Shaedon Sharpe
Shaedon Sharpe is the most untouchable player on the Portland Trail Blazers roster. He's shown wild levels of growth over a short span.
Sharpe played no competitive basketball between high school and the NBA. He was drafted with the No. 7 pick in 2022 based solely on high school tape, the pre-draft process and projection.
He played in 80 NBA games as a 19-year-old. He averaged fewer than 10 points per game, but he lucked into a chance to play as the No. 1 scoring option on a tanking team at the end of the year and averaged 24 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists, shooting 38 percent from three on more than 8 attempts.
He carried that momentum into this season where he's been one of Portland's best players and one of the league's best sophomores. He's exponentially better than he was as a rookie and is only 106 games into his NBA career. He's untouchable as it gets.
Scoot Henderson
Scoot Henderson hasn't been the potential Rookie of the Year candidate fans hoped for coming into the season, but since returning from an ankle injury and a rough start, has been a much-improved player.
Scoot has found an ideal role off the bench and has averages of 13.1 points, 3.1 rebounds and 4.1 assists in December. He's cut his turnovers way down and is collecting fewer fouls. His shooting efficiency isn't great, but he started the year shooting 35 percent from the floor and 0.95 percent from three.
In his last six games, he's shooting 41.4 percent from the field and 38.9 percent from three.
A 19-year-old playing the league's most difficult position is going to have a steep learning curve, but Henderson is already showing signs of improvement. And no team is going to trade a player it picked third overall less than three months into the season.