Fred VanVleet Rests and Marcus Smart Gets the Keys Over Reed Sheppard

The Houston Rockets have a plan for Fred VanVleet, and Marcus Smart is right in the middle of it. Head coach Ime Udoka confirmed Tuesday that VanVleet will sit one game of each back-to-back early this season, with Smart starting in his place, according to Will Guillory of The Athletic. The first test comes this weekend, when Houston visits the San Antonio Spurs in Austin on Friday and the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday.

The caution makes sense. VanVleet missed all of last season with a torn ACL, and Houston plays 13 back-to-backs this season. Udoka hasn't put him on a minutes restriction, so the rest nights are about keeping that knee fresh for April. The Rockets haven't said yet which night he'll sit.

Losing VanVleet for a night still stings. He shot two of eight against the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday, then handed out 11 assists with zero turnovers in the 128-110 win. Counting the preseason, he has 26 assists and one turnover in three games. That kind of steady, mistake-free control is what Houston was missing last season.

Smart is the safer call to fill that hole, and safe is exactly what Houston needs with VanVleet out. The former Defensive Player of the Year signed a two-year deal in July, and he looked right at home Wednesday with 10 points on four of six shooting, two threes and one turnover in 26 minutes. He finished plus-14 and brought the physical, pesky defense that fits into this roster perfectly.

Udoka clearly loves the pairing. "It's a luxury to have two tougher point guards," he said after Wednesday's win. Jabari Smith Jr. added that Smart "slows the game down" the same way VanVleet does.

Smart already had a preseason audition without VanVleet. When VanVleet sat on October 11 in Macao, Smart scored 20 points on seven of 13 shooting with four threes. Houston still lost that night 132-115 and coughed up 21 turnovers, so the backcourt has to protect the ball better this time around.

Reed Sheppard stays in the rotation, and Wednesday showed why Udoka isn't handing him the keys yet. He went one of six, all from three, with three turnovers and a minus-five in under 16 minutes. Sheppard has outscored Smart 47 points to 30 since the preseason opener, though he's played one more game and turned it over nine times to Smart's four. Udoka said afterward that Sheppard got good looks and that the same shots will fall next game.

Sheppard's preseason backs his coach up. He scored 44 points across three exhibition games, including 16 on six of 10 shooting against Dallas on October 9. One cold night against a Mavericks zone doesn't erase that, and he'll get plenty of chances to heat back up behind Smart.

Steven Adams is on the same back-to-back plan and is day-to-day with a calf injury, so the frontcourt could get thin, too. Luckily, Udoka has more deserving players than rotation spots. Depth is the whole reason this plan works.

Thirteen back-to-backs means a lot of Smart nights this season. If he plays like he did Wednesday, nobody in Houston will be sweating them. Follow the weekend in Austin and Atlanta right here on RocketsRoundtable.

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