Summer League Practice Report, Day 1: Shaedon Sharpe and Jabari Walker are Ready for Their Close-Ups

There will be much intrigue around Sharpe's Thursday debut in Las Vegas.

TUALATIN, Ore.—Jabari Walker was honest about how difficult it was for him to adjust to his first real five-on-five practice against other NBA players.

"I wouldn't say so," Walker said when asked after the Trail Blazers' Saturday Summer League practice if he was picking everything up quickly. "I think it was a learning process for me. I needed this day to take steps forward.

"Usually, I'm used to switching 1-through-4, and then there's another screen after that so I have to get over the top of it. Being alert all the time. The new defensive schemes. It's a lot. I was kind of a deer in the headlights."

Walker, the No. 57 overall pick in last month's draft, joins No. 7 pick Shaedon Sharpe on the Blazers' roster for Summer League, which kicks off this Thursday in Las Vegas. The two rookies will be among the seven players expected to be on the Blazers' regular-season roster who will be playing in the tournament, with the others being Trendon Watford, Brandon Williams, Greg Brown III, Didi Louzada and Keon Johnson.

It's not often that almost half of an actual NBA team, let alone one with playoff aspirations, is playing in Summer League. If you're a betting person, it might not be a bad idea to look up odds for a second Blazers Summer League championship following their legendary 2018 run.

Sharpe will be the focus of everyone's attention when the Blazers' Summer League schedule tips off Thursday evening against Detroit. Not just because he was the team's top-10 pick and the result of one of the league's great recent tank jobs, but because he hasn't played competitive basketball since high school after holding himself out of his freshman season at Kentucky.

"It's been a minute since I played 5-on-5 with refs and even fans," Sharpe said Saturday. "We did 5-on-5 [at Kentucky], but it was more like controlled situations."

As for his workload in Vegas, there aren't plans to put him on any kind of minutes restriction to ease him back into competition. After sitting out a year voluntarily to protect his draft stock, Sharpe needs to get out there and play, especially since he might not see the floor much his rookie season.

"I think the idea is to manage him as the game goes," said Blazers assistant coach Steve Hetzel, who's acting as head coach of the Summer League team. "If he's playing [well], we'll let him roll. If he needs a break, that's game-management stuff. He's a terrific athlete and he's in great shape, so the plan is to just coach him like a basketball player."

Apparently, he's looked as good in practice as he did in the workouts that led Portland to take him as high as they did.

"When I see Shaedon do things, I think, 'He's gonna be a problem,'" Walker said. "Hitting step-back threes, you don't see that too often."

No word on whether, in addition to being a problem, Sharpe may also be either a bucket or different. 😤😤😤