Jamal Daniel Shead ( ; born July 24, 2002) is an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player for the

Toronto Raptors The Toronto Raptors are a Canadian professional basketball team based in Toronto. The Raptors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NBA), Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), E ...

of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

(NBA). He played

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

for the

Houston Cougars The Houston Cougars are the athletic teams representing the University of Houston. Informally, the Houston Cougars have also been referred to as the Coogs, UH, or simply Houston. Houston's nickname was suggested by early physical education inst ...

Early life and high school career

Shead began his high school career at John B. Connally High School before transferring to Manor High School. He averaged 18.1 points, 6 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per game as a junior. Shead led Manor High School to the state tournament for the first time in school history and scored 44 points in a win over

Rudder High School James Earl Rudder High School is a public high school located in Bryan, Texas, Bryan, Texas, United States. It is part of the Bryan Independent School District. The school enrollment is more than 1,700 students. The school was classified as a 5A ...

, earning District 18-5A Most Valuable Player honors. As a senior, he averaged 19.3 points and 4.3 assists per game, helping Manor achieve a 28–10 record and the District 18-5A title. Considered a three-star recruit by the

247Sports 247Sports is an American network of websites that focus mainly on college recruiting, athletic recruitment in college football and college basketball, basketball. It is owned and operated by Paramount Global, Paramount. The website hosts a large ...

Composite, Shead committed to playing college basketball for

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

over

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

, SMU and Colorado State.

College career

As a freshman, Shead averaged 3.3 points and 1.5 assists per game, logging minor minutes as a backup point guard on Houston's 2020–21 Final Four team. In 2021–22, Shead's sophomore season, he averaged 10 points and 5.8 assists per game. During the season he was promoted to the starting lineup after injuries to starting guards Marcus Sasser and Tramon Mark. Shead paced the Houston offense as the Cougars won both the AAC

regular season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of S ...

and

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...

championships. In the NCAA tournament, Shead averaged 15 points per game en route to an Elite Eight berth for the Cougars, which included an upset of South Regional No. 1 seed

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

in the Sweet 16, in which Shead led his team with 21 points. Shead was named to the All-

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (AAC), also known as The American, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States, featuring 13 full member universities and 6 affiliate member universities that compete in t ...

(AAC) Third Team. As a junior, he averaged 10.5 points, 5.4 assists, 3.0 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game. Shead was named to the All-AAC Second Team and earned AAC Defensive Player of the Year honors. Following the season, he declared for the

2023 NBA draft The 2023 NBA draft, the 77th edition of the National Basketball Association's annual NBA draft, draft, was held on June 22, 2023, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The draft consisted of 58 picks instead of the typical 60 for the second ...

but ultimately returned to Houston for his senior season. In 2023–24, their first year in the

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Okla ...

, Shead led the Cougars to a

title with averages of 12.9 points, 6.3 assists, and 2.2 steals per game. He was named the Big 12 Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, becoming the first player to win both awards in the same season.

Professional career

Toronto Raptors / Raptors 905 (2024–present)

On June 27, 2024, Shead was selected with the 45th overall pick by the

Sacramento Kings The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Confere ...

in the

2024 NBA draft The 2024 NBA draft was the 78th edition of the National Basketball Association's annual NBA draft, draft. Unlike recent years, the 2024 draft took place over two nights. This was the first NBA draft to be held on multiple nights since the draft ...

; however, immediately on draft night, he was traded along with

Davion Mitchell Davion De'Monte Earl Mitchell ( ; born September 5, 1998) is an American professional basketball player for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Auburn Tigers and the Baylor Bears. He w ...

, Aleksandar Vezenkov, and a 2025 second-round pick to the

in exchange for Jalen McDaniels. On July 5, he signed with the Raptors. On March 8, 2025, Shead hit a game winning

buzzer beater In timed sports, a buzzer beater is a successful shot made as the clock expires at the end of a period or at the end of the game, leaving zero seconds remaining. A buzzer sounds whenever a game clock expires, hence the name "buzzer beater." In b ...

against the

Washington Wizards The Washington Wizards are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Wizards compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference. The team plays i ...

. However, it was disallowed as Shead still had possession of the ball as the

shot clock A shot clock is a countdown timer used in a variety of games and sports, indicating a set amount of time that a team may possess the object of play before attempting to score a goal. Shot clocks are used in several sports including basketball, w ...

hit zero. Hence, the Raptors lost 117–118 at

home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or more human occupants, and sometimes various companion animals. Homes provide sheltered spaces, for instance rooms, where domestic activity can be p ...

Career statistics

NBA

Regular season

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Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, 75 , , 11 , , 19.6 , , .405 , , .323 , , .768 , , 1.5 , , 4.2 , , .8 , , .1 , , 7.1 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 75 , , 11 , , 19.6 , , .405 , , .323 , , .768 , , 1.5 , , 4.2 , , .8 , , .1 , , 7.1

College

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, 26 , , 2 , , 9.9 , , .455 , , .125 , , .750 , , 1.1 , , 1.5 , , .8 , , .2 , , 3.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , style="text-align:left;",

, 38 , , 32 , , 31.0 , , .405 , , .298 , , .802 , , 3.0 , , 5.8 , , 1.6 , , .2 , , 10.0 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

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, 37 , , 37 , , 32.6 , , .415 , , .310 , , .732 , , 3.0 , , 5.4 , , 1.7 , , .2 , , 10.5 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2023–24 , style="text-align:left;",

, 37 , , 37 , , 31.1 , , .409 , , .309 , , .779 , , 3.7 , , 6.3 , , 2.2 , , .5 , , 12.9 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 138 , , 108 , , 27.5 , , .412 , , .296 , , .772 , , 2.8 , , 5.0 , , 1.6 , , .3 , , 9.7

References

External links

Houston Cougars bioToronto Raptors bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shead, Jamal 2002 births Living people 21st-century American sportsmen All-American college men's basketball players American expatriate basketball people in Canada American men's basketball players Basketball players from Austin, Texas Houston Cougars men's basketball players Point guards Raptors 905 players Sacramento Kings draft picks Toronto Raptors players