Wembanyama vs Scoot: Breaking Down Scoot Henderson’s Creation for Others

A breakdown of Scoot Henderson as more than an explosive athlete and scorer

A prospect could not have had a better performance without rising up NBA Draft Big Boards than Scoot Henderson did last week. In most draft classes Henderson would already be the projected No. 1 overall pick, and if he wasn’t, the performance against Metropolitan 92 would have vaulted him there.

Unfortunately, we only got about a game and a quarter to watch Henderson due to to bumping knees with the actual projected top overall pick, Victor Wembanyama. The hope is that this is an injury that will hopefully not cause Henderson to miss any time long term, and holding him out for the rest of the game on Thursday was just precautionary.

In those minutes, Henderson flashed all of the skills that people rave about. He was athletic, attacked the rim, showed the beautiful midrange jumper and even displayed some really good possessions. The skill that often goes overlooked with the electric guard was on full display as well, his passing and creation for others.

The aforementioned elite midrange shooting ability plays directly into the creation opportunities that Henderson is able to generate. When a player is able to put that kind of pressure on a help defender or drop coverage big, it's going to open up cutting lanes for his teammates behind those defenders. Henderson does an amazing job of leveraging that skill to get teammates opportunities and then has the unselfishness and passing acumen to get them the ball with opportunities to score.

Speaking of drop coverage bigs, you have to love the way Henderson operates in ball screens. Does the athleticism pop off the screen when watching him? Yes. 

The nuance he plays with has always been the most impressive attribute. He sets defenders up before using the screen, changes pace and direction and manipulates defenders to create those opportunities. The beauty of Henderson playing with the G League Ignite this season, without Dyson Daniels and Jaden Hardy, is that he will absolutely get the majority of the on ball reps and ball screen handler possessions to continue to work on this part of his game and grow.

The final part of his game that creates these opportunities for his teammates is that athleticism. Henderson is simply so fast that it becomes impossible to keep him out of the lane at times and that will inherently create easy reads for him to make to open teammates. 

Think about Jaden Ivey, who is not a high level read guy, but because he puts so much pressure on the defense in the lane it makes it easy to find the open teammate for the lob or corner triple. 

Henderson has that same type of ability and it flashed in some off the ball possessions in these two games. We saw him getting denied and taking his defender backdoor before dumping off a pass to a big for a layup. The situation where he is really scary is attacking the lane against an unsettled defense on the second side of the floor.

There is plenty to love about Scoot Henderson’s game but his passing ability, creation for others, and unselfishness should continue to get more and more attention.

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