At 52-27, the Rockets are comfortably in second place in the Western Conference. Houston has three games left in the 2024-25 regular season.
In each of the last four NBA drafts, the Rockets have had a lottery pick. The Rockets have a solid mix of young players and veteran talent. With the third pick in the 2024 draft, Houston took Reed Sheppard out of Kentucky. He’s been used sparingly by head coach Ime Udoka. ESPN’s Tim Bontemps argued Sheppard would be ROY on a team where he averaged 25 minutes per game.
Why has Reed Sheppard been used sparingly by the Rockets in 2024-25?
“…if he[Reed Sheppard] for a team where he’s playing 25 minutes a game, my prediction would be, he’d be running away with this award…”
– Tim Bontemps[@TimBontemps] on Rookie of the year race🔥🔥🔥
🎯🎯🎯
Agree?#Rockets #LiftOff pic.twitter.com/DX1p26pchk— Chris Gorman (@GormanChristoph) April 7, 2025
Heading into the 2024-25 season, the Houston Rockets had a deep roster. That has allowed them to give their third-overall pick Reed Sheppard time to develop in his rookie season. Instead of throwing him into the fire, Sheppard has seen scattered playing time as a rookie. He’s played in 49 of Hosuton’s 79 games this season. Sheppard has one start and is averaging (11.4) minutes per game.
ESPN has a podcast called Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective. In their recent episode, the podcast discussed the Rookie of the Year race. Co-host Tim Bontemps mentioned Houston’s Reed Sheppard. Bontempts believes Sheppard would be “running away” with the award if he were on a team where he played 25 minutes per game.
However, the Rockets have used Sheppard sparingly in his rookie season. The 20-year-old has 26 DNP’s in 2024-25. Sheppard’s best game came last Thursday vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder. He got his first start of the season and played a career-high 31 minutes. Additionally, Sheppard has a career-high 25 points. If the rookie saw consistent playing time, he’d certainly be in the running for ROY. However, Spurs’ Stephin Castle will likely win the award.
