Scoot Henderson’s High-Risk Growth is Defining the Blazers’ Play-In Push

The Portland Trail Blazers are coming off a high after beating the Los Angeles Clippers, giving them some hope that they can compete in the play-in tournament, but they need to figure out how to fix their turnover problems with Scoot Henderson as their starting point guard.

The Blazers turn the ball over more than any team in the league, committing 17.4 turnovers per game. The team in second place in the statistic, the Brooklyn Nets, clocked in at 15.9. This means the Blazers have been extremely poor in taking care of the basketball.

"Deni Avdija's All-Star ascension positioned Portland for a Play-In appearance. Still, when the Blazers run into actual NBA elites, they're almost always at a talent disadvantage," Bleacher Report contributor Zach Buckley wrote.

"That removes any margin for error and basically demands pinpoint execution. Portland has instead produced the opposite: a league-worst 17.0 turnover percentage.

"So often their own worst enemy, they make themselves vulnerable against virtually everyone. That was most recently evidenced by a disastrous showing against the lottery-bound Mavericks, as Portland stomached a seven-point loss while nearly matching its 31 field goals with 25 turnovers."

Blazers Commit More Turnovers Than Any Team in the NBA

Portland Trail Blazers guard Scoot Henderson shoots the ball against LA Clippers guard Jordan Miller. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

In the playoffs, this type of play won't cut it, and the team has only a few more games to figure out how to take better care of the ball when they are on offense. With Scoot Henderson entering the starting lineup after Jerami Grant's unfortunate calf injury, the ball is often times in his hands, and he has a tendency to cough up the basketball.

Henderson has just a 1.47 assist-to-turnover ratio this season. That is outside the top 100 players in the NBA and trails the leader, Denver Nuggets point guard Tyus Jones, by 5.5.

Jrue Holiday also commits 2.8 turnovers per game while Deni Avdija leads the team with 3.8. That's not a promising stat for the Blazers, who find themselves fighting for the final spots in the Western Conference playoff picture.

The turnover issues the Blazers have had all season suggest that it is also a coaching error. The offense has not been able to reach its ceiling, and it's possible that it could be the reason behind a potential change on the bench in the offseason.

It will be hard for the Blazers to completely flip the switch in this particular category this late in the season. The offense is already pretty much solidified, and there's very little the team can do to turn it around. In their most recent win against the Clippers, the team only had 14 turnovers, which is below their season average.

The Blazers also turned the Clippers 14 times, which may be the method for Portland to move forward with if they are going to turn the ball over frequently. If they can force as many turnovers as they commit, that will help narrow the gap between them and their opponent in the playoffs.