Tag: Shaedon Sharpe

NBA Rising Stars 2024: Bennedict Mathurin unanimously named MVP to lead Team Jalen to title

Pacers sophomore Bennedict Mathurin was unanimously named MVP of the 2024 NBA Rising Stars game to lead Team Jalen to the championship.

Indiana Pacers sophomore Bennedict Mathurin on Friday was unanimously named MVP of the 2024 NBA Rising Stars game to lead Team Jalen to the championship in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Mathurin produced 18 points in the opening game as Team Jalen defeated Team Tamika. He had four points, two assists and one steal in a 26-13 win in the final over Team Detlef, which consisted of seven of the top players in the G League.

While Mathurin did the bulk of the scoring in the semifinal round, Dereck Lively II had six points and Jordan Hawkins and Jalen Williams each chipped in five points in the final. Williams drained the game-winning 3-pointer to end it for Team Jalen.

The event featured four seven-player teams competing in a three-game tournament for the third straight year. The two semifinal games were played to a target score of 40, and the championship game was played to a target score of 25.

The pool of players for the game consisted of 11 rookies, 10 second-year players and seven players from the G League. The players from the NBA were selected by assistant coaches and the players from the G League were selected by the league office.

The four teams were coached by Hall of Famer Pau Gasol, Indiana Fever legend Tamika Catchings and former Pacers standouts Jalen Rose and Detlef Schrempf, who led the G League team.

Here is how the teams performed in the event.

NBA Rising Stars 2024: Full rosters revealed in draft announcement

The NBA on Tuesday unveiled the four seven-player teams for the 2024 NBA Rising Stars game.

The NBA on Tuesday unveiled the four seven-player teams for the 2024 NBA Rising Stars game on Feb. 16 as part of All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The event will feature four seven-player teams competing in a three-game tournament for the third straight year. The two semifinal games will be played to a target score of 40. The championship game will be played to a target score of 25.

The pool of players for the game consists of 11 rookies, 10 second-year players and seven players from the G League. The 21 players in the NBA will be drafted onto three teams. The seven players in the G League will comprise the fourth team.

The players from the NBA were selected by assistant coaches. The players from the G League were selected by the league office. Each team submitted a rookie ballot and a sophomore ballot featuring four frontcourt players, four guards and two additional players of any position.

Hall of Famer Pau Gasol will return as one of the four honorary head coaches for the event. Joining Gasol are Indiana Fever legend Tamika Catchings and former Indiana Pacers standouts Jalen Rose and Detlef Schrempf, who will lead the G League team.

Here are the rosters drafted by Gasol, Catchings and Rose.

NBA Rising Stars 2024: Player pool revealed for annual showcase at All-Star Weekend

The NBA on Tuesday unveiled the list of 28 players set to participate in the annual Rising Stars game on Feb. 16 at All-Star Weekend.

The NBA on Tuesday unveiled the list of 28 players set to participate in the annual Rising Stars game on Feb. 16 as part of All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The event will feature four seven-player teams competing in a three-game tournament for the third straight year. The two semifinal games will be played to a target score of 40. The championship game will be played to a target score of 25.

The pool of players for the game consists of 11 rookies, 10 second-year players and seven players from the G League. The 21 players in the NBA will be drafted onto three teams and the seven players in the G League will comprise the fourth team.

The players from the NBA were selected by assistant coaches. The players from the G League were selected by the league office. Each team submitted a rookie ballot and a sophomore ballot featuring four frontcourt players, four guards and two additional players of any position.

Hall of Famer Pau Gasol will return as one of the four honorary head coaches for the event. Joining Gasol are Indiana Fever legend Tamika Catchings and former Indiana Pacers standouts Jalen Rose and Detlef Schrempf, who will lead the G League team.

Assistant coaches from the NBA All-Star Game coaching staffs will join the honorary head coaches in coaching the Rising Stars teams. The NBA All-Star Game coaching staffs for both the Eastern and Western Conferences have yet to be determined.

TNT will televise the competition beginning at 9 p.m. EST.

Projected starting lineup for the Trail Blazers after trading Damian Lillard and Jusuf Nurkic

This is a fun team that suddenly has a lot of youth and draft picks.

The Portland Trail Blazers traded longtime star Damian Lillard and got quite a hefty package of players and picks back in return.

Portland also moved on from Jusuf Nurkic, Nassir Little and Keon Johnson. But in return, they received former No. 1 overall pick Deandre Ayton as their new big man of the future. In addition, they now have new role players such as Robert Williams and Malcolm Brogdon.

Meanwhile, the Trail Blazers have added three future first-round draft picks and two future pick swaps as part of the series of transactions.

The moves give an opportunity for 19-year-old guard Scoot Henderson to control the offense. Meanwhile, they also have increased opportunities for Shaedon Sharpe (20 years old) and Anfernee Simons (24 years old) as well.

Williams is expected to stay on the roster, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Brogdon, meanwhile, could potentially get traded but also has a chance to stay in Portland as a veteran leader.

Another player who may crack the starting five for the Trail Blazers is Matisse Thybulle. Both he and Williams are strong defenders who could potentially provide either depth off the bench or in the first unit.

Despite a surprisingly large contract offered to Jerami Grant during the offseason, Portland has an otherwise exciting young roster to build around for the future.

Trail Blazers’ Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe named top 5 duo under 25

Henderson and Sharpe were chosen as one of the top duos in the NBA under 25 years old.

Scoot Henderson hasn’t played an official game yet with the Portland Trail Blazers, but there is plenty of excitement surrounding the third pick entering the season.

Henderson had a strong debut with the Trail Blazers in the NBA Summer League, producing 15 points, six assists and five rebounds against the Houston Rockets. He was limited to one game, though, after suffering a shoulder injury on July 7.

The 6-foot-2 guard is projected to be one of the top point guards in the league and recently anointed himself as the front-runner to win Rookie of the Year. Henderson was also chosen, alongside teammate Shaedon Sharpe, as one of the top duos under 25 in the NBA by CBS Sports.

The upside of this duo is through the moon. But right now, it’s pretty much only upside. We haven’t seen anything from Henderson and everyone else on this list has proven far more than Sharpe. That’s the main qualifier with this group. That said, Henderson so convincingly projects as a future superstar that the Blazers basically gave up on keeping Damian Lillard the second he fell to them at No. 3.

Henderson was in the conversation to be the second pick this year behind Victor Wembanyama but ultimately dropped to Portland. The 19-year-old figures to be one of the top first-year players this year and could have an even bigger role, depending on the status of Lillard.

Sharpe, 20, is likely in store for a strong sophomore year after a productive rookie campaign. He showed glimpses last season of what he can provide on a nightly basis and is viewed as a cornerstone by the franchise moving forward.

With the future of Lillard in doubt, the Trail Blazers have a couple of promising building blocks, Henderson and Sharpe, who represent the next era in Portland.

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Why the Blazers have to trade the No. 3 pick (Scoot Henderson?) to help Damian Lillard win now

Can they get Mikal Bridges from Brooklyn?

The Portland Trail Blazers landed the No. 3 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. But it doesn’t seem likely they will sprint to the podium to use it.

Portland may create a layer of mystery about the process and continue their pre-draft workouts, hosting top prospects such as Scoot Henderson, Brandon Miller, Cameron Whitmore, Amen Thompson, and Ausar Thompson. Maybe they will fall in love with one of these players in the process.

We had Charlotte select Miller at No. 2 overall in our latest mock draft. which left Portland to draft Henderson. But according to HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto, rival executives aren’t so convinced and believe this pick is “potential trade bait” for the Blazers to improve their roster.

The reason is quite simple: Damian Lillard. Here is what Lillard told Sean Highkin last month (via Rose Garden Report)

“I’m just not interested in that. That’s not a secret,” Lillard said. “I want a chance to go for it. And if the route is to (draft youth), then that’s not my route.”

Portland can certainly add either Henderson or Miller to a young core that also includes Anfernee Simons, Shaedon Sharpe, and Nassir Little.

But the reality is that, at that point, Lillard may reach a breaking point with the organization. Lillard turns 33 years old next season and his timeline does not look the same as the players mentioned above.

Jason Quick asked Lillard directly if these thoughts have changed in the past month. The seven-time All-Star didn’t respond (via The Athletic):

“Lillard didn’t return a message on Tuesday after Portland was awarded the third pick. I was curious how the news hit him, and whether his end-of-the-season directive about drafting a young player still held true. Knowing Lillard, he never says anything without believing it, and without putting some thought into it, so my sense is he still rejects the idea of using the pick.”

What could a package that includes the No. 3 overall pick, Simons (who is a quality young player ideal for salary-matching purposes), and potentially Little or Jusuf Nurkic return?

The No. 3 overall pick and Simons may be enough to reach the salary thresholds to return an All-Star caliber player to play alongside Lillard.

Some players who could hear their names in Portland rumors include big men like Pascal Siakam, Karl-Anthony Towns, Deandre Ayton and wings like Mikal Bridges, Bradley Beal, Zach LaVine, and OG Anunoby.

Bridges may be the perfect target for Portland because he can be the ace defender Lillard has always needed while also offering secondary creation upside and floor spacing as an offensive initiator.

Are there any players they could land that would entice them to include Sharpe, who has the most value in the trade market? That seems unlikely unless someone like Joel Embiid or Jaylen Brown demands a trade.

Either way, Trail Blazers general manager Joe Cronin seems thrilled about the opportunity to improve his roster (via Blazer’s Edge):

“We’re borderline anxious to push all of our chips in. We cannot wait for that moment to happen, it just hasn’t come up yet. It’s my job to be the voice of reason, to be very diligent to not make a big mistake, to not get the wrong guy, to not overpay, to not give up on somebody that could eventually become a really good player. I’ve got to be really smart about this because it’s trying to thread a really thin needle here. We don’t have room for error, we need to get this right. We wanna maximize Damian’s time.”

We’ll see if Cronin is as aggressive as he says, but if so, the Trail Blazers could theoretically trot out a starting lineup next year highlighted by Lillard, Bridges (or someone of that caliber), Sharpe, and Grant.

It’s a notable improvement, of course, and a team likely to make the playoffs with the right role players surrounding on the roster. But even then, however, is that enough to contend for a championship?

Or would it be better to just build around either Henderson (or another top available prospect) as well as Sharpe, Simons, Little, and other young players in Portland?

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Shaedon Sharpe did something no Trail Blazers rookie has done since 1981

Sharpe continued a hot run of late on Sunday and helped lead the Trail Blazers to a win on the road over the Timberwolves.

Shaedon Sharpe continued a hot run and helped lead the Portland Trail Blazers to a win on the road over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday.

Sharpe produced a team-high 27 points, six rebounds and six assists in 34 minutes of work in the 107-105 victory, which snapped a five-game losing streak. He went 9-of-19 from the field, including 2-of-7 from 3-point range, in his 12th start of the season.

The seventh pick registered his third straight game with at least 25 points. He became the first Trail Blazers rookie to achieve that feat since Kelvin Ransey in 1981. He is the first since Damian Lillard with multiple games of at least 25 points, five rebounds and five assists (2012-13).

The Trail Blazers played the spoiler role with the victory against a Timberwolves team fighting for playoff positioning. Minnesota, which was a 19.5-point favorite, dropped its third straight game to fall to ninth in the standings with just three games to play.

Portland was without seven players in the contest, including Lillard (calf), Jerami Grant (quad) and Jusuf Nurkic (knee). The team has opted to hold those players out for the rest of the season, creating more minutes for the Sharpe and others.

Sharpe has emerged as a key player throughout the season with the Trail Blazers and represents a large piece of the future. He looks to be closing his rookie campaign on a high note and will head into the offseason with some incredible momentum.

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Trail Blazers’ Chauncey Billups explains the progression of Shaedon Sharpe

Sharpe entered the NBA as a relatively unknown player but is establishing himself as an impact player with the Trail Blazers.

Shaedon Sharpe entered the NBA as a relatively unknown player, but the seventh pick is establishing himself as an impact player this season with the Portland Trail Blazers.

Prior to joining the Trail Blazers, Sharpe last played competitively in high school in 2021. He was the top high school recruit in 2022 before reclassifying to enroll early at Kentucky, but he never suited up for the Wildcats.

Despite a lack of recent tape, Sharpe was still viewed as a potential high draft pick given his potential and overall skills. He also has elite athleticism that intrigued plenty of teams drafting in the lottery because the trait could translate immediately to the NBA.

Though Sharpe had the tools to play, the 19-year-old needed to learn the terminology and coverages of the NBA. It can be quite a bit to learn, but Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups believes Sharpe is beginning to settle in.

He has come in and it has been a tough game for him to learn, you know? He really never even had a chance to learn the college game. He was thrust into learning the NBA game and it’s a lot. It’s a lot of things to study and a lot of things to watch but he is taking that task very seriously. He is starting now to understand what we want as a team, what his role is and what we need from him every single night.

Sharpe is averaging 7.8 points and 2.6 rebounds on 47% shooting from the field in 64 games. He is 15th in scoring among rookies and has finished in double figures 24 times, including a season-high 20 points on Nov. 17 in a loss to the Brooklyn Nets.

Already this year, Sharpe has emerged as one of the top high-flyers in the league. He has punished the rim throughout the year and seemingly has at least one highlight-reel dunk each night. He briefly entered to compete in the Slam Dunk Contest but eventually withdrew.

He has shown that he can be more than just a dunker and has had good moments on both sides of the ball. He is still learning and has had some inconsistent moments, but Billups can see him improving.

He is up and down like a teenager usually is. He plays good sometimes, but sometimes he struggles with our coverages, our concepts and just staying locked in long enough. … That is something, if you’re a coach playing young players, that I have to live with but for the most part, overall, I think Shaedon is coming along very nicely.

Sharpe has emerged as a key player off the bench for the Trail Blazers and is thought to have a bright future ahead. The team loved his addition through the draft and believes he can produce on a nightly basis.

That should only improve the more he plays this year and beyond.

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Watch: Warriors’ Jonathan Kuminga hammers must-see emphatic dunk vs. Blazers

Jonathan Kuminga and Shaedon Sharpe had their own version of a dunk contest on Tuesday night at Chase Center.

During a fierce second-half comeback, Jonathan Kuminga added another eye-popping slam to his resume. While the Golden State Warriors were putting together a run in the third quarter, the G League Ignite product brought Chase Center to their feet with an emphatic dunk.

With the Warriors trailing by four points, the second-year forward flew through the lane for a monstrous one-handed jam to cut the Blazers’ advantage to only a bucket with under three minutes remaining in the third quarter. 

Via @warriors on Twitter:

 

Steph Curry and the rest of Golden State’s bench went into a full frenzy following the rim-rocking dunk from the sophomore forward.

However, the fireworks weren’t done. Shaedon Sharpe and the Blazers had a response brewing. In the fourth quarter, the former Kentucky Wildcat soared through the middle of the lane for a vicious tomahawk slam.

Via @BleacherReport on Twitter:

The pair of highlight reel dunks from Kuminga and Sharpe on Tuesday night would give Mac McClung a run for his money at the dunk contest.

Via @NBCSWarriors on Twitter:

Kuminga and the Warriors gained the last laugh, securing a comeback win over the Blazers on Tuesday night. Kuminga registered 16 points off the bench on 8-of-10 shooting from the field to go along with three boards and a steal in 25 minutes.

Riding a three-game win streak, Kuminga and the Warriors will be back on the floor on Thursday evening at Chase Center against the Los Angeles Clippers.

This post originally appeared on Warriors Wire! Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

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Fans are sad Shaedon Sharpe withdrew from the Slam Dunk Contest

The high-flying rookie threw down another monster dunk on Tuesday in a loss to the Wizards.

Portland Trail Blazers rookie Shaedon Sharpe has emerged as one of the top high-flyers this season, and the seventh pick threw down yet another highlight-reel dunk on Tuesday.

The play unfolded late in the third quarter versus the Washington Wizards when the ball was swung over Sharpe in the corner. Sharpe gave a quick pump fake to create an opening, sprinted toward the basket and absolutely unloaded at the rim.

Sharpe raised up and cocked the ball back with his right hand and threw it down emphatically over two Wizards players, Kyle Kuzma and Delon Wright. The play immediately sent the Moda Center into a frenzy with the Trail Blazers’ bench erupting on the sideline.

The play was one of few highlights in the contest for the Trail Blazers, who fell, 126-101. Damian Lillard led the way with 39 points, 10 rebounds and six assists, and newcomer Cam Reddish added 18 points.

Sharpe had 14 points off the bench in 28 minutes.

The dunk went viral across social media as it once again offered a glimpse of Sharpe’s potential as an electric offensive player. It also created some sadness among fans because Sharpe recently withdrew from the Slam Dunk Contest at All-Star Weekend.

Sharpe was the first player to commit to the event but backed out to focus on the Trail Blazers’ remaining 24 games. However, one rumor circulating is Sharpe passed on it after he was snubbed from the Rising Stars competition.

He likely would have been the favorite to win the Slam Dunk Contest had he kept his name in. He has thrown down some insane dunks this season and probably would have stolen the show on Saturday night in Salt Lake City.

Following his latest poster effort over the Wizards, fans on social media were rather dejected with the realization he’ll no longer light up the competition at All-Star Weekend.