{"id":123950,"date":"2025-02-15T18:49:52","date_gmt":"2025-02-15T23:49:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=123950"},"modified":"2025-02-15T18:49:52","modified_gmt":"2025-02-15T23:49:52","slug":"houston-rockets-rising-stars-good-bad-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/15\/houston-rockets-rising-stars-good-bad-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston Rockets Rising Stars: The Good And Bad News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For a team considered to have one of the best young cores in the league, the Houston Rockets&#8217; performance in the Rising Stars event underwhelmed. Sophomore and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/05\/amen-thompson-defense\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Rockets defensive star<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/thompam01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Amen Thompson<\/a> entered the tournament as the best player. Naturally, his not winning tournament MVP was a disappointment. But it&#8217;s who did win the award that will send Rockets fans to squabbling amongst themselves, and it has nothing to do with Thompson.<\/p>\n<h2>Houston Rockets Rising Stars: The Good And Bad News<\/h2>\n<p>The Rising Stars MVP award went to promising San Antonio Spurs rookie <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/castlst01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Stephon Castle<\/a>. The new format, which now includes a G League team, successfully elevated the competitive intensity of the event. Castle matched the moment and certainly boosted his <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/15\/stephon-castle-just-sealed-his-case-for-rookie-of-the-year-award\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Rookie of the Year odds<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Stephon Castle Is The 2025 Castrol Rising Stars Tournament MVP \ud83c\udfc6 | #CastrolRisingStars\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KP81IusqNHI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Still, even among Spurs fans, few would suggest that Castle is currently a better player than Thompson. Of course, San Antonio would have had the best player in the event if he hadn&#8217;t been busy getting ready to elevate the competitive integrity of the All-Star game instead.<\/p>\n<p>But the point is that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wembavi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Victor Wembanyama<\/a> doesn&#8217;t count, which is probably what NBA players say after their layup attempts get trivially scooped from the air. That leaves fellow 2023-draftee Thompson as the clear man at the top. As much was acknowledged in the drafting process.<\/p>\n<h3>Thompson&#8217;s Performance<\/h3>\n<p>Thompson put up 11 points (team high), two rebounds, and two assists in his team&#8217;s defeat. He &#8220;shot&#8221; 5-6 from the field and effortlessly put his team ahead in the final seconds before a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mcgowbr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bryce McGowens<\/a> game-winner sealed the deal for the G Leaguers. Sadly, those hoping to see a dominant defensive display from the mind-meld between him and twin brother <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/thompau01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ausar Thompson<\/a> were left disappointed. It was competitive for a Rising Stars event but not enough for dominant defensive displays.<\/p>\n<p>But Thompson has looked apparent for a while now. He has showcased his future-star credentials ever since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/smithja05.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jabari Smith Jr.<\/a> went down with injury and the sophomore assumed his spot in the Rockets&#8217; starting lineup. Instead, the main takeaway from the Rising Stars event will concern this year&#8217;s draft and who the Rockets chose to pass up on.<\/p>\n<h3>Did The Rockets Bet On The Wrong Rising Star?<\/h3>\n<p>Castle winning the Rising Stars MVP award was salt in the wound for Houston fans who believe the front office drafted the wrong guard. Castle, the fifth overall pick, would certainly fit better with head coach Ime Udoka&#8217;s defensively oriented approach to basketball. Better than the Rocket&#8217;s fourth overall pick, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/sheppre01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Reed Sheppard<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Sheppard had a rough night representing team G League.\u00a0Not only did his own teammate post him up and <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/DNMMIcvRlDk?t=414\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">dunk on him<\/a> like he wasn&#8217;t even there, but the rookie went scoreless in both his team&#8217;s games.<\/p>\n<h4>Sheppard&#8217;s Season<\/h4>\n<p>Nobody cares about exhibition events in a vacuum, of course. Ironically, the trouble is that Sheppard&#8217;s season has been rather vacuous. An early bench role quickly dried up in favour of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/whitmca01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cam Whitmore<\/a>. A vast swathe of DNPs followed. Due to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/14\/rockets-injury-all-star-break\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Rockets&#8217; recent injuries<\/a>, he has appeared in the team&#8217;s last eight games, but his production has been very minimal. He&#8217;s scored 4.4 points per game on 30% shooting from the field and 26.9% from three.<\/p>\n<p>The argument for Sheppard over Castle was primarily about <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/12\/15\/rockets-shooting-woes-saturday-microcosm-of-otherwise-superb-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">shooting need<\/a>. After all, the Rockets essentially have a better version of Castle already in Thompson (even if he can&#8217;t snag the hardware to &#8220;prove&#8221; it). But Sheppard&#8217;s fulfilled the shooting need about as well as a Nerf gun would at a firing range. For the season overall, he&#8217;s shooting 27.3% from deep.<\/p>\n<p>Still, even with this recent and very public reality check on Sheppard&#8217;s progress, the team can expect the shooting to come around eventually. It&#8217;s just unlikely to be this season. As for Castle, he&#8217;ll certainly be much happier with his situation in San Antonito. There he stands to inherit a spot in a strong starting backcourt alongside recent Texas arrival and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/13\/spurs-deaaron-fox-kings-domantas-sabonis-relationship\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">melodrama star<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/f\/foxde01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">De&#8217;Aaron Fox<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>The Last Word<\/h3>\n<p>Thanks to the new format, the Rising Stars game was an enjoyable evening all around, even if it underwhelmed somewhat for Rockets fans. The team isn&#8217;t giving up on Sheppard. He&#8217;ll get a chance to earn another spot in next year&#8217;s Rising Stars event as a sophomore. As for Thompson, who knows? Next year, he might even have his eyes set on the main event.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For a team considered to have one of the best young cores in the league, the Houston Rockets&#8217; performance in the Rising Stars event underwhelmed. Sophomore and Rockets defensive star\u00a0Amen Thompson entered the tournament as the best player. Naturally, his not winning tournament MVP was a disappointment. But it&#8217;s who did win the award that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5223,"featured_media":123972,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,31,62],"tags":[4703,49134,49264],"class_list":["post-123950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-rockets","category-nba","tag-amen-thompson","tag-reed-sheppard","tag-stephon-castle"],"modified_by":"Kayla Fonte","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123950"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123973,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123950\/revisions\/123973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}