Scoot Henderson’s End of Season Garners Praise

Undoubtedly, Portland Trail Blazers rookie Scoot Henderson finished his first NBA season stronger than he started. Even on a flailing, free-falling Blazers team, that strong finish was noticed by those outside of Rip City.

In an article from earlier this week that slipped through our Blazer’s Edge aggregation detectors, The Athletic’s John Hollinger wrote an in-depth, positive analysis of Scoot’s closing months, saying his “second-half play hasn’t received enough eyeballs.”

The third pick in the 2023 draft — Victor Wembanyama he ain’t — finished his rookie year with a 9.5 PER. On the other hand, an absolutely horrid start dragged down those numbers. That, and Portland’s quick descent from anything resembling contention, combined to bury the news of Henderson’s second-half revival.

Using Scoot’s season finale highpoint against the Houston Rockets as Exhibit A, Hollinger demonstrated how Henderson’s much-maligned jump shot has taken massive strides since a difficult start. Against the Rockets, Henderson shot 6-7 from 3-point range on his way to 30 points. Hollinger noted that solid performance wasn’t a fluke, but the exclamation point of a second-half trend.

For a guy who entered the season with a “can’t shoot” label, he finished on quite the upswing. Henderson ended the year at 32.9 percent from 3 after starting the year 9 of 50. He made 35 percent after the All-Star break.

His balance on shots off the dribble, in particular, seemed to get steadier as the season went on; Henderson made multiple stepback 3s in the final week, something that seemed unthinkable in November. His shooting 81.9 percent from the line, meanwhile, supports the notion that the shooting part of the equation is now on solid ground.

Along with the improving jumper, Hollinger praised Henderson’s development as a passer, with more stats to back it up.

Along with that shooting has come more potency as a passer, as teams have become more skittish about going under against him. Henderson had three double-digit assist games in April, including a career-high 15 against New Orleans on April 9, after registering only five in the Blazers’ first 75 games.

Notably, when I asked Billups where Henderson had made the most progress since the fall, he pointed first not to shooting, but Henderson’s reading of the game.

Hollinger’s praise didn’t come without constructive criticism. The big area for improvement the national writer circled is one Portland fans are all too familiar with after year one: Scoot’s inside finishing.

While he was fine in the midrange, he only made 50.3 percent in the basket area and 31.3 percent in floater range, according to Basketball-Reference.com; again, both figures were in the bottom 10 among qualifying players.

... Unfortunately, Henderson’s finishing in the half court leaves a lot to be desired. He still has a tendency to broad jump rather than explode upward and will take off too early at times. He also seems to have unusual trouble getting his legs under him to really power up at the cup, resulting in innumerable “blown-tire” finishes that leave him ending up well below the rim trying to finish over a bigger player.

... Now, the key to Henderson’s success lies in his progress as a paint finisher

While this analysis likely isn’t saying anything revolutionary to our readers who watch the Blazers closely, I think it’s nice to see Scoot’s second-half improvement further validated by a national analyst like Hollinger. The improvement wasn’t just our rose-colored glasses or Tankapalooza stat inflation. Henderson took legitimate strides, while, of course, still leaving plenty of room for improvement.

If you want to read Hollinger’s full analysis, which comes with more stats and video evidence of Scoot’s game, you can find it here (subscription required).