Will The Nets Make A Sharpe Turn By The Trade Deadline?

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For those concerned that the Nets weren’t tanking properly early in the season, I think they’ve been pretty transparent about their direction since trading point guard Dennis Schroder to Golden State for the equivalent of a sack of seeds on December 15. Valued wing Dorian Finney-Smith followed Schroder out the door, dealt to the Lakers, shortly thereafter. It’s pretty apparent that no one on the remaining Nets roster is off the table as the calendar approaches the February 6 NBA Trade Deadline.

Brooklyn has lost 10 of the 13 contests since the Schroder trade, including Friday night’s 124-105 defeat at Denver. The friskiness from the club’s first 20 games is but a faint memory since all but two of the recent defeats were by double digits (the Spurs ended up with a nine-point margin of victory after running up a 16-point lead midway through the fourth quarter on December 27). That makes the Nets cutting down Friday’s 22-point third quarter deficit to five points with about eight minutes to go count as sort of a moral victory.

The lineup that led the comeback in Denver contained backup center Day’Ron Sharpe, who contributed 7 points and 5 rebounds after missing Brooklyn’s previous game against Detroit with an illness. Before that, he went for a 16/13 double-double, with nine of the boards coming on the offensive glass, in a loss to Indiana. An underrated passer, he also recorded 5 assists without a turnover.

Nets Head Coach Jordi Fernandez might be a Marvel or DC fan given his penchant for tagging some of his players with a “superpower.” For Sharpe, it’s his offensive rebounding tenacity. Per NBA.com, Sharpe, 23, is ranked sixth in the league in offensive rebounding percentage (15 games minimum).

Sharpe, though, is a pending restricted free agent. His cap hold this summer, according to Spotrac.com, is just under $12 million. The question for General Manager Sean Marks, then, is whether or not he deems Sharpe, a 2021 first round pick (No. 29 overall), a keeper, because that cap hold has the potential to significantly impact Brooklyn’s offseason planning.

Not that I have any insight into Marks’ thinking, but I’d hope not.

Sharpe may sport the best net rating of any Nets rotation player other than the departed Finney-Smith, but that may be a function of both a limited sample size due to his missing 22 games with a hamstring injury and the illness plus having most of his minutes come against backups. His individual numbers have only improved marginally over his four seasons, if at all. His shooting efficiency this season has plummeted to 44.7%, including just 58.6% from inside the restricted area. As has been the case throughout his career, about 10% of those attempts have been blocked. Countless offensive rebounds were the old Moses Malone type from his own misses in close.

Seemingly after every offseason, we hear Sharpe boast about how he will be breaking out the long ball to increase his value from floor spacing. He’s 3-for-23 (13%) on three-pointers this season, with all but two of the attempts tracked by NBA.com as wide open. Perimeter shooting may click for him one day; I’m just not convinced it will be here.

Which brings us back to trade discussions. Allegedly, the Lakers had interest in Sharpe during the Finney-Smith negotiations. The legend according to Clutch Points went that Marks expected more Draft capital in return, so Los Angeles settled on guard Shake Milton.

If you believe that report, Sharpe remains a possible L.A. target to fill its need for a backup big to Anthony Davis. They’re said to be intrigued by Sharpe’s rim protection, though I don’t know why. He’s a bit undersized at 6-foot 9 and his 0.9 blocks per 36 minutes this season is rather middling.

Of course, Sharpe’s ability to extend offensive possessions might come in handy for a contender looking for short runs during the playoffs. If you put him in lineups surrounded by marksmen, his effort-driven game might be enhanced more than it’s been on a shooting-challenged Brooklyn squad that started four players who entered Friday’s contest with sub-31% three-point rates.

Unfortunately, finding the right deal, as it always seems to be in this new collective bargaining agreement era, could be challenging. The Lakers are over the luxury tax, so they’d have to send out an equal amount of salary or more to accept Sharpe’s nearly $4 million cap hit. A return of injured center Christian Wood’s expiring contract plus a second rounder (or two), would be ideal, but Wood’s approximately $3 million salary isn’t enough. The same goes for seldom-used 21-year old Jalen Hood-Schifino, where rhe diffeence is about $109,000.

NBA teams can get creative when they have a mutual desire to get something done, so I don’t know that financial considerations will rule the day when it comes to trading Sharpe. And only after the fact will we know Marks’ desire on the matter.