Houston Rockets Introduce Reed Sheppard, Presser Thoughts + Rafael Stone & Ime Udoka Radio Interview

Houston Rockets Introduce Reed Sheppard, Presser Thoughts + Rafael Stone & Ime Udoka Radio Interview

on today’s show takeaways from Reed Shepard’s introductory press conference standout moments takeaways so much more catching up with Shephard’s parents and what they had to say about him as well as radio interviews with eeme udoka and Rafel Stone what they had to say about the newest addition to the Rockets young core and so much more it’s all coming up on today’s locked on Rockets this is Mission Control Houston ignition sequence starts 6 5 4 3 2 1 happy 4th of July to all those who are celebrating go pop off some fireworks all that good stuff what’s up and welcome to another edition of locked on Rockets your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball as always I’m your host Jackson Gatlin native houstonian and credential media member I’m also the host of locked on NBA Mondays be sure to follow along wherever you listen to your podcast or on YouTube just search locked on Rockets be sure to like comment and subscribe it’s the best way you can help our show out is to go comment anything below the YouTube video just do a little driveby and go say go Rockets it helps us out a ton now today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time download the game time app create an account and use code locked on MBA for $20 off of your first purchase terms apply and as always thank you so much for making lock on Rockets part of your day every single day whether it’s on your way to work on your lunch break in the gym while you’re shooting off fireworks into the night sky a little bit later on uh all that good stuff uh on today’s show we’re going to share kind of you know early thoughts Impressions takeaways from Reed Shepard his introductory press conference uh held here in Houston he officially signed his contract all that good stuff uh as well as you know had the chance to catch up with Reed’s parents uh Jeff and Stacy Shepard immediately after the press conference that’s always one of the cool things about these introductory pressers is you know you have the player and then obviously they’re they’re you know in an official capacity they’re you know up on the stage they’re answering all the questions alongside you know Stone and and and udoka uh but then afterwards the family is just kind of Milling about like on the practice court of Toyota Center so you know this year we were able to catch up with Reed’s parents last year was incredibly funny because we had uh A Min Thompson and assar was part of the audience uh during that one so poor poor assar didn’t have uh Rockets PR like protecting him as a player so he was just kind of there just hanging out with the rest of us and uh it was it was a fun moment uh last year but uh we’ll get into some early takeaways impressions of Reed Shepard uh what he had to say during his uh rookie press conference which if you missed it there I I’ve posted both Reed Shepard’s entire rookie press conference as well as uh some you know brief kind of you know catching up interviews uh with his parents to the YouTube channel so feel free to go check that out we’re not going to run back the the clips of that or we’re not going to run it back in its entirety on this show because the videos are fully posted to the YouTube channel already so go ahead and go check that out if you missed it uh what we will be doing in today’s show though is uh there was also a radio interview conducted by Sports Talk 79 the Matt Thomas Show minus Matt Thomas shout out to Ross Villa real and uh Chris Gordy uh Chris Gordy fellow member of the locked on network doing a lot of great uh work on the college side of things uh for the locked on network uh we’re going to run back that interview with uh general manager Rafel Stone and head coach em Oka that was conducted on radio because there were I think a couple really good tidbits from that interview that I wanted to to share here on the show and and also kind of discuss a little bit later on so we’ll run back the interview in segment two and then I’ll share some thoughts on what stone and emay had to say uh in segment 3 kind of unpacking some of the things that they discuss there but uh as far as Reed Shepard goes man I I think early Impressions the dude is uh incredibly self-aware and the the high IQ jumps off the page immediately like just the way that he kind of handles himself in a media capacity the way that he answers questions uh the detail tale with which he answers questions uh it’s very reminiscent of hearing you know guys like you know Amin uh shenon tari like when they’re breaking stuff down or you know being very kind of providing these like candid answers um shingun I think might get a little bit of you know especially early on while he was still working on his English you know Pro you know struggled a little bit at times to kind of convey what he wanted to convey in in an interview setting uh but as he’s gotten more comfortable with it as he’s gotten better with it you can kind of see how those guys understand and like process the game um and I think you see that with Reed right and the way that he kind of shared his mentality towards the game uh I love that his upbringing right because this got brought up so many different times during the press conference right was you know he his his parents specifically his mom raised him to not be soft right he talks about you know uh his experience at Kentucky playing for Coach Cal and and that you know his whole mentality on the basketball floor is to not be soft and to never give up and to do anything it takes to win talked about how that plays into his defensive mentality right that you know even if you get beat on defense right you can recover you can try to get back in the play and get a block shot a tip from behind or you know get a finger on the basketball whatever and that mentality was um uh was really refreshing to kind of hear and really impressive to hear from such a young from such a young man just kind of understanding his ability his ways to impact the game and eay uh eay had like a little chuckle too when they were talking about uh not being soft because I guess so they previously the night before the rookie press conference uh I guess the you know the the Shephard family and and udoka and and stone they all went out they had a dinner they talked about kind of the vision and expectations and kind of getting everybody at um you know to to obviously you know what the Rockets organization is trying to accomplish and all that stuff and uh OKO was kind of chuckling because he was like look if you know if at any point there’s an issue uh with with toughness or or anything like that all I have to do is call up Mom and it’s uh and she’s going to be on him and it’s it’s great to have yet another mom who’s going to be uh who’s going to be on on a player’s ass the same way uh tar E’s mom is uh tooya the way that she you know is constantly threaten to threatening to bust out the newspaper uh if if tar misses layups or does anything like that I got the chance to joke with uh with Stacy Shepard after the press conference that we got to find a way to park her and tooya een right next to each other during the games cuz Stacy was telling me that during games she has to tell people that are like around her that like she she screams she yells she cheers she plays defense with her feet like she’ll be stomping on the stadium floor and everything trying to get everybody energized into it so it was just really cool like seeing the passion for which this entire family has for basketball obviously this is a basketball family with both of Reed’s parents having played you know basketball at a very very high level um but it was also really cool to hear him talk about his childhood and his upbringing right and the fact that he wasn’t ever pressured into following in his parents’ footsteps he wasn’t ever pressured into becoming an NBA player or becoming a basketball star talked about the fact that there weren’t ever like there weren’t jerseys there wasn’t a ton of like memorabilia or anything in their house growing up like growing up his parents were just Mom and Dad and so he had like a you know what sounds like a pretty healthy relationship with his parents and then and then as he discovered his love for the game of basketball and his own ability to play the game his parents did a good job of nurturing that and and encouraging him without you know necessarily becoming like drill sergeants that were hell B on him like making it to the NBA um and they’ve also got a very realistic approach to everything that’s going on all three of them like you know talking to Reed he understands his expectations for this year he he doesn’t he doesn’t think anything’s you know going to be handed to him uh he’s ready to just come in and learn and work and do whatever it takes to win whether that means he’s not playing any minutes whether that means five minutes a game 20 minutes a night whatever and Oka doubled down on his uh kind of philosophy about minutes distribution and the fact that everything for this team is going to be earned I know that there were some people that were a little worried in the aftermath of the Aaron holiday signing about how that would impact Reed’s minutes uh if Reed is having trouble beating out Aaron holiday for minutes then I think we’ve got a bigger issue on our hands but I do love that eme continues to stick with the the mer the meritocracy kind of uh Philosophy for this roster where you have to earn your you have to earn your keep right if you play well you will get awarded with minutes and I do think Reed has the skills and the talent to you know potentially you know earn himself a rotation spot right out of the gate he’s just he’s just that talented that polished but at the same time you know when we were talking to his dad Jeff Shepard right he was getting caught up in you know oh well what are you know what what are some of the comps what could he be as a player could he be a leader like Steve Nash could he be a guy like Derek White where he’s you know an incredible role player knocking down shots at a high level but also being really disruptive on defense but then he also gave you know a quick reality check he was like but at the same time you know he hasn’t even committed his first turnover yet right like he’s got to he’s got to take time he’s got to you know he’s got to love the process enjoy the process and uh it was just really really cool getting to know the whole family a little bit um I got the chance to get a little bit of a joke in there with Reed uh asking him about his uh his vertical from the combine and how long it would take for him to uh to catch a lob in game or to be on the receiving end of a lob in game and he got a good good chuckle out of it and he was like basically was like look I I’ll be the one throwing the lobs uh and then emay had to chime in and say that he’s going to try to draw something up in summer league so I I’m holding eem Oka to that eay if we don’t get a reed Shepard alley lob play like a you know sideline out of bounds Reed Shepard coming off a back screen and then getting a lob at The Rim if we don’t get that um from coach Jackson not me but you know the assistant coach Jackson uh in summer league then I am going to be furious because he was I was promised that no emay backtracked imedia I was like do you promise we’re getting that he was like no absolutely not uh but overall it was a fun presser uh I I thought that you know for the most part just kind of some of the general you know questions andu getting asked but uh the other thing was is his family seems to take a lot of Pride and you know the fact that there’s there’s so much more to this than just the the basketball element right utilizing their platform uh their ability to give back to the community all that stuff uh when I asked Reed what he wanted you know when he looks back on his career 10 15 20 years from now he said obviously you don’t want to win a championship you want to have success as a player but he also said that he wants people to look back on him and think of him as not just a basketball player but as a good person as a good teammate um as somebody who did more than just played the game right as somebody who helped his community and helped others uh and I thought that was a really impressive answer again for a really young man to to come up with that kind of uh answer that that mentality that mindset it seems like he was raised right good head on his shoulders uh some really fantastic parents all that good stuff so I was really impressed with Reed at his rookie presser I’m curious what your favorite part of his rookie press conference was let me know in the YouTube com comments swing by share your favorite moment share your takeaways your standouts whatever happened at the press conference that you thought was important uh give me your thoughts in those YouTube comments coming up I want to run back the radio interview with Sports Talk 790 that head coach emo DOA and general manager Rafel Stone conducted immediately after the rookie press conference we’re going to get there in just one moment first today’s episode is brought to you by game time game time is an authorized ticket Marketplace of Major League Baseball which makes getting tickets faster and easier prices on the game time app actually go down the closer it gets to the first pitch with killer last minute deals all in prices views from your seat and their lowest price guarantee you don’t want to use any other ticket buying site look and here’s my thing is when you’re buying tickets could be to go to a baseball game basketball game whatever you could be going to a concert theater event doesn’t matter I absolutely despise when you’re going through the process you get to the very end and and then suddenly you’re paying for like a digital handling fee and a service fee and you know a digital delivery like all these fees that they like 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coach em Oka and then talk about what some of these guys had to say afterwards it definitely starts with the shooting he he had an a historic shooting season following a really successful um high school and aou career so it wasn’t it wasn’t it didn’t look super aberrational I mean whenever you’re like the best shooter ever it’s aberrational but uh um and and it was only one year but um but having said that he came in he came in as a very high level shooter and then proceeded to just kind of blow the top off of it so it starts with that but um as we dug deeper yeah it’s I I I think it all comes back to the basketball IQ uh it it just it flashed in all these different ways the the reads were really good the shot selection was really good the defensive plays were really good and and so it seemed to be it seemed to be a real thing and and people who do that in college at at a super high level have been extraordinarily successful in the NBA they there is absolutely no guarantee that that’ll work for him like he’s got to get better and it has to translate uh but the opportunity for it to be there we thought was really special and unique and so we were extraordinarily happy to get them what are the resources you use for those type of there’s tangibles but there’s also those intangibles like you’re talking about basketball IQ and work ethic and things like that what do you do when you’re vetting out these Pro specs to try to find those type of qualities well the I mean the first thing we do is just watch every minute that a kid has ever played and we do that and then we also process every shot he’s ever taken every free throw he’s ever taken and and so we’re we’re very diligent in terms of and not just like looking at his at his career in Kentucky we we go back and so trying to accumulate as much information um uh from from kind of a basketball analytics and a basketball video perspective as is humanly possible and then we aggregate that all up and discuss it and Hammer at it and try and figure out do we think it’s fluky do we think it’s real what are the risks we we do all of that at the very end of the process um what we do is uh try and get to know the person because one thing I’ve kind of found out we’ve we’ve been in this unique position of drafting high for several years now and it was an intuition when we first did it with kind of the very first draft we had which was jayen and alprin um and but but and and we didn’t get a chance to really spend time with Alin in advance I I was actually calling friends in turkey and I was like we were doing Turkish dictionary no we did all kinds of crazy stuff trying to figure out who he was and it turned out we got really good feedback it we got lucky it ended up being very right but with Jaylen we were able to spend real time that was a CO year it’s not I would have happily flown to Turkey if that was even possible but um and then subsequently we we’ve liked that and uh you you’re you’re largely investing in people at a very young age and their physical talent’s immensely important but it’s it’s it’s honestly not as important as who they are as people and do they are they about the right things are they are they good people are they caring people because they’ll be good teammates if they are and if they’re not it’s going to be challenging uh do they have a work ethic do they have a backbone do it’s not do they have a a mental toughness you know we talk a lot about about I think eay spoke about jaylen’s mental toughness this past year being something we really really like alin’s joy for the game is is evident and so I I’m just using those cuz they’re the two oldest of our of our young core but um but all of that I think really really factors into the players that they ultimately become so we try and get to know these guys and and and I was lucky I got to spend a lot of time with Reed in the pre-draft process and and then at the very end of it quite a bit with his family and yeah we’re we’re pretty blown away he’s he’s he’s got all the elements that you’d want to be successful in life not not just basketball to be successful in life and so I feel really good betting up on someone who’s like that it’s totally still a bet it is absolutely incumbent upon him and us to develop and everything else but that’s that’s the process we go about he may let me ask you summer league coming up very soon and look there’s guys who’ve been Summer League MVP that we never hear from again so you take it with a grain of salt but is there is there something a guy can show in summer league to I mean you want to have that trust in a in a guy that who’s going to play and be part of your roster and your rotation but is there anything you can show see traits you can see specifically from somebody in summer league yeah I think you know we take it back to last year um our Men played you know three quarters of a game and you saw everything you need to see in that three quarters and so um cam obviously MVP and then Jabari and tari played two games they were dominant so you knew that end of the season run for them translated into summer league and then carried over into this season so yeah you can get a really good look at guys and and the competitiveness IQ all those things that we’ve seen on film and and seen in workouts um obviously at a different level with with competition out there but you want to see who they are and like Rafel spoke about their character work ethic uh competitiveness and so yeah some guys have had rough starts to their career in summer league and by the end of summer league they’re playing great and so how fast someone can really adapt to the NBA game and different things throwing at them and yeah the IQ part um our coaches get our hands on on these guys for a few weeks now and be our first really real chance to see them and so yeah you can definitely get get things from that but um summer league is just their first step and so you don’t you know sell or buy just based on that and and I think uh you know everything that Rael it’ll translate well for Reed into summer league and into his future is there anything specific as far I know you spend a lot of time thinking about rotations and situations and how you use specific players is there anything you say I want Reed Shepard to be like player X or somebody like as a comparison of somebody maybe you’ve played with before a coach before um I mean the shooting ability is what stands out immediately and so you look at the best Shooters in the game and you think of ways to implement them to doing things like that but uh similar to what we did with Fred at times last year we’d like to play him on and off ball you can do that with Reed you know he’s a guy that comes off screens and pin downs and or handles and makes the right decision so that’s a luxury that he can do both of those things um but you know that’s just plans for the future and and and somebody who’s not super tall and super lengthy but plays good defense yeah and so all those things uh obviously we we saw in him and and end up being the reason why we took him at third but um yeah there’s not one specific guy but if he can be a a little bit of all those guys the shooters that we just mentioned whether it’s Curry or you know some Nash with the IQ the guys that he’s kind of been mentioned with obviously great players and we’d be happy with that Rafel I wanted to talk about that specifically because you know everything you read you know people start P oh shooter shooter shooter he is I guess I you call combo guard can play multiple positions but the defense I think is underrated I mean five steals against in the LSU game against Old Miss against aubert I mean he is active getting his hands out there and defending is that what you saw in film and what you would Intrigue you about him yeah I mean it’s it’s a big part of it he yeah he he he was a really good player in college like just obscenely good and and it wasn’t you can’t be really good if you’re not a good defensive player he’s a very very good defensive player in college excuse me the the gap between College defense and the NBA defense is is enormous so like really good college Defenders come in as really bad NBA Defenders he’s going to have to grow in that area he’s going to have to figure it out but again like I’m I like a lot of what we’re investing in with him is we think he is going to figure it out I don’t know the timing of it but um everybody’s bigger stronger faster in the NBA and so you know you have to make those adjustments and he may have to change his game a little bit but um but yeah if you can’t do it at the college level you have no chance of doing it at the NBA level and if you’re uber successful at the college level you have a good chance in time of being able to be effective at the NBA level all right so Reed Shepard now into the fold of course the goal is to win as much as possible coach I’ll do start with you what does this team need to do to make that extra leap as far as playing more consistently I would say with special be Jaylen green and aler and shingu let’s see the the biggest word is growth for everybody in this off season and so I think some guys got the their first taste of some success this year uh you know we had the right mix of Fred and and I’m sorry Jeff and um the veterans who brought in Dylan not only those guys but Aaron and and you know Jan and Jack and those guys just seeing routines every day that some of these guys hadn’t seen their first few year so growth in general um you know I think being consistent is going to be another big word we use you know we had some winning streaks losing streaks and we want to be more consistent across the board not lose three in a row or have to win six in a row or 11 to end the season but um you know being more consistent and so those two areas are going to take us uh to a Next Step next year Rafel I mean same kind of idea I mean look we were at the draft party last week awes I mean everybody I talked to said exceeded expectations on the fan turnout fans are excited man I mean you you built this young core and now it starts to go all right let’s go playin game playoffs next year let’s go uh what for you I mean is you you’ve built the roster now and now it’s just about fine tuning right yeah I mean we we really like our group and we’re still extraordinarily young like you know we’re everybody everybody’s nine months older than they were last year right so just being able to buy beers now yeah yeah some not all right so like um um but yeah no it’s it’s we we the the goal is the goal is to grow it organically if we can and we think we can and and to keep the group together and have some real synergies I mean one thing about last year is nobody you know nobody played together and and definitely nobody and no and the coaches hadn’t coached them and eay was trying to implement a defense and an offense and he’s talked about how simple he kept it on both ends of the ball at the beginning and then and then you know over time we expanded and and and that gave him advantages to create advantages on a game by game basis and so we should start you always have to start at the basics but we should start slightly ahead and and be able to implement more and be able to cater our strengths more and our strength should be stronger guys should be we should know more about what a guy can do this is a matchup we can go to and feel better about it because it’s not a first year player it’s a second year player or it’s not a third year player it’s a fourth year player and there are big there are big differences in that and then physically our guys should all be bigger stronger faster um and better able to handle the rigors of the NBA game that should in theory all happen we still have to make it happen like it is all about the work and and and none of us are taking for granted that it that it’s automatic you know and and I think we’ve had a really good summer with our guys up to this point but it’s it’s only a third of the way through the summer and and the grind continues and you know we have a good group of guys who are all about the hard work but but the hard work is super important all right some great nuggets brought up up there by Rafel Stone and Oka going to tackle what they had to say about Reed Shepard and a couple other topics here in just one moment and final segment here at locked on Rockets your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball all right there are a few different things in my notes here that I’ve got drafted up that I want to make sure to address here about what eay and Rafel had to say in their little uh sport talks of a 990 radio interview one other thing that I wanted to mention that I didn’t get to in segment one talking about uh Reed’s intro press conference that we were all you know a part of is uh eay did mention like the competitiveness of Reed Shepard and talked about the fact that you know often times for these pre-draft workouts right guys come in and they’re just doing you know empty gym you know drills uh kind of one-on-none environments where they’re just going through the motions and you know getting shots up or things like that um whereas Reed he wanted to actually play against competition right so he was playing against and we didn’t get we didn’t get the names of of the guys that he was playing against but you you’d imagine right there were current members of the Rockets team in that practice gym that Reed was going up against during his Rockets workout and that speaks volumes about his desire his drive his his his competitive nature that he wanted to go against current NBA level competition you know whether he was guarding jayen or cam or Amin or or what have you that probably helped really uh sell him to to the Rockets where they were like wow this kid is is going up against legit NBA competition and kind you know kind of holding his own here obviously it’s a gem it’s you know a scrimmage and open practice whatever but still I thought that was a really uh impressive thing as well that stood out and I I I wanted to mention that I I completely missed it in my notes when I was going through everything in segment one but um all right back to the uh radio interview with Stone and eay just going to kind of go in in in order here uh Stone’s first answer comment about the basketball IQ right it just it really does just jump off the page like when you when you go back and look at film of Reed Shepard play when you see the way that he impacts a game both offensively and defensively uh and you understand again that’s why I was always so uh confused I guess by like the knocks on his game we’re like yeah okay is he a little bit smaller right maybe not the the you know crazy athletic or anything uh but but his ability to be an impactful player absolutely jumps off the page right and you see you see that when he plays defense right you see that when he’s getting in passing lanes and making plays as a again as a defensive playmaker very similar to the way that tar een disrupts things defensively and creates opportunities on the offensive end and then piggybacking off of that uh eay did also highlight uh and I thought this was a really important note and kind of uh important in the context of how we think the Rockets are going to deploy Reed both in summer league as well as next season but talking about his skill set and how it is very very similar and there’s a lot of parallels between what Fred Van vet is able to do on the basketball court and how the Rockets were able to utilize him this past season as well as Reed Shepard the fact that Reed can play both on and off ball right that shooting gravity is real but he’s also very comfortable with the ball in his hands making reads creating for his teammates and so I fully believe that that they look as Reed at Reed Shepard as the long-term like future replacement for Fred Van Lee now is that as early as next season right do they do they opt out of Fred vanet’s third year of his deal turn down the team option and they say nope Reed is our point guard of the future right if he hits the ground running and if he’s you know Uber impressive his rookie year then that’s a distinct possibility and the rockets could save a ton of money and and open up some cap space and and maybe make a big splashy move this upcoming off season if they feel like they don’t need Fred Van vet anymore but that’s that’s also why I highlighted right it’s going to be so important for Reed to learn from Fred Van vet to learn from a guy who impacts the game in a very very I’m not going to say identical way to Reed Shepard but a very very similar way to read Shepherd so I I am very curious and excited to see specifically in Las Vegas summer league right how much of of the offense is Reed Shepard actually going to be uh quarterbacking when he’s on the floor right or are we going to see kind of a 50-50 mix of he’s got the ball in his hand sometimes and other times he’s going to be you know coming you know running running around screens coming off pin Downs that kind of thing like eay already said uh utilizing his shooting gravity to open things up off ball so I did think that was a really important note there just envisioning how they’re going to be able to use Reed Shepard in summer league how they’re going to use him next season and again you start thinking about all the different lineup possibilities right where suddenly now the the fact that am Min Thompson doesn’t you know quite yet have a a good outside shot or a consistent outside shot yet you’re able to kind of minimize that a little bit further by potentially putting some other Shooters around him right there’s there’s a very realistic possibility we didn’t get to see much if at all any of it last season of Amen Thompson playing with a true five out lineup right where you put amen Thompson and Shooters on the floor to give him all that space to operate I do think that this upcoming season there are more than enough Shooters on the Rockets roster to be able to accomplish that goal right you can play small with Jabari or Jeff Green at the five position then you throw tar een in at the four have Dylan Brooks out there or have Cam Whitmore out there at the three and then you can have any combination of Jaylen green Reed Shepard Fred Van vet whatever and then you can put the ball in a Min Thompson’s hands with four Shooters spaced around him and and just kind of let him initiate that drive and kick offense right very similar to uh guys like you know Russell westbr or James Harden where you put four Shooters around them space the floor and let them just operate and attack the rim and it’s either going to result in a bucket for a Min Thompson or a foul you know him getting fouled on the way to the rim or if the defense collaps then boom you’ve got an easy kick out to any number of really really great Shooters around the perimeter so I love that note from eay he also double on the growth part of things right we’re just you know he said he said it’s all about growth for all of our guys um and I do think that the way that this coaching staff was pushing players during the season last year right how how much growth we saw from all the young guys from from game one to game 82 I’m incredibly excited about the offseason work that they’re putting in because again you’re able to see kind of the in incremental growth across an NBA regular season but that offseason is also where you’re able to really fine-tune specific skills you’re really able to get in the lab and work on you know specific things like if it’s you know somebody if it’s if it’s Amen Thompson like adding a floater to his game or if it’s Jaylen green really working on his three-point shooting or his above the break shooting or if it’s Alp working on being you know a a you know better at hitting those trailing three-pointers right if he’s the last guy up on the court and he catches the ball at the top of the key being able to knock down that shot consistently these very little things that it’s harder to maybe really work on one specific skill over the course of an you know 82 game NBA season whereas in the off season they can Target one or two or three different areas of a player’s game and really work on refining them tweaking them and getting them to a place where they come back next year and like oh my God he really worked on his shooting or he really worked on his ball handling or he really worked on XYZ over the offseason and he came back stronger better whatever um also to Stones point about just everybody’s going to be a year older right everybody’s going to be you know stronger bigger faster uh because they’re they’re all still growing into their NBA bodies so I did think they brought up some really fantastic points there uh when discussing kind of where the direction that this team has headed how they Envision Reed sheeper uh succeeding and that was the other element that you know I kind of already tackled a little bit in segment one but just Reed really does seem like he’s got a good head on his shoulders and stone mentioned right he’s not not only uh is he you know equipped to be a good a good basketball player but he’s also equipped for success in life right like he’s just got he’s had a good upbringing he’s you know uh respectful he cares about those around him um he’s an intelligent young man like all these different things like he is going to be uh a great teammate for you know at least everything that we know about him so far um and that’s why so the Rockets were not only sold on him as a basketball player but they were sold on him as a human being as a person and I talk about this all the time on the show but the human element of this game is so important right these guys basically live together for eight months out of the year they treat each other they’re basically family members right and so you’ve got to have guys that are that are good people on the roster in addition to being good basketball players now one final point that I’ll bring up here that I saw uh as as it always happens right making the rounds you know on Rockets Twitter and all that stuff uh ‘s commentary on uh jaylen’s mental toughness uh I you know it whenever it comes to something where it’s and I don’t know where this divide started um but it feels like the it’s at this point impossible to praise one without tearing down the other right a compliment for Jaylen green or a compliment for alpren shenon is not a shot at the other player right so stones you know he Praises jaylen’s mental toughness and then he talks about alp’s joy of the game right and and I think that is that is a fair assessment that’s evident right Alp loves the game of basketball right when he’s out there he’s having fun and that’s that’s part of the reason that he’s so creative on the basketball court he’s like an artist with some of the stuff that he does with his passing with with his creativity on the floor uh eay has talked in the past that he’s very you know similar to mano job in that regard right a guy that that e knows incredibly well and in that element sometimes he has to be rained in a little bit but at the same time you also want to let him be him on the basketball court sometimes you have to embrace the chaos that guys like a mano jobi or a Steph Curry or in this case an alprin shingon kind of bring to the game because for every time that he might have you know a questionable turnover because he was really trying to thread the needle on a pass he’ll have five other passes where you you know they were jaw-dropping assist where you’re just like oh my God he’s got eyes in the back of his head how did he make that happen um I do think it’s fair to high jaylen’s mental toughness because at the end of the day Jaylen really struggled last year man like there’s no ifs ANS or butts about it right he was pretty awful for like two-thirds of the season and to be able to dig past that and get past that mentally uh to deal with the repeated benchings all that stuff and to come out on the other end of it and and post All-Star break have the success that he had that does that does speak volumes about what he was able to persevere through and all that stuff uh again saying that jayen was mentally tough does not mean that alpie isn’t mentally tough because alpie dealt with some of the same crap himself right when he was dealing with Steven Silas like alpie was repeatedly benched alpie was repeatedly you know made the scapegoat within the Rocket’s defensive schemes even though the entire defense was bad so like yes alp’s gone through his own hurdles as well but you can highlight the stuff that Jaylen went through you can highlight what he dealt with this past season and how he came out on the other end of it a better player and hopefully a much better player to start this upcoming season rather than starting out slowly like he did this past year and struggling out of the gate you can highlight that without tearing down alpie and vice versa right you can highlight strengths of alpas without tearing down Jaylen green and I think that’s the important thing to note here um for Rockets fans because I see it’s just it’s turned into this really uh the the discourse around those two in particular uh when for all intents and purposes like those two guys love each other like Jaylen and Alp love each other so much they they want to be successful together they want to make it work um and their skill sets at least theoretically right if they’re both playing at at max level if they’re both playing at their Peak ability then theoretically those two guys should be a match made in heaven for complimentary skill sets on an NBA roster so I’m really looking forward to seeing what those two guys are able to do this next season I’m looking forward to uh NBA Summer League right around the corner coming up in in a future episode we’re GNA do a crossover with uh the host of locked on locked on Kentucky to get a deep dive a further Deep dive on on Reed Shepard kind of what you can expect out of him as a Houston Rocket so be on the lookout for that uh in a future episode really excited for that crossover just got to nail down a time and a place to get the recording done but I am curious your thoughts on again Reed’s intro pressor what he what his parents had to say about him what eay and Stone had to say during the presser during the radio interview share your thoughts in those YouTube comments uh as always thank you so much for checking out the show if you haven’t done so yet please consider subscribing whether you’re listen to your podcasts or on YouTube search locked on Rockets like comment subscribe all that good stuff uh if you’re listening on Apple podcast a festar review helps us out a ton but as always thank you so much for watching thank you so much for listening and we look forward to having you back right here at locked on Rockets your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball [Music]

Houston Rockets Introduce Reed Sheppard, Presser Thoughts + Rafael Stone & Ime Udoka Radio Interview

Host Jackson Gatlin (@JTGatlin) talks about the Houston Rockets rookie introductory press conference for Reed Sheppard, standout answers and moments, catching up with Reed’s parents Jeff & Stacey Sheppard, as well as sharing a radio interview from SportsTalk 790 with general manager Rafael Stone and head coach Ime Udoka.

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