Shaedon Sharpe has overcome a slow start to the 2025-26 season and has quietly turned a corner for the Portland Trail Blazers as of late. The most recent example was his efficient 31-point performance, where the Blazers guard shot 11-of-20 from the field and 5-of-9 from beyond the arc. He was the silver lining in an underwhelming 115-111 loss on the road to a rebuilding Washington Wizards team.
Sharpe will look to carry this momentum into Portland's next matchup, which comes on Jan. 30 as they continue their road trip against the New York Knicks. But this has now reached a large enough sample size for the Blazers to have confidence that Sharpe will become a more consistent player going forward.
Shaedon Sharpe is finally becoming the player the Blazers have waited for
He played 14 games in December, averaging 22.9 points while shooting a red hot 44% from deep during that stretch. The three-point shot has somewhat cooled off in 2026, but it's still encouraging that he's averaging 21.0 points while shooting 34.1% from deep through 13 games in January.
Not only is Sharpe an entirely different player when his three-point shot is falling, but the Blazers are also an entirely different team. Their shooting guard connects on 41.9% of his three-point attempts in wins compared to just 24.4% in losses. That's a drastic difference, but it doesn't come as a surprise that they need their literal shooting guard to well... be able to shoot.
That was the most significant question mark after Portland boldly decided to extend Sharpe to a four-year, $90 million deal before the start of the season. He doesn't offer much in terms of playmaking or defense, making it that much more difficult to make an impact if he's not a reliable three-level scorer.
Sharpe is just 22 years old, so hopefully he can refine those other aspects of his game in the coming years to become less one-dimensional as well. But part of the reason the Blazers extended him was to invest in his star upside, potentially getting ahead of a breakout campaign before he hit restricted free agency.
Signs pointed to that being the case as Sharpe was the one standout performer in Blazers training camp, but that success surprisingly didn't translate early in the season. Injuries could have played a role in that slow start. Portland's high-flyer is finally finding his offensive rhythm, and it's changing their entire outlook. Not only does it justify their decision to invest in him before the season, but it also gives them a more reliable offensive initiator, which will do wonders for their rebuild.
Not a bad silver lining to what was otherwise an ugly loss.