Breaking Down Day'Ron Sharpe's Strange Season Opener for the Nets

The Brooklyn Nets kicked off their 2025-26 season last night with a 136-117 loss to the Charlotte Hornets.

No one scored over 20 points for the Nets, but six players saw double-digits. The starting lineup looked like Ben Saraf, Cam Thomas, Terance Mann, Michael Porter Jr. and Nic Claxton, but the real buzz of the game came from players off the bench.

Day'Ron Sharpe and Egor Demin paced bench scorers for Brooklyn with 14 points apiece, but while Demin did it in 22 minutes, Sharpe did it in 14. Scoring a point a minute would normally call for more minutes, but it wasn't all success for the fifth-year center in game one.

On top of those 14 points in 14 minutes, Sharpe had four rebounds and three stocks, but also five turnovers and five fouls.

While his improvements with his touch in the paint and on the defensive end are promising, he can't give the ball away as much as he did and put himself in danger of fouling out. Sharpe should've ended with more minutes, but the fouls forced head coach Jordi Fernandez to hold him out of the game.

Pick-and-roll troubles were the downfall of Sharpe's negatives. Two of his fouls and two of his turnovers were on pick-and-roll plays. There were clear struggles in staying set on screens.

Sharpe also had problems with playmaking in the pick-and-roll. He ended the night with zero assists and had multiple passes tipped outside of his five giveaways. He finished the night with a -13 plus/minus, the third worst for Brooklyn.

The flaws in Sharpe's performance stood out, but not as much as the improvements. He shot 6-for-7 from the field and hit a smooth step-back three at the end of the shot clock midway through the second quarter.

His outside shooting ability is a nice change of pace to Nic Claxton's paint presence. Sharpe only shot two three-pointers, making one, but should look to get more up from beyond the arc.

Maybe the most impressive area of improvement from last season to opening night was on the defensive end. Sharpe tallied two blocks and one steal –– the Nets' leading rim protector.

"When I talk to GMs and coaches around the league, a lot of them bring up the name Day'Ron Sharpe," Frank Isola said on the call against Hapoel Jerusalem.

While there were definitely some negatives in Sharpe's season debut, turnovers and foul troubles can be fixed. His offensive capabilities are only touching the surface of what he's capable of.