[Cactus Jack]

I think your thought on playing time is an excellent point. I’ve already been wondering where the minutes for the bigs will come from. You’ll hear grumbling if Sheppard is still being productive, but his minutes fall into the 10-12 a game range. However, he may make it impossible for Cal to cut him too drastically if he can produce like he did against St. Joseph’s (a +16 plus/minus despite no points on only one shot taken.)

The only player who should definitely see fewer minutes right now is the one we can't afford to sit for very long-- Mitchell. I don't think they want to play an undersized 4 forced into the 5 this much over the whole year.

Wagner has been in a rut but could really break out with Bradshaw at Jimmy Dykes' "dunker" spot. Those head down drives where he forces his way into the paint and throws something up get much harder to defend with someone who can bail him out by putting his elbows at the rim and catch lobs or clean up misses.

Dillingham is probably going to be what he is. Streaky, no conscious, can carry you when he's on and shoot you out if he's off. Reminds me a lot of the undersized, volume-scoring backup point guard that almost exclusively runs with the 2nd unit in the NBA. You'll have to stay on the rollercoaster with him some or risk losing what you brought him in to do. He'll obviously be reigned in some as he develops, but some that undersized needs to play a little out of control at times. He's the one guy I'd give it to if you need someone to iso or go one-on-one and pull-up.

Going to need those two to be who they are and Reed to be who he can be for the team to hit their ceiling.

I love Sheppard, but look at Quickley's numbers his freshman season. They are the same size, demeanor, and in a similarish-role (undersized two/combo-guard who did a little bit of everything but was primarily going to be a sub as a freshman).

Quickley's offensive game was way more developed and he was a much more polished point. He averaged 5.2 pts., 1.8 rbs., 1.2 assists and 0.4 steals over 18 minutes at a 37.2%, 34.5% and 82.8% clip playing behind Hagans, Quade, Keldon and Herro.

If Sheppard can replicate that over 8-16 minutes, he's outpacing the guy who turned out to be SEC Player of the Year as a sophomore and NBA 6th Man of the Year that's went for 30+ in multiple NBA games five years later.

All of that to say, I think what he's doing is great, but won't be shocked if his metrics revert to the mean as the season goes on and more teams try to take the air out of the ball and get physical during conference play.