The Portland Trail Blazers are 11th in the Western Conference with a 10-16 record. While that's relatively disappointing considering their strong finish to last season, there are still plenty of reasons for optimism surrounding this up-and-coming team.
Portland has endured a brutal schedule to start the season and now has one of the easiest remaining schedules in the association. The fact that they've won double-digit games at this point is somewhat surprising in itself, considering the number of injuries they've suffered as well. But in addition to the schedule and injuries, another thing that is finally trending upward in Rip City is the play of Shaedon Sharpe.
Shaedon Sharpe is raising the Blazers' ceiling
The Blazers' high-flyer has been red-hot in December, averaging 24.0 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 3.3 assists through six games. Most importantly, that stretch includes shooting 48.4% from beyond the arc on 5.5 attempts per game.
Entering his fourth season, Sharpe had so much hype surrounding what many anticipated to be a breakout campaign. He was the one standout performer in training camp and was set to take on an increased offensive role, not only as a starter, but also in terms of touches with Anfernee Simons now in Boston (and Scoot Henderson sidelined to start the season).
But for whatever reason, whether it was the calf strain or something else entirely, Sharpe had a disappointing start to the season. Even with this December stretch, he's still shooting a career-low 30.6% from downtown. No matter how ridiculous your athleticism is, it's hard to have a breakout season as a shooting guard if you're struggling that significantly from the perimeter.
The good news is that Sharpe finally looks to be playing more like "training camp Shae," and it's raising the Blazers' entire ceiling. Given the level he's been playing at, Zach Lowe is buying into the Blazers, thinking they are better than their record indicates.
"I think they're better than their record, and one of the reasons I think they're better than their record is Shaedon Sharpe's last week has been very encouraging to me," Lowe said on The Zach Lowe Show.
However, given Sharpe's history of inconsistent play, Lowe is also stressing cautious optimism: "I'm very reluctant to sort of say that there's anything transformational happening because I've had these little blips with him before, and he goes back to playing the way he usually plays."
That's been the key issue with Sharpe early on in his career. He's shown these flashes of star potential ever since his rookie season, but has had growing pains when it comes to putting it all together on a more consistent basis. Still, it's important to note that this is a 22-year-old who didn't even wind up playing in his lone season at Kentucky. His development won't be as linear as we'd all like. But what matters is that he continues to trend in the right direction overall. Statistically, Sharpe has improved each season since entering the league, and it's crucial for the Blazers that he continues to do so, as he possesses arguably the highest upside on this entire roster.
He's bound to regress from his hot shooting as of late, but there are still legitimate signs that his breakout is underway in Portland. As Lowe notes, that makes the Blazers much scarier than your typical 10-win team.
With a healthier roster, easier schedule, and Sharpe taking his game to another level, don't overlook Portland in the play-in race this season.