The Portland Trail Blazers have discussed a four-year, $90M ($22.5M per year) rookie extension with fourth-year guard Shaedon Sharpe, according to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (subscription required):
Portland’s Shaedon Sharpe might pose the trickiest rookie scale extension case.
His third-year numbers for the Blazers — particularly over the final 30 games — popped on numerous teams’ predictive models. Was that meaningful second half stuff … or inflated production for a team out of contention? The
Blazers, for their part, believe last season’s strong second half positions them to compete for a playoff spot this season.
It could also behoove the Blazers to get a deal done with Sharpe this month given what looms in their future. It won’t be long before young cornerstones Deni Avdija and Toumani Camara will be seeking extensions of their own. Having fixed numbers in place for Sharpe on Portland’s books could provide valuable context for the rest of the Blazers’ bookkeeping.
I’ve been told that the Blazers’ initial extension to Sharpe landed in the four-year, $90 million ballpark. But when I speak to various team strategists, more often than not I hear an expectation that the bouncy swingman will ultimately command a Giddey-esque deal in the four-year, $100 million range. If not higher.
There have been plenty of speculation about how much a Sharpe extension might command either from the Blazers or on the open market. Aaron Fentress of The Oregonian speculated Sharpe could command something similar to Jalen Suggs’ five-year, $150M deal ($30M per year) in Orlando, while Andy Bailey of Bleacher Report suggested something closer to five years, $130M ($26M per year).
The difference between $22.5M and $30m per year is significant, but a difference in 60 million more guaranteed dollars might be an even more daunting divide for Sharpe’s representatives and the Blazers to bridge if that is indeed the difference.
Sharpe, entering his age 22 season, is young enough and has shown enough flashes for me to think the Blazers shouldn’t get too cute with these negotiations: the likelihood of one of the other 29 teams seeing as much or more in him than this front office does is high, and Portland has precious few ways to replace not only the productivity and potential Sharpe represents, but the salary slot his new contract would create.
Sharpe averaged 18.5 points, 4.5 boards, and 2.8 assists last year on 45% shooting including 31% from deep on 6.6 attempts.
What do you think is fair market value for Sharpe?
