Day’Ron Sharpe looks set to remain in Brooklyn, and the Nets may be preparing to give the former North Carolina big man the biggest role of his NBA career.
ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Monday that Sharpe intends to sign a new two-year, $20 million contract with the Nets. Brooklyn had declined Sharpe’s team option so the two sides could work out a fresh agreement, following the same path the franchise used with Josh Minott, according to Charania.
Michael Scotto of HoopsHype reported the same contract terms and said Sharpe has made a strong impression on the organization and is expected to take on a larger role this season. Scotto added that agents Aaron Reilly and Reggie Berry of AMR Agency finalized the deal.
The timing of the move matters. Brooklyn traded center Nic Claxton to Chicago in the three-team deal that sent Julius Randle and the No. 28 pick to the Nets on June 22, leaving Sharpe in position to step into a starting role. His main competition for minutes at center is expected to come from Danny Wolf and Noah Clowney.
Sharpe, a 6-10, 265-pound center from Greenville, played one season at Carolina before entering the 2021 NBA Draft. Phoenix took him with the 29th overall pick, then traded his draft rights to Brooklyn, where he has spent his entire NBA career.
The new contract would reward Sharpe for the most productive season he has had as a pro. In 62 games for the Nets, he posted career highs of 8.7 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.1 steals while shooting 60.1% from the field. He averaged 18.7 minutes per game, and his work off the bench gave Brooklyn one of its more encouraging young frontcourt pieces.
His best performance came in a 125-109 home loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Feb. 3, when he delivered one of his five double-doubles. Sharpe finished with 19 points, 14 rebounds, five assists and three steals in just under 26 minutes, with 10 of those rebounds coming on the offensive end.
Rebounding has been Sharpe’s most reliable NBA trait, especially on the offensive glass, but he has also shown growth as a passer and finisher. With Brooklyn’s roster shifting around him and the organization clearly trusting his development, he appears to be in line for a much bigger workload.
Sharpe also gives the Nets another former Tar Heel to pair with Drake Powell, who just completed his rookie season.
At Carolina, Sharpe made an immediate impact for Roy Williams’ final Tar Heels team. He averaged 9.5 points and 7.6 rebounds in the 2020-21 season and earned ACC All-Freshman honors before leaving after one year.
Brooklyn’s reported commitment keeps Sharpe with the team that has turned him from a late first-round pick into a dependable rotation big man. If his role expands the way it appears it will, the next two seasons could give him his best chance yet to prove he can be more than a spark off the bench.
In Other News...
This Familiar UNC Flaw Could Ruin Another Promising Season
North Carolina did a lot of things well enough last season to stay in the thick of the national conversation, but the Tar Heels kept running into one stubborn issue at the line. Their free throw shooting lagged badly enough to cost them in close games, and it showed up at the worst possible time, including an NCAA Tournament opener against VCU in which they led for most of the afternoon before letting the result slip away. When a team cant cash in on the easiest points available, every late-game possession starts to feel heavier.
The concern now is that this was not just a one-year quirk. Even some of the newer faces showed the same kind of inconsistency last season, which makes the issue harder to dismiss as a temporary blip. UNC has enough talent to build another promising season, but until that weakness is cleaned up, the Tar Heels will keep leaving themselves vulnerable in the exact moments that decide March. [Read more 🡒]
Tar Heels Ceiling Looks Different With This Much NBA Talent
A fresh ESPN mock draft has only deepened the sense that North Carolinas ceiling could look very different in the near future. Jeremy Woo placed Matt Able, Sayon Keita and Neoklis Avdalas all outside the first-round lottery on his 2027 board, a reminder that the Tar Heels are not just trying to reload for one season but stack legitimate NBA-caliber talent with room to grow.
Able sits highest of the group at No. 16, while Keita comes in at No. 25 and Avdalas at No. 53, giving UNC a mix of projected upside and long-term intrigue. The appeal for the Tar Heels is obvious: if that development track hits, the roster could end up looking far stronger than a typical preseason projection suggests, with Keita in particular carrying the kind of stock that could rise fast once the games start. [Read more 🡒]
These UNC Cornerstones Will Define Belichicks Next Big Test
Bill Belichick heads into his second season in Chapel Hill with the kind of roster questions that can define whether a rebuild starts to take hold or slips back into familiar growing pains. After a 4-8 debut, North Carolina is looking for a sharper identity, and a handful of returning cornerstones will be central to that push as the Tar Heels try to become tougher and more consistent on both sides of the ball.
Among the players expected to matter most in 2026 are Abou-Jaoude, Jordan Shipp, Cost and June, each carrying a different piece of the load as UNC leans into a more physical run game under offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino. The defense needs impact plays, the passing game needs steady production and the backfield needs a reliable engine, but the real question is whether those pieces can come together quickly enough to give Belichick the kind of second-year answer this program is looking for. [Read more 🡒]