Keeping our pick? This might be a Lottery year

anyone thinking Sharpe is anywhere close to Lebron/Kobe/KG as a prospect is out of their mind. I suggest you listen to some more reputable outlets. And almost everyone is basing their views on him online are from about 4 videos on Youtube, of which I have linked the longest one in this thread somewhere or the other. It's about 2 hrs long and has both his highlights and lowlights from EYBL ball where he was playing against guys much shorter than him. He looked OK. Fluid athlete but not much to set him apart from guys we saw succeed at the college level like Davis/Murray/Ivey.

The biggest thing he has going for him is that he was the top HS prospect last year. But that he didn't play a single minute in college while healthy is a major red flag for me. Calipari can harp all he wants about Sharpe being a #1 pick in 2023 if he comes back, but I don't buy it for one second (especially with Wembanyama coming out next year).

I have a healthy dose of skepticism about anything people write about this guy unless they've seen him in practices.

 

For those of us who haven't followed the story, why didn't Sharpe play at all this year if he was healthy?

 

I didn’t say they said Sharpe was close to those players.

I said that - virtually every scout - thinks Sharpe has superstar potential, which is why they are projecting him so high despite what you say.

Not saying the scouts are right or not. But there’s a reason a dude who hasn’t played at all has been projected so high.

 

And your original post was “how can u draft a guy so high unless…”


And I responded there is a fourth option you didn’t mention. It’s because of his potential.

 

And with your logic you’d take Jimmer over Anfernee Simons… but once again. Potential.

 

I say Sharpe got potential. It too bad he didn’t play for Kentucky. But whoever pick him, their fans will have to trust their GM 100%

 

Their ownership will have to trust their front office 100%. As fans we just gotta take what's given to us.

 

good question.

 

As ive said before, these mock drafts tend to become an exercise in group think. When a few guys mention Sharpe as a top 5 pick, they all start to mimic it.

And I do think you're exaggerating this "superstar" potential. Almost every one of the sources you cited also express a healthy dose of skepticism in their commentary. I posted this a while back and encourage you to watch it and make up your own mind without the mock draft bias, while keeping in mind his competition. He could very well end up like Ant, but he's a helluva lot harder to project than the known entities.

 

He's more risky but this team needs to raise its ceiling as much as possible and I agree that he has a superstar ceiling and I try to stay away from reading slanted material to avoid that group think dynamic that you mention. I liked this scouting video because it focuses on the positives and negatives without bias.

If he's truly 6'6 with a 7 foot wingspan, he's big enough to play the 3 and looks like he could potentially guard 1 through 4. Given the improvements with his shot, his ateticism, and the flashes he's shown offensively, I feel like Portland would be the best situation for him to flourish.

 

Are you taking Sharpe or Griffin?

I think Sharpe with our pick and Duren with the NOP pick would be interesting—just to have a high school prospect and a guy even younger than him with a full season of college.

Don’t know if you’d know the answer to this, but if Dame’s fully in and will be here for the foreseeable future, would the Blazers be able to offer our 2nd to the Bulls and kick the pick down the road to 2027 or something and make it top-10 protected? That would open us up to trade our 2024 and 2026 1sts with any combination of Bledsoe’s contract, TPE, and Little for a starting forward or two.

 

Blazers could definitely offer that and simply remove or reduce protections on their 2023 first. But the earliest 1st they could offer after that in another trade would be their 2025 first because of the Septien rule

whether the Bulls would accept or not, I'm not sure...probably.

at the same time, the Blazers 2nd round pick right now is the 36th pick in the draft, That's a fairly high value 2nd round pick and Portland will need some cheap contracts over the next 2-3 seasons. Their first to Chicago should convey next season in any event, so unless they have a great trade lined up that needed one of their firsts (3-7 years from now...unlikely), they should probably just run out the clock on the idiotically stupid protections Olshey added to the Nance trade.

 

I feel like I like a different prospect more every week after doing deeper dives (ivey last week, murray this week).

Only guys I'm straying away from after doing deep dives are Duren and Chet at the moment.

Can't believe the lottery is still more than a month away. Having our actual picks in hand will give some more clarity on who to focus on.

 

I think the Grizz second round pick and/or cash would get the Bulls to let us guarantee that pick for next season, thus like you said freeing up our 2025, 2027 and I think by the time the draft comes around 2029 first rounders to trade. I think that those should be on the table for sure if the goal is to give us the best chance right now to build a contender around Dame.

 

that Memphis 2nd round pick is the 59th of the draft. It has no value. Chicago would need more, IMO

I despise Olshey and his tenure at Portland. He made a lot of really bad decisions. But putting the maximum allowable 7 years of lottery protection on Portland's 1st round picks, effectively taking all of Portland's draft leverage off the table, was one of his most toxic moves. Inexcusable. And all that for Nance....yeeeeeeesh

and I think it was deliberate so he'd have an excuse to lowball trade proposals while giving himself cover for inertia

 

I don't think it typically takes much for a team to say yes you can have the chance of the pick being as high as it gets or continue to only have a pick outside of the lottery that you have no idea what year it will convey. I'm pretty sure a lot of conditions have been taken off with nothing more than cash going to the team allowing those conditions to be taken off. Well those late second rounders are also often bought for cash... I also mentioned cash. Regardless, I definitely don't think a pick in the 30s would be appropriate at all... if that happens it will just be another L that Cronin takes.

 

Blazers have Detroit's 2025 second. Bit of a risk trading it, but If they have a player in mind at #36 this year, or a trade where that pick is leverage, that Piston's pick might be what's needed

if the Piston's would accept just cash, Portland should make that agreement as soon as they can so they can save their 5M cash trade assets for next year

 

How's our relationship with Bartelstein now that Olshey is gone?

 

I like Sharpe a lot. Has all the tools to be a fairly efficient 3-level scorer on high usage.

A few notes after watching a ton of his film.

His handle leads to more pull ups and step backs right now than drives like an Anthony Edwards or young Jaylen Brown. Seems be more comfortable going left as well (like most rh off the dribble shooters) but also seems to be more explosive with his initial step. A lot of his right hand drives at the basket are either walled off or turn into fading/twisting jumpers. If he does get to the rim it's normaly with a half step or less on his man and he's having to get creative with his timing / finishes.

Hard to take much defensively but he's good laterally and he's a really explosive two foot leaper (he's great off one too) so he should have chance to be a good defensive rebounder and low man protecting the rim on the weakside. In the end like with most talented scorers with his kind tools it'll come down to mindset and how much his offensive load affects his effort level defensively. Seems to a pretty laid back personality on the court but I'm not sure how much to weigh that

Shooting: right now he's more of a natural off the dribble guy than catch and shoot but his energy transfer looks better off the catch then it did a year or so ago with dream city. Seems to be more of a one motion shot now based on some of the practice footage with Kentucky.

His passing is the biggest question mark for me. Right now I don't think he reads the game at a very high level and seems to struggle to recognize digging defenders, even if they are in his direct line of sight. But even with all that, I think he'll develop into reasonable passer or maybe even more than that based on the passing windows he should be able to create just with his tools and scoring ability. His size should make learning ball screen reads easier too.

He's one the 3-4 guys that you can make an argument for best player in the class when it's all said and done.

 

Come on Kings! A SAC win, and that would allow for an accidental Blazer win while still staying in the #6 slot.