Blazers News: Scoot Henderson Impressing Teammates With Play This Season

Will Henderson make the leap this season?

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The Portland Trail Blazers lost their second straight game to start the 2024-25 season, but the trajectory of Scoot Henderson continues to be a bright spot for the team. Henderson, who the team is focused on developing into a star and a focal point of their team, has shown some promise in each of the Blazers' first two games.

In the Trail Blazer's season opener against the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday, Henderson led the team in scoring with 22 points, four rebounds, and four assists, though the Warriors blew them out 140-104. The Trail Blazers played much better on Friday, with Henderson putting up 15 points, one rebound, and six assists in a narrow 105-103 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans.

His shooting improved as well, as Henderson made seven of his nine attempts from the field against the Pelicans.

"I thought Scott played really well," Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups said after the game. "We needed everything he brought tonight ... I thought he ran the team pretty good. He got the team organized in a lot of the situations, so I was happy for Scoot."

“He’s just learning how to finish in a variety of different ways,” Billups said. “But when he attacks the basket with the ferocity that he did tonight, even some of those [larger centers] are in trouble because they never want to foul.”

Henderson was the Trail Blazers' first-round pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, and the No. 3 overall pick in his entire draft class. The 20-year-old point guard was a five-star recruit coming out of high school but opted to skip college basketball and enter the NBA G League Ignite instead, making him the youngest player in G League history.

“He’s just getting better,” Teammate Jerami Grant, who scored 34 points Friday, said postgame. “I think the more games he gets, the better he’ll be. He’ll figure out his pace, the pace that works. ... Tonight, he figured it out. So hopefully he can keep recreating that for the future.”

Henderson is looking to take the next step in his second NBA season. As a rookie in 2023-24, Henderson appeared in 62 games and started 32 for Portland. He averaged 14 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 5.4 assists per game, but shot only 38.5 percent from the field.

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