High school highlights of Reed Sheppard, potential No. 1 overall 2024 NBA Draft pick
Bronny James is winning the buzz battle leading up to the 2024 NBA Draft, but former North Laurel High School (Kentucky) star Reed Sheppard is likely to be the first college basketball player picked.
Sheppard has been flying up draft boards ahead of the June 26-27 NBA Draft, with most mock drafts at this point slotting him at No. 3 overall to the Houston Rockets.
French players Zaccharie Risacher and Alex Sarr are favored to go 1 and 2, but ESPN analyst Kevin Pelton views Sheppard as the top NBA prospect in the draft.
“Already the top player in my stats-only projections, Sheppard moved atop the consensus model as well, from No. 7 in ESPN’s top 100 in April to No. 4 now," Pelton wrote. "Sheppard’s projected 39% 3-point shooting as a rookie is the highlight. No other player in this year’s draft is projected to shoot better than 37%.
"Beyond that, Sheppard’s accumulation of steals and blocks also stands out — particularly relative to his wingspan, measured at 6-foot-3¼ at the draft combine. Yet Sheppard has the best projected steal rate of any player in the top 100 and a better projected block rate than 6-9 post Tristan da Silva. His closest NBA-bound comps in steals and blocks are long-limbed guards Kent Bazemore and Delon Wright.”
Sheppard finished his high school career at North Laurel with 3,727 career points, averaging 22.5 points, 8.3 assists and 8.4 rebounds per game before becoming a Kentucky Wildcat.
Check out some of Reed Sheppard's high school highlights and a postgame interview from the City of Palms Classic in Florida in 2022:
—
-- Mike Swanson | swanson@scorebooklive.com | @sblivesports
MIKE SWANSON, SBLIVE SPORTS
Mike Swanson is the Trending News Editor for SBLive Sports. He's been in journalism since 2003, having worked as a reporter, city editor, copy editor and high school sports editor in California, Connecticut and Oregon.