NBA Rumors: Blazers rising star's inability to shake injury bug is deeply concerning

NBA Rumors: A key part of the Portland Trail Blazers' future can't remain healthy as he's slated to miss the first month of the season.

As the Portland Trail Blazers prepare to embark on year 2 of their rebuild, a bit part of how the team will operate moving forward will rely on how quickly the young foundation continues to develop. To say that this year will be increasingly important to the future of the Blazers would be a massive understatement. With pre-season underway, the Blazers were dealt with pretty unfortunate injury news.

The Blazers announced that rising star Shaedon Sharpe is expected to miss 4-6 weeks with a shoulder injury. That will likely keep him out of the entire pre-season slate and potentially the first month of the regular season. As the Blazers look to build on their young foundation, this is a far-from-ideal scenario heading into the start of the season.

Is it fair to consider Shaedon Sharpe an injury-prone player?

It may be a bit premature to consider Sharpe an injury-prone player at this point in his career, but the early evidence is not great. While he had a relatively healthy rookie season, Sharpe did miss 50 games last season due to injury and is on pace to miss probably the first month of this season. That could end up being 15 games, if not more, right off the bat for Sharpe.

Sharpe is still an extremely young player with a bright future. But Sharpe wasn't able to make that next jump in his development last season because of injury. He's getting off on the wrong foot this season because of that same issue. Maybe Sharpe is healthy for the remainder of the year and becomes that fringe-star player most expect him to be this year. But what if he doesn't?

For as talented of a player as Sharpe is, we've seen how injuries have derailed development time and time again in the NBA. As arguably the most promising young player on Portland's roster heading into this season, it's certainly a narrative to keep an eye on.

If the Blazers are going to show signs of promise this season, you'd imagine that Sharpe is going to play a big part in that. But if he can't remain healthy, it could completely alter Portland's outlook as a team.

It's completely too early for the Blazers to panic but Sharpe's durability as a player is something to keep an eye on as this team continues to build out their young core.