3 Blazers Who Need to Step up in Shaedon Sharpe's Absence

The reported torn meniscus for Portland Trail Blazers guard Shaedon Sharpe is simply a downer for a young player who’s been dealing with injury issues since stepping into the NBA.

However, the Blazers are stacked with guards, and without Sharpe for the foreseeable future, their roles just expanded a little bit. It seemed as though first-year head coach Micah Nori would find a way to get them all involved anyway, but now, these three players are going to have to step up a little bit more.

Jrue Holiday

The starting backcourt is going to be an interesting topic of debate from now until the season opener on Oct. 21, but it seems like Holiday is likely on his way to a bench role.

Holiday is obviously well known for his defensive capabilities, which would have paired nicely in a bench unit alongside Sharpe who is more of an offensive threat with his athleticism to get inside the paint and streaking shooting.

Now, Holiday won’t be able to sit back on defense as much with that offensive force from Sharpe sidelined. The 36-year-old veteran now entering his 18th season will need to turn up the offense once again like he did last year as a starter.

Holiday has proven to be a big-time shooter when needed. He shot 37.8 percent from deep on 6.8 attempts per game, essentially second in both categories when you remove players for small sample sizes.

Holiday isn’t getting any younger, but the Blazers are going to need him to get in his bag once again in 2026-2027.

Scoot Henderson

One man’s misfortune can be another man’s opportunity, and this is it for Henderson entering his fourth NBA season.

Reviews have been mixed for Henderson who was seen coming into the 2023 draft as a strong consolation prize to not landing Victor Wembanyama.

With Sharpe out though, this is Henderson’s chance to prove his worth in Portland as the talk coming into the year has already been about the Blazers likely dealing one of their many guards at the trade deadline.

Not only is this a chance for Henderson, but the Blazers second unit will need him to up his scoring. As outlined above, Holiday needs to step up, but it’s not fair to expect a 36-year-old to lead a second unit offense.

The 22-year-old Henderson needs to display his own explosiveness that was so widely coveted coming into the NBA.

Not having Sharpe attacking rims is a bummer, but Henderson certainly has the tools to replicate it. Now is the time to put together his finishing at the rim and be the floor general that was expected of him.

Toumani Camara

This might have been true regardless of Sharpe's health, but with the Canadian guard out it’s solidified for Camara: he needs to shoot the ball better.

Camara has established himself as an elite defender in the NBA, but he’s a career 36.7 percent 3-point shooter and had the most attempts per game last year for the Blazers.

Without the extra shots coming from Sharpe off the bench, it’s going to be vital for Camara to knock down some of those threes in the starting minutes not only to space the floor, but to give the Blazers someone else who can routinely hit from deep.

Adding Damian Lillard back into the fold obviously helps the Blazers' abysmal deep shooting from the past few years, but he’s still somewhat of an unknown coming back from his Achilles injury.

Camara has the chance to become a true 3-and-D player that every NBA team is always so desperately in need of. The injury to Sharpe opened the runway for the Belgian to cement that role in high pressure situations on a nightly basis.

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