Young Blazers Star Praised by NBA Insider: ‘Elite Offensive Weapon’

Can he emerge sooner rather than later?

Nov 30, 2023; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen (31) reaches for a rebound beside Portland Trail Blazers guard Shaedon Sharpe (17) and guard Scoot Henderson (00) in the fourth quarter at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-Imagn Images / David Richard-Imagn Images

Third-year Portland Trail Blazers shooting guard Shaedon Sharpe numbers among the young bright future stars dotting the club's roster. The 6-foot-6 wing out of Kentucky (although he never actually played a game for the Wildcats) only appeared in 32 contests for the 21-61 Blazers in 2023-24 due to injury. But among those 32 contests (25 starts), Sharpe averaged 15.9 points on .406/.333/.824 shooting splits, 5.0 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 0.9 steals per bout.

During a new "The Lowe Post" podcast conversation with ESPN colleague Kevin Pelton, the Worldwide Leader scribe Zach Lowe revealed why he thinks that Sharpe, among all the young intriguing pieces in Portland, stands out from the pack.

"Missed most of last season due to injury. Was handed a much larger role last season when he did play for a tanktastic Blazers team. He ran eight pick-and-rolls per 100 possessions as a rookie, that shot up to almost 22 last year. His efficiency on those was awful, largely due to turnovers and missed jump shots, both missed twos and missed threes. I was watching a lot of film on him today and I came away from it even more optimistic about his development as some kind of elite offensive weapon down the line."

The young guard has a lot of enticing tools that, per Lowe, could help him eventually take the so-called "leap" to NBA stardom — at least as a shooter.

"One of the reasons is, he shot 25 percent on pull-up threes as a rookie, 29 percent last year," Lowe continued. "Catch-and-shoot threes: 39 percent last year, 46 percent as a rookie. I think the jump shot is gonna be there, starting with the catch-and-shoot numbers and trickling down. The second thing is, he's not an unwilling passer, and he's got some craft and feel to his game when he gets the ball, catches the ball, goes around the screen and has... his defender on his hip. He will hold the ball a little too long sometimes and miss passes, but that's I think more of [an[ experience thing, and less [an] 'I'm hunting my own points all the time' thing... I think Sharpe is going to be a really good offensive player."

Sharpe's 33.3 percent long range sniping arrived on a high-volume 5.6 triple tries a night, an encouraging sign even if the conversion rate is wanting.

Lowe cautioned that, despite Sharpe's athleticism, the 21-year-old swingman faces an uphill battle when it comes to turning into even an average defender on the perimeter. Neither Sharpe, nor 2023 No. 3 overall pick Scoot Henderson, nor well-compensated guard Anfernee Simons, are particularly good defenders, in fact. The issue of whether or not the young guards can defend together is a major point of contention among pundits.

"Well that's a long project. Shaedon Sharpe becoming an average or better wing defender is going to take a long time, particularly off the ball [where] he's really struggled," Lowe opined. "This question built into the Blazers is, is there any universe where Henderson, Simons and Sharpe all play together for extended minutes and the team doesn't just hemorrhage points defensively, and I'm not optimistic about that."

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