PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland Trail Blazers second-year guard Shaedon Sharpe will have surgery to address a core muscle injury that he's been dealing with for months, the team announced Tuesday.
Sharpe hasn't played since Jan. 11 due to a lower abdominal strain. He also missed five games earlier in the season with the same issue. Last week, the Blazers reported that Sharpe would resume light basketball activities in an effort to return to play, but in Tuesday's news release, the team said his symptoms got worse, leading to the decision for Sharpe to have surgery.
The Blazers said the surgery is tentatively planned to happen later this week, after which a return timeline will be determined. Other NBA players who've had the surgery, including Jrue Holiday and former Blazers star Damian Lillard, have been scheduled for re-evaluation six weeks after the procedure.
If that timetable holds for Sharpe and it takes him a couple weeks to ramp up to play after that, he could return sometime around the end of March, with a couple of weeks left in the season. In a rebuilding season like this one, Sharpe and the team could decide to have him wait to return until next season, giving him extra time to recover, but on Wednesday, Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups said Sharpe wants to return this season, according to Sean Highkin of The Rose Garden Report.
Sharpe is averaging 15.9 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 0.9 steals this season, all up from his rookie season stats. His efficiency took a dip from his rookie season, though, with his shooting percentages falling to 40.6% from the field and 33.3% from the 3-point line. Some of that efficiency decline may have been due to his injury. In the past 10 games he played his season, all after he was first injured, Sharpe averaged just 9.7 points and shot 33.7% from the field and 23.3% from 3.
"This has been a tough year for Shae, and the injury has been the source of a lot of it," Billups said Wednesday.
The NBA trade deadline is Thursday. Sharpe's surgery and uncertain return time frame may make it less likely that the Blazers trade veteran guard Malcolm Brogdon, who has been a steadying presence for the young Blazers and has been "openly lobbying the Trail Blazers to keep him beyond Thursday's trade deadline," according to longtime NBA reporter Marc Stein.
Brogdon re-entered the starting lineup in January, shortly after Sharpe's injury sat him down for the second time, and in the past nine games, he's averaging 19 points, 6.8 assists and 5.3 rebounds in 35.4 minutes per game.