Easier for Reed Sheppard Offensively

Reed Sheppard has been the Houston Rockets' biggest X-factor this season. Arguably.

Let's just say one of. That's not debatable. Certainly less debatable.

He's played big minutes, out of necessity, although the franchise talked a good bit about giving him an increased role, heading into the 2025-26 NBA season. Sheppard even trained and prepared for it.

Fred VanVleet’s injury sprang that into action, as the Rockets simply didn't (and still don't) have the guard depth to withstand the blow of a season-ending ACL tear to their starting point guard, without turning to Sheppard.

And they did use the third overall pick in the Kentucky product. However, it's been a bit of a bumpy road for Sheppard, who is still learning the game.

At the end of the day, it's all about development. Especially for a second year guard who didn't play much as a rookie.

The Rockets' focus is on the future anyways, rather than just this season. Meaning it's not an all or nothing situation this season.

Even though the masses made that assumption following the Durant trade, not realizing that Houston was merely taking advantage of a significantly low asking price. Well, lower than usual.

And they'd been looking for a superstar closer anyways. As it pertains to Sheppard, perhaps his outside shooting inconsistencies could be alleviated with a table-setting guard, which the Rockets haven't had. In fact, Sheppard has had to take on those responsibilities himself.

A point guard would be the remedy for everyone. Having someone capable of getting him the ball in his favorite spots and areas of the floor would make a world of a difference.

USA Today's Ben DuBose explained how JD Davison could help, in that regard.

"That might make life a little bit easier for Reed Sheppard. He could operate more off-ball, get some clearer looks.

We saw it in that Oklahoma City win, right before the All-Star break. JD and Reed played pretty well together in that game with JD doing the ball handling and Reed operating off ball a little bit more."

As it pertains to Davison, he came onto the scene for the Rockets during the preseason and became a fan favorite, in part because of the Rockets' positional conundrum at the playmaking guard spot. Not to mention his own shooting stroke during the preseason, as he hit 47.1 percent from long-range.

He's been on the shelf of late, in large part to the NBA's rules regarding two-way players, which limits them to 50 NBA games. Davison is at 47 games on the year. There's been speculation that Davison could be landing a traditional NBA contract, but that hasn’t materialized thus far.