Likes:

• If you look purely at film, it's not hard to see Sheppard is a pretty solid shooter. He may not look amazing, but he's still noticeably good from three, and showed he could shoot the mid-range as well (although it's not the shot he may be looking for). And just in case you didn't fully buy into his shooting ability from his tape; his splits are so good to where you don't really have a choice but to do so. He's a crazy 52% from three, and 83% from the line, very telling his shot will translate well into the NBA (maybe not 52% well, but still good).

• Accompanying his fantastic shooting percentages is efficient scoring and shooting, alongside him being 53% from the field. Sheppard probably has the most efficient stats I've seen from a guard yet.

• Looks like a solid finisher at the rim, he just doesn't drive enough for me to be fully sold on his finishing ability. Can get some tough takes and rarely misses in the few times he gets to the basket. If he had fewer good performances in the paint this would be a worry, but I'm fine putting it as a like with what he showed this season.

• Decent ball handler. He's not flashy, but he's effective. He's shown he can keep control of the ball through pressure. Sometimes his handle can be a little loose, but even then, he's not turning the ball over so it's not really an issue.

• Sheppard is still young, turns 20 days before draft night.

• Sheppard's passing doesn't impress me too much, but it's far from bad. He's not throwing turnovers or bad passes, but he's not throwing great passes either. His looks tend to be very basic and don't create opportunities to score, more so start up a play or get the ball to the open guy (which is fine, but I'd expect that to be the bare minimum). Not to say he can't get good looks and eye-catching throws, but it's uncommon for him to do so. I can't complain about his passing too much though, since he averaged 4.5 assists and had a great assist/turnover ratio of 2.2. If it wasn't for his efficiency, this would be a worry, but it's hard to complain if he's doing good (even if it's not too impressive to the eye).

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  Worries:

• Sheppard is such a confusing player defensively for me to make an opinion on. He's not bad, but he's not very good either (at least on film, will expand later). He gets blown by a lot when guarding the perimeter, and in general he's not that good of an on-ball defender. He's shown he can apply pressure well at times and that he can occasionally have pesky hands, he can pick up some steals and deflections, but I can't buy into his press that much if he struggles to prevent the drive and gets blown by as much as he does, and if he's not always providing his full attention to pressing his opponent. His off-ball defense isn't much better. His close-outs can be weak at times, and he doesn't do anything impressive. Again, he can get some steals and deflections, but it's hard to buy into his off-ball defense with him not consistently being good and not offering anything most of the time. He tends to heat up defensively at the end of the games when he needs to heat up, but he's not always putting in effort. Now, everything I just said is my opinion purely from his film. What really makes it hard for me to decide how I feel about Sheppard defensively is one specific stat, his steals. I mentioned like two times he gets steals, but I didn't know he got 2.5 per game. It does make me buy more into his defensive ability, but at the same time, why is hard to see those steals on film? Like yeah, you can see he gets steals, but it doesn't seem like he gets that amount. I still believe his issues overshadow his pros, even if it's such a big pro like this, because his stats don't fully help his case + his film doesn't make him look all that good + there's other things to mention which aren't visible on film or the stat sheet. He's fouling a bit more than I'd like, with him getting 1.9 per game. He's undersized, something I'll go more in depth on later. He's also not the strongest. His athleticism is a little questionable (also will go more in depth soon), how athletic is he really... how well can he utilize whatever athleticism he has in his defensive playing style? There are appealing aspects of his game defensively, it's hard to deny that, but I personally have too many questions and concerns to buy into his defensive prowess.

• Here's the athleticism section by the way (I did say it was going to be soon). Sheppard doesn't seem to be athletic, but his combine performances suggest otherwise. On film he did show some speed, mostly visible through defensive possessions and occasionally on offense... combine supported that with him doing okay on the agility drills. Sheppard never showed he could jump high on tape, but he was tied for 1st in the combine on the max vertical drill, and his standing vertical was good. I wouldn't rely on the thinking that his max vertical is that high though, because it's been talked about how he cheated a bit to make his max vertical higher (something about extending his arm), so it's probably not 42.0 and more like 38-39 (which is still good). I mentioned his athleticism has questions, and they mostly arise since he doesn't show his athleticism in matches. I feel like his role limits him from doing so, which makes me question if he's going to be able to show his athleticism in the NBA if he couldn't do it in college. It's also a bit hard to be swayed by his combine performances personally, because he really does not seem like an athletic player on film, but I guess he did show glimpses at times of being able to get up there, and it wasn't hard to see his speed at times, but he also cheesed one section so... can you really trust his scores?

• I think Sheppard could put on some more weight, but I don't think it's a big issue currently.

• Would be nice if he lowered his turnovers, averaged 2 per game. His assist/turnover ratio is good even with him averaging 2 turnovers though, so I can't complain really.

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  Dislikes:

• Not a good rebounder. Unless the ball fell right to him, he wasn't getting a board. Sheppard did at times make efforts by boxing out, but his efforts weren't impactful as they didn't help him, or his teammates, get better position for a rebound. He could get a couple of decent boards through contact, but he didn't necessarily fight for them, and that contact emerged after he got the rebound (which fell right to him in the first place), it was just him keeping a firm grasp of the ball to prevent a turnover. The stats do say he is a good rebounder though. He averaged 4.2 rebounds, 3.8 of them being defensive, which is noticeably above the average for a PG, but I'd take this stat line with a grain of salt. Sheppard is just too small and not strong enough to be effective in this aspect of the game, which transitions me to my next point...

• Sheppard is undersized. He's 6'2, which for a PG is small, and even smaller for a SG, a position Sheppard will also most likely be playing a lot.

• Sheppard doesn't move off the ball.

  +

  I knew Sheppard was good, but I didn't think he was this good. I know defense is an aspect of his game which a lot of people like, but I don't see the hype honestly. Offensively though I think he's great and super useful. Even though he's young, I feel like he should be somewhat NBA ready (still might take him a bit to adjust, but that time period of him doing so should be quicker than the ones of the other rookies). His size is a bit worrying, but maybe not to the extent others may imagine. Overall though I think Sheppard is great. I don't think he goes 1 or 2 just because he doesn't really fit with the Hawks or the Wizards, but him at 3 isn't crazy to say.