The center-starved Los Angeles Lakers are among the several NBA teams monitoring the situation of Brooklyn Nets‘ former first-round pick Day’Ron Sharpe, Hoopshypes’ Michael Scotto reported.
“Sharpe, who’s eligible for restricted free agency this summer, is being monitored by the Grizzlies, Clippers, Pelicans, Lakers, and Raptors, league sources told HoopsHype,” Scotto wrote.
Sharpe will make his season debut on Monday, December 2, against the Chicago Bulls after recovering from a hamstring injury.
The 23-year-old Sharpe was the 29th overall pick in 2021. He is coming off his best season in the NBA, averaging career highs across the board: 6.8 points on 57.1% field goal shooting, 6.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 15.1 minutes as Nic Claxton‘s backup.
The emergence of Noah Clowney makes Sharpe, who will be a restricted free agent after this season, expendable.
The 6-foot-9 Sharpe fits the mold of what Lakers rookie head coach JJ Redick has been looking for to help ease the burden of Anthony Davis.
“You certainly have to look at what I think is actually a very good roster, a very balanced roster,” Redick said in an interview with Justin Termine and Eddie Johnson on Sirius XM NBA Radio. “We’d love to, we tried, but we’d love to, at some point, get another five man, a big bruising five man.
“You look at the Western Conference right now, whether it’s Denver, Minnesota, OKC with what they added, certainly Memphis, they’re going to be back in the hunt, they added Zach Edey, certain matchups in the playoffs, you’re going to need a lot of size.”
Lakers Frontline Get Thinner
The Sharpe rumor comes right after Davis’ chief backup, Jaxson Hayes, re-sprained his right ankle against the Phoenix Suns on November 26.
Hayes is out for two to three weeks, per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.
The injury bug caught the Lakers’ frontline even before the season tipped off.
Christian Wood (knee) and Jarred Vanderbilt (foot) are still out with no timetable yet for their return.
Their injury-riddled frontcourt depth has caused the Lakers to be among the worst rebounding teams this season.
Entering December 2 games, the Lakers are averaging 40.6 rebounds, ranked 27th in the league.
Nets Among Teams Interested in Jalen Hood-Schifino
Will the Nets’ reported interest in Jalen Hood-Schifino grease the wheels for a potential trade for Sharpe?
The Nets are one of the three teams who have expressed interest in Hood-Schifino in the past, according to Fischer in a separate live stream at Bleacher Report on November 2 after the Lakers did not pick up the second-year guard’s third-year option, which makes him an expiring deal and a trade chip.
“He will be playing in the G League this year, and he’ll have plenty of opportunity to showcase himself both in the G League in general and at the G League Showcase when the entire league descends upon Orlando in December,” Fischer said. “Atlanta had interest in him in that talk with Dejounte [Murray] last year. Utah, I believe, has shown interest in him, to my knowledge, in those talks about Walker Kessler. Brooklyn, I’ve been told, is a team that has interest in him. So, just keep an eye on Jalen Hood-Schifino as a potential outgoing salary expiring deal.”
A straight Hood-Schifino-Sharpe swap won’t cut it under the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, as the Lakers become an over-the-apron team in such a scenario.
The Lakers would have to add more salaries, like Wood’s expiring contract, to make it work. Or the Lakers could get Sharpe and one of Dorian Finney-Smith or Cam Johnson in an expanded trade that would involve either of the Lakers’ two available first-round picks.
