Shaedon Sharpe’s Dunk Was More Than A Highlight – It Was A Statement For The Portland Trail Blazers’ Future

With one thunderous slam dunk, Shaedon Sharpe made an emphatic point.

The future is here for the Portland Trail Blazers.

In the second quarter, Sharpe stole a pass from Washington’s Justin Chapagbie, took one dribble, and then jumped from just inside the free-throw line. Chapagnie, apparently determined to double down on his mistakes, tried to contest the dunk. Instead, he was demolished and placed on a poster. Sharpe’s slam will probably go down as one of the top dunks of the season, and it elevated the Blazers to a position rarely seen for them: on the front page of major sports news sites and all over the NBA’s social media feeds. 

Earlier this season, Sharpe lost his spot in the starting lineup after not showing enough focus or effort on defense. After dropping a career-high 36 points on the Wizards, becoming the overnight buzz of the league, and having enough awareness to steal a backcourt pass, Sharpe appears to have been working on all the things he was supposed to fix. 

At various points this season, each member of the Blazers’ young core has shown why fans should believe in them. Donovan Clingan put himself on the map with a monster performance against Minnesota in November, highlighted by eight blocks. Scoot Henderson dropped 39 points on the Brooklyn Nets in January, and Toumani Camara and Deni Avdija have each had multiple standout performances. 

On Wednesday, it was Sharpe’s turn to have his time in the spotlight.

Yes, it came against a bad Wizards team, but the Blazers were playing shorthanded with Avidja leaving the game in the first quarter with an injury and most of the team’s centers out injured. He doubled up the team’s next leading scorer (Williams and Anfernee Simons with 16 each) and helped the team close out the game in the 4th quarter.

If the Blazers are going to get back to the playoffs or to championship contention anytime soon, it will be on the backs of Sharpe, Clingan, Avidja, Camara, and Henderson. Those five are the Blazers’ present and future, and it’s good to see them starting to put it all together this season. Whether that results in the Blazers going from tanking to the play-in tournament this season will largely be settled in the coming week. The Blazers got the win in Washington but struggled to put away the tanking Wizards. Meanwhile, the Blazers will have very few “gimme” games over the next two weeks. After they played Brooklyn on Friday, six of their next seven games come against teams with winning records. If they win most of those games, the Blazers will prove their pre-All-Star break surge was not a mirage. 

Whatever happens over the next few weeks, the Blazers have seen their future. It’s here, it’s on the team, and it’s ready to be turned loose. Over the rest of the season, and during what is shaping up to be a critical offseason, the team will have to figure out how to reach that future.  

 The Blazers have their core in place, and they have seen what each of them can do. What’s left to figure out is how to get them to perform as each of them can while on the court simultaneously. Currently, players with no future on the team are still taking up valuable playing time. Then they need to figure out if Chauncey Billups is the right coach to get that team to the next level. If he is, they need to extend him. If he’s not, they need to move on. Currently, he’s just twisting in the wind. 

Somehow, the Blazers continue to kick the can down the road on answering the key questions about the franchise’s future. But the team’s core is not going to wait around forever. 

With Sharpe’s posterizing dunk, he made the point clear: The future is here for the Portland Trail Blazers.

They need to figure out how to grasp it. 

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About Ben McCarty 110 Articles
Ben McCarty is a freelance writer and digital media producer who lives in Vancouver. He can usually be found in his backyard with his family, throwing the ball for his dog, or telling incredibly long, convoluted bedtime stories. He enjoys Star Wars, rambling about sports, and whipping up batches of homemade barbeque sauce.

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