The Portland Trail Blazers fell to 5-5 on the season after a heartbreaking loss to the Orlando Magic thanks to a Desmond Bane buzzer-beater. The silver lining in this loss was the play of Shaedon Sharpe, who is proving that the Blazers were right to extend their up-and-coming guard.
Sharpe finished this contest with a game-high 31 points, shooting 12-of-18 from the field and 3-of-5 from beyond the arc. The latter was particularly encouraging as Sharpe reaching his star ceiling is largely dependent on improving his three-point shot.
The Blazers reached a four-year, $90 million extension with Sharpe. This seemed like a team-friendly deal considering his upside, but it was still risky, given that the current version of Sharpe isn't impactful enough to warrant a contract of that size.
As is the case with any extension, Portland had to factor in the player Sharpe is versus who he could ultimately become. Now, we're finally getting a glimpse of how Sharpe can reach that potential if he can become a more consistent three-level scorer.
Blazers were right to invest in Shaedon Sharpe's talent and upside
On the season, he's averaging 18.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.4 assists, and 1.7 steals on 38/25/89 shooting splits. Overall, he's still struggling with inefficient play. However, Sharpe has been trending in the right direction with his play as of late, suggesting he's turning a corner and simply recovering from what was a surprisingly slow start. Part of the reason the underwhelming start was shocking was due to Sharpe's stellar play this offseason. Sean Highkin of Rose Garden Report noted that Sharpe was the one standout performer in training camp, receiving praise from both Chauncey Billups and other teammates.
Sharpe showed significant signs of improvement down the stretch of last season, averaging 28.8 points in the month of April. This was an anticipated year considering the progression and his increased role in Portland's offense following the departure of Anfernee Simons and, to a lesser extent, Deandre Ayton. All these factors were combining to point towards a breakout season for Sharpe in his fourth year, making it a strategic decision by general manager Joe Cronin to extend Sharpe in order to get ahead of this breakout.
Restricted free agency is often messy, as we saw this past summer. Portland proactively wanted to avoid this and not let the market dictate Sharpe's value in restricted free agency. Early on, it wasn't entirely clear whether they had made the right decision, as Sharpe struggled with his shot. But it was a limited sample size and far too early to overreact.
Now, Sharpe is starting to look more like the player Portland thought he was when they invested $90 million into him. He's much more locked in defensively compared to last season, and offensively is beginning to emerge as Portland's secondary option behind Deni Avdija.
The shooting efficiency will ultimately be the deciding factor in determining how valuable this extension was for Portland, which is why it's so encouraging that Sharpe is finally trending in the right direction. He's just 22 years old and will inevitably be able to string together more consistent games. However, it's games like this, in their loss to Orlando, that show why Portland was right to invest in Sharpe's talent and upside.