Projection + pass control and grab it? Famous name the Rockets 21-year-old newcomer: He can become Mark Price

The Rockets will definitely have huge changes in the No. 1 position next season. In the past two years, the Rockets' main point guards were veteran Van Vreet, and now veteran Van Vreet was reimbursed due to injury. They can only rely on Amen Thompson, Shepard, Aaron Holiday in the next three months, and even two-way contract player Davidson, the four players who have served as point guards.

The Rockets lacked salary space and could not trade their core players, so developing internal potential and giving young defenders more opportunities is Uduka's optimal solution. The Rockets' Amen has always been a very good point guard. Although he is not good at three-point shooting ability, he has strong defense and tall figure, and has certain passing ability; Aaron Holiday can shoot three-pointers and defend; Shepard is the biggest variable of the Rockets. If he can be reused next season and can perform the performance everyone expects, the Rockets don't even have to introduce new point guards. Just reusing Shepard, Amen and Holiday will be fine.

But Shepard's performance last season was disappointing. Shepard's performance did not impress people in several games in the summer league, and even the three-point shooting percentage he relied on to become famous was not too high. However, there is also a famous speaker who is optimistic about Shepard, who is Bill Simmons. In a podcast, Simmons talked about Shepard, who said that the Rockets selected Shepard with the Titan Lottery last season. Draft experts liked him very much, and many people appreciated him. Shepard may become the Rockets' own Mark Price.

Bill Simmons believes that Shepard may play more games last season, but on the timeline, he does not match the Rockets. In other words, the Rockets last season was to enter the playoffs and win more games, and they had already passed the era when Silas led the team to play wildly.

The Rockets last season were to win more games, so young players like Shepard naturally cannot get too many opportunities to play, and it is difficult for him to get opportunities in the game, because the Rockets cannot allow a rookie player to make so many mistakes in the game. The Rockets' fault tolerance rate is too low because they want to enter the playoffs. But next season, the Rockets can only drive the ducks to put them on the shelves, giving Shepard more opportunities, because Van Vreett was reimbursed due to injury, so they can only reuse Shepard.

Bill Simmons believes that Shepard is talented and able to shoot. Three-pointers have always been the Rockets' biggest weakness. Last season, Dillon Brooks even became the best three-point shooter in the team. Their three-point shooting percentage is only 21st in the league. Sometimes the Rockets' three-point shooting performance is even worse than this. In other words, in Bill Simmons's view, Shepard could have become Mark Price, the core defender of the Cavaliers in the 1980s. They are also white defenders, both of whom can serve as point guards and shooting guards.

Prece played a total of 722 games in the NBA, and averaged 15.2 points, 6.7 assists and 2.6 rebounds per game. His three-point shooting percentage was as high as 40.2%, and his free throw shooting percentage reached 90.4%. He was also selected into the All-Star lineup four times, and even his jersey was retired by the Cavaliers.

In other words, in Bill Simmons's view, although Shepard is not that kind of superstar, he can play for the Rockets as a very useful starting point guard. He can shoot three-pointers and the ball quotient is still very high. Although his physical condition is not excellent and his speed is not fast enough, he can completely become a Price-like player using his basketball IQ and shooting level.