Scoot Henderson may be starting to figure it out
Young players take time to figure it out as a pro, it's just the way it is. Scoot Henderson is showing more and more signs of becoming the player many expected him to be.
The weight of expectations
It’s a classic case of a young guy coming into the league with a heavy weight of expectations on his shoulders and funnily enough, not dominating from day one.
I was someone expecting big things as well, to be fair, but if I was being realistic I had to have known it most likely wouldn’t happen immediately. The stage was set for it to happen, however.
The perfect storyline
A Portland legend in Damian Lillard leaving the franchise at the perfect time to hand new point guard Scoot Henderson the keys. It felt like a straight swap and a literal passing of the torch. What a perfect storyline.
I wanted Scoot to come in and kill it from day one but it’s never always going to happen that way.
The touch wasn’t there, the confidence didn’t look there. Throw in a shakeup of moving Henderson to the bench, some minor injuries, the addition of those goggles (are they here to stay now?), it was a bumpy first stint for Scoot.
The reality is some players just take longer to get it going as a pro, for many different reasons.
Preaching patience
People no doubt jumped off the wagon a bit because that’s just what fans do.
Oh, the 3rd pick in the draft is coming off the bench? Maybe he isn’t that guy.
Let’s be patient.
Scoot is a competitive guy, especially with those in his draft class as we saw when his G-League Ignite side faced off with Victor Wembanyama’s Metropolitans 92 side a year or so ago. It may be off to say this but I’m sure the constant Victor Wembanyama fan fare added fuel to the fire as Scoot’s rookie campaign got off to a slow start.
It makes that narrative even sweeter as it was against Wemby’s Spurs where it felt like Henderson turned a bit of a corner.
Figuring it out as a pro
His 22 point, 7 rebound and 11 assist game felt like a bit of a coming out party last game. Partly because Portland came away with the win, only their 9th win of the season (9-22), but mainly because it looked like Scoot was really starting to figure it out.
I remember the talk about him early days was that his pace wasn’t there. He wasn’t playing to his strengths in that department and head coach Chauncey Billups even came out and said that he needed to play a lot quicker after Scoot’s debut.
“I’m 47 and not in good shape, and I can play at that tempo. You should never play at that tempo. You’re Scoot Henderson. … I think he’ll be better tonight.”
Henderson looks much more comfortable now, sometimes you just need games under your belt and you can see his confidence growing game by game.
I see the vision
One area he always showed flashes of was his passing. It’s oh so nice to watch. The vision, the patience before finding that open man, the Blazers commentary crew were having a blast watching his passing ability against San Antonio.
“Scoot I can’t even finish talking about you, before you go to the next assist.”
It was also a history making performance from the 19 year old as he became the first rookie in Trail Blazers franchise history to put up at least 22-7-11 in a single game. Sounds like a very specific record but I’ll take it.
It’s not just a one time outing for Scoot, the game before this he had 25 points, once again against the 5-26 Spurs but I’m keeping the angle positive here.
Let’s enjoy Henderson figuring it out
It’s a long season as everyone knows, there’s going to be many more lows and many more highs for Scoot but patience is key with some of these draft picks, regardless of the amount of hype they received coming into the league.
He’s averaging 21.3 PPG (47% 3PT), 8.7 APG and 3.7 RPG over his last 3 games and 12 PPG, 3 RPG and 5 APG on the season - pretty solid numbers really.