Portland Trail Blazers
New Year's resolution: Get Scoot Henderson on track
After making the decision to trade Damian Lillard and to jump headfirst into a rebuild, the first few months haven't been that ideal for the Portland Trail Blazers. Even though it's not all that surprising, the biggest concern for the Blazers right now has to revolve around rookie Scoot Henderson and how he's disappointed so far this season. Through 21 games played so far this season, Scoot is averaging just 12 points and four assists per game on 37 percent shooting from the field and 27 percent shooting from 3-point range.
Scoot has begun to play better of late but there needs to be more flashes of that during the 2024 calendar year if the Blazers are going to be able to feel good about their decisions during the 2023 offseason. Scoot was built up as the second-best prospect in the 2023 NBA Draft. So far, he hasn't even played like a top-10 player from that draft class.
It's entirely too early to consider Scoot a draft bust but with how quickly teams now must come to conclusions on their young players, the clock is ticking on the Blazers to figure out what they have or don't have in Scoot. Portland's New Year's resolution should be to find Scoot's comfort zone with the team.