Paulo Alves

Now, this is all under the hypothetical that what we've seen from Reed the last few weeks continues.

Hopefully it doesn't.

Hopefully we get back to the dynamic Reed that we saw the first six weeks or so of the season.

And this is all just, you know, the bumps, the ebbs and flows that come from being a developing young player.

in the NBA.

It's certainly possible.

But there's also another world where, hey, if he sort of hit his sophomore wall, so to speak, because he barely played as a rookie, you could potentially get a more dynamic, perhaps a little bigger version of Aaron Holiday for not that much cost.

Now, maybe it's not a trade.

Maybe it's the buyout market.

But you could bring in, I think, a fairly high floor vet without giving up a ton.

You could give up

Clint Capella has matching salaries, some combination of Jay Shantate, Jeff Green if you need it, second round draft capital, nothing major.

My point is that you have the ability, both financially and with assets, to bring in a high floor player that could be an upgrade to Reed Shepard, especially if you don't feel like Fred and Fleet's going to come back.

And I've been told that the Rockets are hopeful that by February, ideally by the trade deadline, but certainly by the all-star break, they think they'll have more clarity.

They won't know for sure, but by the time you get to February, you're within a couple of months of the playoffs.

And so I think by that point, they'll have a better idea as to whether it's realistic.

You know, all indications to this point, like Reed's doing or Fred's doing, excuse me, more and more on court work.

And so everybody's saying the right things that they're still hopeful of a return.

But is that possible?

The playoffs would start seven months since the injury, since his ACL surgery.