Blazers Injury Report: Portland Starter Receives Playing Status Upgrade For Spurs Game

And not a moment too soon.

Jan 17, 2023; Denver, Colorado, USA; Detailed view of a Portland Trail Blazers logo warmup jersey before the game against the Denver Nuggets at Ball Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images / Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

At 3-5 on the young season, the Portland Trail Blazers have proved themselves surprisingly competent thus far while supposedly tanking. Happily for Cooper Flagg aficionados, Portland's relatively competent record is still bad enough to land it as just the No. 13 seed in a crowded Western Conference. In the East, they'd be a play-in seed right now. The No. 8-seeded Chicago Bulls and No. 9-seeded Charlotte Hornets both sport identical records.

Now, Portland will be adding back one of its most promising young talents ahead of a very winnable game.

Starting third-year Trail Blazers shooting guard Shaedon Sharpe has seen his status downgraded to "questionable" prior to the club's scheduled Thursday matchup against another mediocre-but-tanking West squad, the 3-5 San Antonio Spurs, according to Sean Highkin of The Rose Garden Report.

Sharpe has missed the entirety of the team's regular season and preseason with a left shoulder labral tear. The 6-foot-6 swingman had a breakout 2023-24 season run, albeit while only being available for an injury-hampered 32 games. Selected with the No. 7 pick by Portland in 2022, Sharpe logged encouraging averages of 15.9 points (on .406/.333/.824 shooting splits), while also averaging 5.0 boards, 2.9 dimes and 0.9 swipes a game.

Frankly, Sharpe has the kind of upside Trail Blazers were hoping Scoot Henderson would have displayed by now. He's an intriguing downhill talent, but clearly is at least a willing jump shooter (even if he's not that efficient at jump shooting just yet).

While Sharpe has been healing, fourth-year Portland head coach Chauncey Billups elevated second-year forward Toumani Camara to his starting small forward role, while moving prized new trade acquisition Deni Avdija to Sharpe's anticipated starting shooting guard gig.

Camara in particular has been solid on both ends of the floor, while Avdija has struggled to find his jumper this season (though he's contributed as a distributor). In eight games with Portland, Camara is logging averages of 9.8 points on a tantalizing.460/.481/.636 slash line, plus 4.5 boards, 2.6 dimes, and 1.8 steals a game. Avdija is averaging 10.1 points on a rough slash line of .342/.185/.867, plus 6.0 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.0 blocks.

Avdija's issues could beget an interesting question for Billups when Sharpe does return: should he demote Camara... or the $55 million man the Trail Blazers gave up two first round picks, two second round picks, and Malcolm Brogdon's expiring contract to add?

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