Shaedon Sharpe: The Portland Trail Blazers X-Factor…

Shaedon Sharpe: The Portland Trail Blazers X-Factor…

With the seventh overall pick in the 2022 NBA draft, the Portland Trailblazers selected a guard out of Kentucky. He’s an incredible athlete with great raw scoring instincts and scoring ability, and this could really be the season where we see him break out, and his name is Shaden Sharp. Welcome to Basketball Intuition. I’m your host, Ethan Simon. Today, we’re going to be talking about Shaden Sharp and the Portland Trailblazers. This is a really important year for Shaden Sharp, as well as the Trailblazers just in general with a lot of the young pieces that they do have. Today we’re just going to be diving into Shaden Sharp’s game. Some of the things I really like and some of the things I don’t like. We’re going to start with his build, his shooting, his finishing, and then we’re going to go to the playmaking and the ball handling and then defense. That’s the lineup for today. So, there’s no need to waste any more time. Let’s get straight to his build. Okay, so a few years ago at the combine, he measured 6’5 and a/4 in shoes and he measured in at a 611 12 wingspan. That is ridiculous. And he is somewhere around 210 lb, maybe a little bit more by now. He also just turned 22 years old this year and he is not turning 23 until the end of next season. I didn’t see it with my own eyes, so I can’t tell you if it’s true or not, but reportedly he has a 49in vertical and also on a Blazers broadcast it was mentioned that he had a 45in vertical in an in-game dunk. Shaden is a very special athlete with great leaping ability as well as speed. I will also say that his build allows lineup versatility. He mainly played the shooting guard as we know. Don’t take this as me saying that I think he should be a point guard. But I’m saying that he did quite literally play one through three last season. As you can see, he played most of his minutes at the shooting guard and that’s primarily his role. But also, he played 17% of his minutes last season at the point guard. And if I had to give you any fast facts before we get over to the shooting, I would say he is no short of confidence. I will tell you that. Okay, so now to the shooting. If you do not know a whole lot about Shaden Sharp, you might just think that he is a fun dunker. But the jump shot is something that he’s been growing and especially that mid-range game is deadly. In the mid-range last season, he shot 46% on mid-range pull-ups. I really like the mid-ranges whenever he was coming off of a screen or a dribble handoff action. And I also thought that in that area, he played very well off of two feet. He can give you nice pump fakes. He can turn around and fade it away. He can also pull it up like I mentioned. But Shaden is a mid-range assassin, and I feel like it’s almost an underrated part about his game at this point. But if we talk about the three ball, his three-point shooting splits are down a little bit from last season. His volume did go up from 5.5 to 6.6. And he also went from 2.2 2 catch and shoot threes a game to 3.2 catch and shoot threes a game. But the problem with Shaden is he is very inconsistent. If we look at his rookie season, he was shooting 36% on three and a half attempts. His sophomore season, he was shooting 33% on 5.6 attempts. And now this last season on 6.6 attempts, he was shooting 31%. And also another indicator when we’re talking about somebody’s jump shot is their free throw. In his sophomore season, he only shot 82.4%. In this last season, he only shot 78.5%. And that’s one of the main things that we need to see Shaden improve on in this next season for him to break out. He’s going to be a more consistent three-point shooter. Okay, so that was a couple negative things. I’ll say a couple nice things. He really likes those step back threes. I I wish that sometimes he didn’t take as many step back threes, but still, he does like those a lot. And in the mid-range, he likes those as well. And also, I really really like his catch and shoot motion. He has a very quick trigger. I even seen him hit a no dip three. If you know me, if you’ve been watching for a long time, you know I love no dip threes. And we’ll take this opportunity to transition over to the finishing side of things. And like I just mentioned, his free throw shooting numbers are kind of wonky and they’re kind of all over the place. But also, whenever it comes to him actually getting to the free throw line, that also was just all over the place. I will say though, whenever it comes to him creating contact, he finishes through contact extremely efficiently. I love pulling out this stat whenever I can. He had a 27.7% and one percentage. That is the 74th percentile. It has gone up every single season. If we compare his one percentage to Giannis this season, his was even better than Giannis this last season. He’s also extremely efficient on the inside at the rim. He shot a career-high 71% at the rim this last season. And a lot of that is just cuz he jumps so high. It makes it so easy for him to just lay the ball up with little effort. He just got to jump in the air. And also with that, he just has crazy hang time. Now, how is he getting there, you ask? It’s a lot of isolation. But he is, like I mentioned earlier, he’s really good in dribble handoffs as well as being really solid as a scorer in a pick and roll. There were times where he made some really good cuts off the ball. I thought this last season he did much better off the ball than previous years. Um, a few more ways that he’s getting there is if he gets a switch onto a larger forward or a big man, he’s going to blow past them every single time. He also loves those spin moves and behind the backs. Those are definitely what seems to be his go-tos. And I’ll just kind of circle back to this, like he just puts fear in defender hearts. Like, he’s a ferocious and explosive dunker. If he gets a open lane, he is going to dunk on you. And that’s just so much fun to watch. If I had to throw any shade on the finishing or rooms of improvement, I would say slowing down could help a lot to make him a better passer. There are a lot of times whenever he’s driving into the inside where he is keeping his head down and he’s not really surveying the area at all, trying to see what else is going on around the court. And there are also times where he was driving to the inside and he wouldn’t get a good shot and it would kind of just turn into a turnover. So that I do think that him slowing down a little bit sometimes could really help him out. And we’ll just continue with this trend when it comes to playmaking and ball handling and stuff like that. We’re just going to go ahead and transition over there. And I’ll go ahead and just say this again. He does need to improve his vision. This is a very important part about him becoming a better playmaker. His head is just down too much. If you’re still here and enjoying the video, make sure to hit that like button. It helps out a lot more than you realize. I’m just going to go through some more of the negative things. I think his handle needs to be much tighter, especially on the left hand. Like, especially the left hand. I’m not saying that he doesn’t have a left hand at all, but I’m saying it needs to be tighter than what it is. And he just needs to keep improving his handle in general because he is so quick and he’s so fast. It’s hard for his hands to keep up with how fast his body is moving. But like I mentioned, he’s really good in the pick and roll. If you go under, he wants to shoot the ball. If you go over, he wants to fly by the big man and get to the basket. And like I mentioned earlier, he also can get to that mid-range area to the middle of the defense to find his mid-range shots. And he slithers through traffic and finds his space and gets to his spots very well. But also, like I mentioned, he is mainly just a score in the pick and roll. He is not that big of a passing threat. And also, like I had already mentioned, I thought he was really, really good in dribble handoffs. Whenever he gets to get a running start, pick the ball up, and just go downhill. Like, it’s very hard to stop him there. I will say though, I did really like his passing to the big man. I thought he made some really nice bounce passes. I want to see him in more drive and kick situations because whenever he was getting to those and he was getting to the inside and kicking it back out. It was creating a lot of offense for Portland, but like we had talked about earlier, he just has his head down a lot of the time whenever he’s trying to get to that basket and he’s not keeping his head up and his vision isn’t that good in that kind of situation. I I do think that there is a real world where he could actually become a very positive playmaker. We just need to continue seeing improvement. It’s something that helps me be more confident in that is he did take a step back in turnovers. It wasn’t by a whole lot. He was averaging 2.3 turnovers last season and now it’s 2.1. his turnover percentage went from 13% which is the 22nd percentile to 11.3% which is the 63rd percentile. Okay, so now to the defense. There’s a lot to talk about. So, one problem that a lot of people have with Shaden Sharp is they don’t feel like his effort is that good. He is kind of like the nonchalant final boss. And I’m going to go ahead and I’m just going to get all the bad things out of the way right now. There are times where I feel like he is too quick to give up on a play. Physically, he can be a very good defender. He has a great wingspan. He’s got a strong body, but his IQ on the defensive side isn’t that great. as well as his effort is inconsistent on that side. As an onball defender, he is much more engaged and focused, but as an offball defender, he gets lost sometimes. There are times on defense where I feel like he’s being more reactive than proactive. But whenever he is giving real effort, I feel like he can be a very, you know, average to above average defender. But if we had to talk about some good things real quick, I would say his long arms are really great in the passing and driving lanes. That is really important. And you know, just adding on top of that, just in general, I feel like he was very solid on the help side whenever he is giving effort. Another thing that I really liked is he cut down on fouls this last season. He went from 2.8 fouls a game to 1.7. That’s really, really good. And as an onball defender, I didn’t really have that many problems with him. There were times where he was getting kind of blown by and I was like, “Dude, just move your feet.” And I will say this, he is with a good defensive lineup. So that means he is going to be a better defender. So the best defensive lineup that Portland could throw out there alongside Shaden Sharp, it would be Drew Holiday, Shaden Sharp, Denny Odia, Tammani Kamara, and Donovan Klingan. That is an elite five. So whenever you’re playing with other really great defenders, they’re going to be able to cover for you and you’re going to be able to cover for them, which is going to make you a better defender. So for the defensive side, he is in a good situation because it’s not like Charlotte, for example, where most everybody on that team doesn’t play a whole lot of defense. So everybody looks bad on defense. And the last thing I want to talk about for his defense is I feel like for his size, he’s a good rebounder. If you don’t put a body on him and box him out on the offensive glass, he will put back dunk on your head. And that’s really all I had to talk about for the defense. The last thing that I really wanted to talk about real quick is he’s going to need to solidify himself as a starter the season. If we take a look over here, he did start most of his games, but he did also come off the bench for 20 games this season. And then when we look at this depth chart, it’s just kind of weird. Like the Drew Holiday acquisition kind of just throws me off. I was excited to see Scoo Henderson in that main point guard role without Anthony Simons on the team. But now you bring in Drew Holiday and you don’t want to bring Drew Holiday off the bench. You don’t want to bring Shaden Sharp off the bench. You can’t bring Denny of Dia off the bench. And you sure as hell can’t bring Tummani Kamar off the bench either. And this isn’t a bad problem to have at all. I will say that the only reason or way I could see Shaden not starting is if they wanted to start Scoot and Drew together. Um, but personally, I don’t really see that happening. So, I don’t see a reason why Shaden Sharp can’t be a full-time starter. Now, like I said, he was mainly a starter, but you want to see him start every game that he plays. So, yeah, man. Like I mentioned earlier, this is really important season for Scoo Henderson as well as Shaden Sharp. I’m really excited for Denny of Dia. I’ve always been a big Denny of Dia guy and he just keeps getting better and better and better. And that’s all I really have to talk about today. I’m sorry if the defensive clips that I have for you um aren’t that great or showing you exactly what I’m talking about. I just don’t really have the energy to put that time in for these really tedious defensive clips. But before we wrap this up, let’s get over to the best segment of the day, my favorite segment of the day, and that is the comment of the day. Today’s comments of the day are going to be from two people that have asked about me making Shade and Sharp videos in the past. One of which being Lonear Trezy and the second one which almost just feels like every video now is Kyrie Thompson. So big shout out to y’all man. Y’all have been asking me for a Shaden Sharp video for a while. So I had to get that out for y’all. If I had to leave you with anything else before we wrap this up, I would say like I’ve been saying the last few episodes, please take care of yourself. I love each and every single one of you. Your support means the world to me. I can never express it fully. So yeah, man. If you made it to the end of the video, make sure to hit the like, the comment, the sub, the post notifications if you want. If you don’t want to do any of them, you don’t have to, but I would greatly appreciate if you did do any of them. But yeah, man. I’m gonna see y’all again very soon. Make sure to take care of yourself like I mentioned. And uh yeah, I’ll see y’all, man. Peace out.

Today we talk about Portland Trail Blazer Shaedon Sharpe!
I cover topics from his shooting, finishing, ball handling, playmaking, defense, and more!

Shoutout to @KyrieThompson-s3h and @LoneStarTrezzy for comments of the day! Much love yall i appreciate you

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