Great point, you just highlighted the REASON I think it's the latter.I think that's just coach speak. It's BS IMO.
But I get why he's saying it.
If Sharpe does play this season, the expectations are going to be through the roof. I think this is Cal's way of tempering expectations as to not put it all on the shoulders of one kid.
Or if we are looking at this in a negative light much easier to say he's not ready than to say oh he's not playing because we don't want to injure him before the draft lol.
Sharpe doesn't suck. He's NBA quality, LOTTERY PICK quality. For Cal to say he's not ready smacks of bullsht. Even his teammates think he's ready. So Cal is just gaslighting the public about Sharpe. Now why would he do that? The only rational explanation is that they worked this out ahead of time.