Trail Blazers Former No. 3 Pick Seeing Improvement

Drafted at No. 3 in the 2023 NBA Draft behind the likes of Victor Wembanyama and Brandon Miller, Trail Blazers guard Scoot Henderson has always had weight on his shoulders. Especially given his pre-draft status as one of the outright best players in the class.

Things haven’t gone his way since joining Portland, though.

In Year 1, Henderson scored a solid 14.0 points and dished a nice 5.4 assists, but did so on poor efficiency at just 38% overall, with 3.4 turnovers per game, good for No. 12 in the entire NBA with some of the highest-usage players in the league. While the former Ignite product certainly showed promise and was given some grace in his debut season, it wasn’t a sparkling season.

Even Year 2 likely didn’t get off to the start he hoped for. Across his first 15 games in his sophomore season, he scored an even worse 11.3 points, doing so on slightly better 41% shooting, still with 3.2 turnovers per game.

Only recently has the dynamo guard been able to find his groove. In his last four games, Henderson has 25.3 points on 57% shooting, dishing 7.8 assists, grabbed 4.5 rebounds and nabbing 1.5 steals. The catalyst has been his ranged shooting, which has been white-hot in that stretch: 53% from beyond the arc on a blistering 7.5 attempts per game.

At his peak, Henderson topped out at 39 points in a blowout loss to Brooklyn, where he sank 13 shots and missed just five.

Henderson coming on as the team’s top go-to option would be massive for the Trail Blazers in general. To this point, their rebuilding selections of Shaedon Sharpe, Henderson and Clingan have been fine, but haven’t necessarily stood out as pieces worthy of singularly building around for the future.

Should Henderson continue his star-level play through his sophomore season, Portland could consider opting towards pieces to bolster his play, rather than drafting for best available. But the body of work would say the Trail Blazers still aren’t in a position to consider fit at the moment.

While there’s no guarantee Henderson’s improved play sticks around, it’s at least progress for a second-year player who desperately needed a boost.

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