Shaedon Sharpe reportedly to reach 4-year, $90 million extension with Trail Blazers
Shaedon Sharpe agreed to a four-year, $90 million extension to his rookie contract with the Trail Blazers. according to Shams Charania of ESPN — a move that keeps the hyper-athletic young swingman in Portland until the end of the decade and represents a vote of confidence that the seventh overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft can be an important player for the Blazers’ next competitive iteration.
The new deal for Sharpe comes on the heels of extensions in Portland for general manager Joe Cronin and coach Chauncey Billups after the 2024-25 NBA season. The Blazers finished 36-46 — their fourth straight season under .500 after firing former longtime coach Terry Stotts. However, they improved dramatically over the course of the season, recovering from a 9-20 start to 27-26 after Christmas. Portland had the eighth-best record and net rating in the West after Feb. 1, fueled by a defense that allowed fewer points per possession over its last 34 games than any team outside of Golden State, Oklahoma City, Orlando and Boston — all playoff teams (and, in the Thunder, eventual NBA champions).
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While correlation is not causation, it seems noteworthy that the Blazers’ significant defensive improvement began in earnest when Sharpe moved from the starting lineup to the bench midway through the season. After a 22-point rout by the Rockets extended their losing streak to five games, the Blazers ranked 28th in the NBA in defensive efficiency. Billups sent Sharpe to the bench, explicitly pointing out his shortcomings on the defensive end of the floor.
“We have to get better defensively…He struggled a little bit,” Billups said, per Sean Highkin of the Rose Garden Report. “As a head coach, as I try to build and develop these guys, I don’t believe in playing one side of the ball. I just can’t allow that. I can’t have that on my watch. Shae has to get better. I’ve seen him be that good so many different times, but he’s just struggled a little bit. And when he struggles, there has to be consequences.”
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Over the next six weeks, the Blazers went 13-5 with the league’s second-best defense, setting a template for an identity shift that continued this summer when Portland plucked veteran defensive end Jrue Holiday from the power-hitting Celtics. Sharpe, for his part, responded well to the demotion, continuing to score well in a reserve role and maintaining his offensive prowess following a late-season return to the starting lineup, averaging 21.5 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists in 35.2 minutes per game.
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That sort of up-and-down season produced something of a conundrum for Portland’s brain trust as Sharpe was eligible for an extension this summer. If the Blazers want to be a defensive-first team, built around stout wings Deni Avdija and Toumani Camara and buoyed by the 2024 lottery pick Donovan Clingan at center, and have an eye on improving their collective long-range game – 19th in 3-pointers made per game, 26th in team 3-point accuracy – then it would make sense to throw the proverbial bag at a career 33% on 3-point shooters they had to bench for defensive misdemeanors?
On the other hand: For an organization that has been searching for its next founding star since before trading Damian Lillard, and is still searching even with Dame now back in the building, could Sharpe be the best bet they can make right now? And doing so now – rather than letting Sharpe finish the season and enter a tight free agent market where, unlike this frigid summer, multiple teams might have the financial flexibility with which to throw him an offer sheet if he’s coming off a breakout run – might actually be the most prudent course of action? (Especially with extension decisions from the likes of Avdija and former No. 3 overall pick Scoot Henderson fast approaching.)
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Overall, Sharpe averaged 18.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 31.3 minutes per game on .551 true shooting in his third professional season. The list of players who will produce similar results by their age-21 season includes only 26 other names; 24 of the 26 became All-Stars, and Magic forward Franz Wagner was on track to reach age 25 last season if not for a torn oblique muscle. (We’ll keep a candle lit for you, John Collins.)
That’s not to say Sharpe will end up blossoming into a high-level perimeter superstar on the LeBron/Luka/KD/Tatum/SGA level. But when you’re talking about a 6-foot-5 wing with a nearly 7-foot wingspan and nuclear athleticism, who’s still playing catch-up a bit after missing college ball altogether, and whose development curve already compares favorably to that of many players somewhat similar in style at the same age, you can understand a team that feels it’s reasonable to up the ante, paying for the right to see if that kind of blossoming ago happen – and to be able to reap the benefits if it happens.
This is the path the Blazers have taken, agreeing to terms that will take Sharpe past his mid-twenties, the long-awaited point of recovery toward his athletic prime. They’re betting that Sharpe — who reportedly turned heads in training camp — will continue his upward trajectory, making the kind of leap that will solidify him not only as one of the NBA’s most exciting young perimeter talents, but as a true cornerstone of the core they’re building in Portland.
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“Shaedon, man, I think everyone knows his talent and what he can do, but that guy can shoot hoops,” veteran Holiday recently told reporters when asked who stood out on the court. “When you face him in training, in person, every single day, he did it It.”