The Athletic's Sam Vecenie on Reed Sheppard: 'He's a Basketball Savant'

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The basketball community is buzzing about Reed Sheppard after a hot start to the 2023-24 season. From being honored as SEC Freshman of the Week to being named Dickie V’s Diaper Dandy of the Week, everyone is talking about Sheppard.

He’s even got the NBA Draft community talking. Sam Vecenie of The Athletic revealed his first 2024 NBA Draft Big Board featuring the 6-foot-3 Kentucky freshman guard at No. 6 overall.

“I just love everything that I’ve seen from [Reed] Sheppard to this point,” Vecenie told KSR+. “He’s a basketball savant, very clearly. You look at his feel for the game. He hits these very early hit-ahead passes in transition. He’s able to play both on and off the ball in a way that’s very functional, both towards having success in college basketball and in the NBA, especially as it pertains to playing winning basketball.”

‘He’s Very Clearly Seeing Things a Second Before They Happen’

We’ve covered Reed Sheppard’s “astronomical” plus-minus several times on KSR+, but Vecenie said there’s a clear reason why Sheppard impacts winning so much.

“It’s because he plays the game the right way and he’s processing the game at a different level than what many 19-year-olds do,” Vecenie said. “He’s very clearly seeing things a second before they happen, which allows him to make up for the fact that he’s not a crazy athlete.”

However, Sheppard is still a better athlete than he gets credit for.

“You see him block three-pointers and time those up right,” Vecenie said. “You see his hand-eye coordination is very clearly unbelievable. He has at least enough of a first step to get by defenders and ball screens and continue to maintain that advantage.”

Vecenie has been enamored with Sheppard this season, talking at length about him with numerous NBA Scouts. Another reason for his Top-10 rating of the Kentucky-native.

“Honestly, I can talk for 30 minutes on why I love Reed Sheppard,” he said. “I feel like I’ve done it with numerous NBA Scouts this year as we all try to scramble to figure out what the closest comparable player is currently in the NBA. Then, you throw in on top of it – we haven’t talked about the best skill he has, which is the shooting ability.”

Sheppard is currently shooting 61.1 percent from three-point range, leading all of Division 1 basketball.

“That will eventually come down,” Vecenie said. “He is an incredible shooter who processes the game at an elite level. He can pass the ball, he can play on the ball or off the ball, and he’s a really smart, intuitive defender with great anticipation.”

Where Reed Sheppard Can Improve

It’s not all perfect when it comes to Reed Sheppard‘s play this season. And despite a 25-point performance, his game against UNC-Wilmington on December 2 illustrated that.

“He needs to improve a little bit in terms of his point-of-attack defense,” Vecenie said. “I thought UNC-Wilmington caught him a little bit from time to time, especially late in that game.”

Still, despite the need to improve defensively, Vecenie believes Sheppard’s skill set is one that often goes under the radar at the college level.

“I could just speak glowingly about this dude for such a long time,” he said. “I think, particularly, the skill sets that he possesses are the things that have tended to go a little bit underrated in terms of upside for prospects over the course of the last five to six years.”

Drawing Comparisons to NBA Stars

Reed Sheppard doesn’t look like your prototypical NBA star. He’s only 6-foot-3 and doesn’t have the athleticism you’d expect from an NBA guard; however, if you ask Vecenie, Sheppard fits into the mold of plenty of the current NBA stars such as Jalen Brunson, Tyrese Haliburton, Desmond Bane, and even Tyrese Maxey and Austin Reaves to an extent.

“You look at the players across the league that have broken out and become higher upside guys than what anybody anticipated when they entered the draft,” Vecenie said. “The things that they possess are all of the things that Reed possesses.”

Vecenie believes that Sheppard can be more than just the “shooting specialist” that some perceive him to be at the next level.

“I think the upside is a little bit higher than what people think with Reed,” he said. “I wouldn’t limit him to being a shooting specialist or somebody like that. He just has a really, really impressive way that he goes about playing the game.”