Who will be the Portland Trail Blazers’ X-factor this season and why?
I had the pleasure of representing Blazer’s Edge on the “Locked on Blazers” podcast on Thursday night to discuss that question with
Trail Blazers reporter Mike Richman. The larger premise of the question included this context: Which player, depending on how he performs, can make or break the trajectory of the team?
While he may be somewhat high on the totem pole to be considered an X-factor, my answer was the darling of the training camp news cycle: guard Shaedon Sharpe. Given his great talent but inconsistent first three seasons, I view Sharpe’s performance and growth as the swing factor in Portland’s season. The Blazers need an All-Star level talent to emerge from their group of recent lottery picks. Sharpe’s rare blend of three-level scoring, plus top 1% athleticism, makes him the best bet among the bunch, at least to me.
If Sharpe plays more or less the same this season, the Blazers could still ride their defense and team play into the back-half of the Western Conference Playoff picture. However, without another high-end talent developing within the roster, transitioning from a scrappy fringe playoff team to a legitimate postseason threat in future seasons will become a vexing puzzle to solve. That was the main crux of my argument.
Richman took the question a different route, viewing Sharpe as already too important to be given the X-factor label. Instead, the pass-first point guard went with rookie center Yang Hansen, particularly because the Blazers will be depending on the 20-year-old immediately in that backup center role.
You can listen to the full conversation below:
This is also the part where we open it up to you, the reader. Who do you think is the X-factor of Portland’s 2025-26 season?
