At first blush, Sheppard looks like one of the many squat game managers in Las Vegas toiling for their next contract. But from his very first summer league action, the 20-year-old rookie already looked too good for the early July showcase. Sheppard, the no. 3 pick, immediately displayed a steely confidence and command of the Rockets offense, penetrating into the teeth of the defense with quick, decisive moves and making fast reads and pinpoint passes to the open man—often Cam
Whitmore, the reigning summer league MVP, who is again too big and too athletic for the competition. Sheppard’s lack of size will obviously elicit questions, but he is a surprisingly springy athlete (three blocks against the Lakers) and has awesome hands on defense (five steals against the Wizards). Shooting will likely always be the calling card for a player who hit more than half of his college 3-pointers—indeed, his shot looks as smooth as advertised—but his deep shooting has felt like a bonus to his across-the-board production and firm grasp of the game. Sheppard clearly belongs at the NBA level; the question now may be how quickly he can outplay a reserve role on a very deep Rockets team
Three 2024 first-rounders started for the Wizards against Houston on Sunday: no. 2 pick Alex Sarr, no. 14 pick Bub Carrington, and no. 24 pick Kyshawn George. Along with 2023 first-rounder Bilal Coulibaly—who’s skipping summer league as he prepares to play for France in the Olympics—this trio represents the Wizards’ future.
Washington’s long-awaited rebuild promises to be methodical and slow. Sarr scored just 9.4 points per game in New Zealand last season and remains incredibly raw offensively; in two summer league games thus far, he’s made just eight of his 26 shot attempts. Sarr is 19 years old, Carrington is 18 for another week, and Coulibaly was also drafted at age 18 a year ago.
Symbolically, the most interesting member of Washington’s summer league starting lineup is Johnny Davis, the no. 10 pick in 2022. It’s not a great sign for a lottery pick to still be summer league material three years in, but that’s where Davis finds himself after underwhelming in his first two largely anonymous seasons: Thus far, he’s split his playing time almost evenly between the NBA (1,036 minutes) and G League (1,029 minutes), and he’s averaged just 4.0 points per game on 39 percent shooting at the higher level.