Day’Ron Sharpe measures playing time in stints, not minutes.
For most of his NBA career, those stints have been short, punishing bursts. Come in. Snag everything off the glass. Run the floor, set hard screens and make the opposing center feel him. Empty the tank, sit down, then do it again.
“I don’t really look at it how many minutes I’m playing. I look at it more so as just stints. So, I probably got more stints of me getting in the game. Last year was two stints, come off the bench where I play 10 minutes at a time,” Sharpe said Thursday.
Now, for the first time since Sharpe arrived in Brooklyn, the Nets have a bigger job available.
Nic Claxton is gone, leaving Sharpe and Moritz Wagner competing to start at center. Sharpe averaged 18.7 minutes across 62 games last season, including seven starts. Through five NBA seasons, he’s started just 21 of 253 games and played 30 or more minutes only five times.
The chance to start comes with a demand Sharpe has rarely faced. The effort that’s made him valuable in short stretches will have to last.
“It’s a challenge because the minutes are going to go up,” head coach Jordi Fernández said. “But also at the same time, I want them to fight for a starting spot.”
Fernández said neither Sharpe nor Wagner is accustomed to playing starter’s minutes. Different players could start or finish on different nights. Sharpe will have to earn Claxton’s old job, but Brooklyn is giving him his best chance yet to show he can handle it.
The 24-year-old’s case begins with how quickly he can make a game more physical. Wagner understood that long before they became teammates.
“Every time I played against him, I would be so mad when he gets into the game because I knew I would struggle on the boards and it would be such a high-effort game to kind of, I don’t know, hold my own down there,” Wagner said.
Sharpe’s best skill addresses one of Brooklyn’s clearest weaknesses. The Nets finished last in the NBA in rebounding last season at 39.3 per game. Sharpe averaged 5.3 offensive rebounds per 36 minutes, fifth in the league. His production has been consistent, too. Over the past three seasons, he’s been one of only five players to log at least 750 minutes while averaging at least 15 points and 12 rebounds per 36 each year.
Entering his sixth season, Sharpe is one of the roster’s longer-tenured players, far removed from being one of its youngest bigs searching for a few minutes. At Media Day, he said he wasn’t stressing over whether he starts or comes off the bench. He wants to play hard, produce and help win whenever Fernández calls him.
The Nets have also been better with him on the floor. Over the past three seasons, Brooklyn has outscored opponents by 0.4 points per 100 possessions with Sharpe playing and been outscored by 9.0 per 100 with him off. Most of his minutes, though, have come against reserves.
A larger role would put more of those minutes against starting centers. It would also leave fewer chances to spend every ounce of energy at once. Staying effective deeper into games will require Sharpe to manage his fouls, his pace and his recovery without losing the force that makes him the player he is.
Some of his instincts may need refinement.
“And even just double the minutes, learn how to pace myself during the game, learning what opportunities to take … saving myself for later on in the game,” Sharpe said. “But I just don’t play hard until the wheels fall off, so I can do it.”
Sharpe averaged 4.6 fouls per 36 minutes last season. When asked this week about keeping himself available for longer stretches, he identified moving screens as the source of most of his fouls. He expressed confidence in his ability to defend on the ball, away from it and at the rim.
Conditioning, he insists, isn’t the concern. Sharpe said he’s climbed on the treadmill after games for the past four or five years. His focus now is on handling the load, improving his mobility and learning how his body recovers as the work accumulates.
Camp has already offered a small reminder of that distinction. After two demanding days and a shooting session, Sharpe said his legs felt “kind of dead” once he sat down. He welcomed a recovery day before the next heavy practice. In his telling, the adjustment is learning how his body responds when one hard stint leads into another.
Sharpe’s longer appearances offer encouragement. In the 18 games last season when he played at least 20 minutes, he averaged 10.9 points, 8.7 rebounds and 2.9 assists in 24.6 minutes while shooting 61.1% from the field.
Two of his five career 30-minute games also came last season. He finished with 17 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals in 32 minutes against the Denver Nuggets. Against the Indiana Pacers, he had 19 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, two steals and two blocks in 31 minutes.
Those games provide a glimpse of what he can do with more time. The sample remains small because the opportunity has been small.
Fernández said Sharpe had “an amazing summer” and “looks great.” The next step is sustaining that work through the heavier demands of a season.
His approach remains simple.
“So, when the whistle starts, when the game starts and it’s time to play, I’m playing,” Sharpe said. “When the game is over, the game is over. That’s how I look at it.”