NBA mock draft season is heating up in 2024 thanks to March Madness, and while Kentucky isn’t in the men’s NCAA tournament anymore and everyone’s pointing fingers at John Calipari, there are some Wildcats players who have serious talent and will hear their names called on Night 1 of the draft.
In our latest NBA mock draft from Bryan Kalbrosky, he had Reed Sheppard going No. 8 overall to the Houston Rockets and Rob Dillingham going No. 13 to the Portland Trail Blazers. And in the latest mock from ESPN’s Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo, both Dillingham (No. 3 to the San Antonio Spurs) and Sheppard (No. 7 to the Memphis Grizzlies) go in the top 10.
Here’s their take on Sheppard:
The concerns about Sheppard’s poor defensive potential due to his limited physical tools were also on display. He struggled getting around screens all game with his thin frame and it proved easy for the 6-2 Gohlke to rise up and over for jumpers with poor contests due to his 6-3 wingspan. He got lost off the ball on several occasions, beat off the bounce one-on-one, and didn’t come up with a rebound in a game that Kentucky was outrebounded, 40-39.
NBA teams already had some concerns about Sheppard’s defense and ability to ramp up his usage in a heavier on-ball role. At 6-2, there’s little doubt that Sheppard will need to spend heavy minutes at point guard in the NBA, and his passive showing versus Oakland wasn’t a great way to answer those questions.
Still, this is just one of 33 games Sheppard played in what was, ultimately, a remarkable season from a productivity and efficiency standpoint.
NBA teams are still quite high on Sheppard and it’s very hard to see him not being a lottery — if not a top-10 — pick ultimately should he enter the draft.
There you have it! Don’t forget to check out our latest NBA Mock Draft from Kalbrosky!