Blazers News: Scoot Henderson Working with Shooting Coach Amid Recent Struggles

Second-year Portland Trail Blazers reserve point guard Scoot Henderson had a rough go of it during his rookie season in 2023-24. In 62 games, he averaged 14.0 points on .385/.325/.819 shooting splits, 5.4 assists, 3.1 rebounds, and 0.8 steals in 28.5 minutes per.

Per Aaron Fentress of The Oregonian, Henderson is leaning on assistant coach Chris Fleming to bolster his shooting this season. Fleming has been with Portland since the 2023 offseason, when Henderson was drafted. Prior to that, he had worked with Chicago Bulls star guard Coby White for five seasons.

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Henderson, who graduated high school early to log two seasons of NBA prep while developing his play with the G League Ignite, has been playing less this season as a permanent backup, but he's shooting far more efficiently.

“The expectations from him are so high,” Fleming said. “He’s been a brand since he was 16. I respect him so much because he deals with that really well.”

Head coach Chauncey Billups acknowledged that White's game diverges significantly from Henderson's, but suggests that Fleming is well-equipped to build up both players.

“There’s two different things that you want from them [White and Henderson], but I just think Flem’s process has been good with Scoot,” Billups said.

Billups conceded that Henderson has been a bit erratic during his first two pro seasons.

“Scoot has had some really, really rough nights,” Billups said. “But Flem has the patience to keep him up, keep his spirits up.”

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“They’re challenging you every day because they want to get better,” Fleming said.

“Coby had a little bit of adversity early on,” Fleming said. “Everybody was saying he wasn’t a point guard. He had all of these storylines around him.”

White, who has been one of the Bulls' top players for the past two seasons, credits Fleming's tutelage to his growth, per Fentress.

“He’s always gonna be family to me,” White said. “He was someone that I could always rely on, and I still rely on to this day.”

Both players' respective teams find themselves in very different places this season. At 19-26, the Bulls occupy the No. 10 seed in the Eastern Conference, good enough to make the play-in tournament but likely not good enough to win a play-in game.

At 17-28, Portland could give Chicago a run for its money in the East — but in the tougher West, the Trail Blazers are six games behind the No. 10-seeded Phoenix Suns, and seem doomed for the draft lottery.

“It’s cool always to get somebody else’s point of view on things,” Henderson said of Fleming's guidance.

Henderson has improved mightily in terms of his ability to finish in the paint. Per Fentress, Henderson connected on 47.3 percent of his paint attempts last year. In 2024-25, Fleming is making 53.2 percent of his tries in the post.

“He is elite at getting to the rim,” Fleming said. “Last year, he struggled to finish, which is absolutely normal for a rookie point guard.”

In 38 healthy bouts (seven starts), the 6-foot-2 pro is averaging 12.0 points on .429/.347/.756 shooting splits, 5.2 assists, 2.9 rebounds, and 1.1 steals a night.

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