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ESPN- NBA draft analyst and writer
Joined ESPN.com in July 2017
Founder and co-owner of DraftExpress.com, a private scouting and analytics service used by NBA, NCAA and international teams
There has never been an NBA draft prospect quite like Shaedon Sharpe. You'll find the 6-foot-6, 200-pound guard and native of London, Ontario, listed as a member of Kentucky's basketball roster, after Sharpe joined the team as a midyear enrollee in January, but the school announced last week that he will not play for the Wildcats this season.
Sharpe will continue to practice with Kentucky, but whether he ever suits up for a meaningful game with the Wildcats is very much in doubt, owing to his current status as a projected 2022 NBA draft lottery pick. If he doesn't play college basketball, and without a comparable pro way station like the G League Ignite program or Overtime Elite, Sharpe's evaluation by NBA decision-makers will have a higher-than-usual degree of difficulty. He will never be a bigger mystery than he is at this moment.
ESPN draft experts Jonathan Givony and Mike Schmitz tackled all the challenging questions around Sharpe's case, including which players he compares to, the likelihood of him returning to Kentucky, and which potential lottery teams would be the best fit for his services. Our NBA draft team also identified three more players who are mysteries in the upcoming draft, with full evaluations of each available in ESPN's Top 100 list.
