{"id":135526,"date":"2025-04-21T09:44:07","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T13:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=135526"},"modified":"2025-04-21T09:44:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T13:44:07","slug":"blazers-scoot-henderson-star-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/21\/blazers-scoot-henderson-star-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Scoot Henderson Is Gradually Developing Into The Blazers&#8217; Star"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hendesc01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Scoot Henderson<\/a> has been under pressure to meet the sky-high expectations for him since before the 2023 NBA Draft. The Trail Blazers&#8217; rebuild continues to be promising, as Scoot&#8217;s development shows high-level potential. Portland&#8217;s future is in good hands as long as he can grow into being the Blazers&#8217; star.<\/p>\n<h2>Scoot Henderson Is Gradually Developing Into The Blazers&#8217; Star<\/h2>\n<p>After two NBA seasons, Scoot Henderson is still on an uphill climb. He has all the physical tools to become a star player, but has not realized his potential. Before the 2023 NBA Draft, many called him the second-best player in the class, only behind <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wembavi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Victor Wembanyama<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/08\/30\/trail-blazers-lottery-pick-scoot-henderson-being-set-up-for-struggles\/\" target=\"_self\">Scoot has not lived up to that<\/a> because players like <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/thompam01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Amen Thompson<\/a> and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/millebr02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brandon Miller<\/a> have looked better.<\/p>\n<p>Henderson has faced constant criticism because he has not met expectations. Despite all the noise, Scoot has put his head down and kept working under head coach Chauncey Billups. Since he is essentially the face of the Trail Blazers&#8217; rebuild, his attitude towards hard work is good.<\/p>\n<h3>Scoot Took Massive Strides In The 24-25 Campaign<\/h3>\n<p>The 2024-25 season was a big year for Henderson because he showed massive improvements, especially with his shooting. He went from 38.5% from the field and 32.5% from three to 41.9% and 35.4%, respectively. Scoot&#8217;s scoring dipped from 14 points a game to 12.7, but that wasn&#8217;t an issue as the Blazers were healthier.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Late to the party but this Scoot Henderson and Chauncey Billups blurb is fantastic <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/G7tY5qY1vl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/G7tY5qY1vl<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Tyler Rucker (@tyler_rucker) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tyler_rucker\/status\/1887690600780341374?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 7, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Portland played <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/05\/the-blazers-are-good-now\/\" target=\"_self\">more meaningful games this season<\/a>, winning 36 games, a massive step up from 21 in the previous campaign. Scoot played a huge role in that, as he was the spark plug with his improved shooting and solid playmaking. In <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.statmuse.com\/nba\/ask\/scoot-henderson-stats-in-from-january-14-to-february-26\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">20 games from January 14 to February 26<\/a>, Henderson averaged 15.1 points and 5.5 assists per game. He also shot 47.7% from the field and 44.5% from three.<\/p>\n<p>Coach Billups knew Henderson had an impressive year, as he singled Scoot out in his exit interview.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I thought Scoot took a step this year. It was up and down a little bit. But I thought it was more up than anything,&#8221; Billups <a  href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/1cbqpLMzptk?si=5TcYuFEZ42a-qjki&amp;t=474\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said<\/a> about Henderson. &#8220;I thought he got a lot of confidence in his jump shot this year, and we all have a ton of confidence in it. So, that\u2019s one thing that I think now he can kind of move on to other things.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Scoot Knows What He Needs To Work On<\/h3>\n<p>As Scoot enters his third NBA campaign in the 2025-26 season, he has plenty to prove. Many of his fellow 2023 draftees are taking the star leap like Wembanyama and Amen. Henderson is far from becoming a star, but this offseason could be crucial to his development.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Scoot went OFF tonight. <\/p>\n<p>39 PTS (career high)<br \/>13-18 FGM<br \/>8 3PM<br \/>6 AST <br \/>2 STL <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/V3whPuQtpU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/V3whPuQtpU<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NBA (@NBA) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBA\/status\/1879404828176347547?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 15, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Thankfully for Blazers fans, Scoot knows he has plenty to work on. That is the right mindset ahead of the offseason, where he has months to keep working on his game. In his exit interview, Henderson spoke about becoming more comfortable in the league and how that helped him.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I\u2019d say this year, I guess the game kind of slowed down. Things like that only come from playing and experiencing the NBA in general. Just playing games, playing ball at this level. I had more fun,\u201d Scoot <a  href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/JkCt0E3g4uI?si=MLXJkRBCku1XMP0Y&amp;t=8\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said<\/a> in his interview.\u00a0&#8220;I think that\u2019s my whole thing. The more aggressive I am, the better I play on both sides of the ball. The more aggressive I am on defense, the basketball gods always kind of help you out there. As long as you\u2019re playing the game right.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>If he can keep developing, he will become one of the Blazers&#8217; irreplaceable players. Scoot could become the Blazers&#8217; star, and he must keep working and proving the critics wrong. The 20-game stretch in January and February was superb, and Henderson will keep working towards consistency. Portland had a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/24\/chauncey-billups-sees-blazers-potential\/\" target=\"_self\">promising year amidst a losing record<\/a>, but the NBA has to be wary of this dangerous team.<\/p>\n<p>Photo credit: \u00a9 Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scoot Henderson has been under pressure to meet the sky-high expectations for him since before the 2023 NBA Draft. The Trail Blazers&#8217; rebuild continues to be promising, as Scoot&#8217;s development shows high-level potential. Portland&#8217;s future is in good hands as long as he can grow into being the Blazers&#8217; star. Scoot Henderson Is Gradually Developing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5385,"featured_media":135537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,23],"tags":[4577,115,4702],"class_list":["post-135526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-trailblazers","tag-2023-nba-draft","tag-chauncey-billups","tag-scoot-henderson"],"modified_by":"Kenny Kluska","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5385"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135526"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135538,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135526\/revisions\/135538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}