The Portland Trail Blazers committed to Shaedon Sharpe over Jerami Grant in the starting lineup despite Grant saying he expected to start. While that decision initially looked questionable, given the two players' trending in opposite directions to start the season, Sharpe's drastically improved play has finally justified it.
In his six October games, Sharpe was still averaging 17.3 points, but it came at the expense of Portland's offense as he struggled with efficiency, shooting just 35% from the field. We're now five games through November, and that efficiency has skyrocketed to 55.2% from the field, resulting in 25.6 points per game.
"Training camp Shae" has finally arrived for Portland
The most overlooked aspect of Sharpe's game this season is defense. He went from having the second-worst defensive rating (117.2) on Portland's roster last year to now the sixth-best (114.6), even ahead of All-Defensive wing Toumani Camara.
While his three-point shooting is still a work in progress and somehow trending downwards every season since his rookie year, Sharpe is still managing to become a more two-way player. Offensively, that's due to his ability to utilize his athleticism to get to the paint, where he's among the league's best finishers.
That wasn't the case to start the season and was the primary reason behind his inefficient play, but we're finally getting a healthier version of Sharpe. He's beginning to look more like "Training camp Shae," as Donovan Clingan put it after Sharpe's 35-point outburst in their recent win over New Orleans.
Grant was always due for a bounce-back season after a disappointing 2024-25 campaign. He's emerging as a strong Sixth Man of the Year candidate, averaging 18.1 points on 48/40/86 shooting splits. While some may think that means Grant deserves his starting spot back, we interpret it as being the perfect role for both him and the Blazers. The Blazers have a depleted bench, and Grant's scoring is doing a lot of the heavy lifting, embracing his role as a bucket-getter -- even if it wasn't the one he expected to have.
Portland wisely realized that its ceiling as a team is higher when Sharpe is in that starting unit. They continue to invest in their youth, both in the form of extensions and by giving them increased roles. For a Blazers team with play-in aspirations, these decisions were initially controversial, but Sharpe is finally easing any concerns by becoming the player Portland envisioned.