The 'Rookie Wall' Has Come for Scoot Henderson
Henderson broke out of a month-long slump in Friday's loss to the Clippers.
📍 PORTLAND, Ore. — Scoot Henderson’s first NBA season was already one that could be described as “up-and-down,” and then the rookie wall came.
Every time the Trail Blazers’ No. 3 overall pick has started to put a few good games together, he’s hit with a setback. It happened most recently over the All-Star break—after a good month coming off the bench, Chauncey Billups decided to reward him for his progress by putting him back in the starting lineup. Then, he picked up a groin injury during the Rising Stars game in Indianapolis.
Before that, Henderson was finally starting to look like what the Blazers, and the NBA at large, thought he’d be. He was gaining confidence in his shot, making the right passes more consistently and finishing at the basket. Before the injury, it was all trending upward.
Friday’s loss to the Clippers, Portland’s fifth in a row, was Henderson’s best game since coming back from the groin injury. He finished with 24 points on 8-of-18 shooting, five rebounds, 10 assists and two steals. It wasn’t perfect. He also had four turnovers and some of his misses were wild, directionless attempts at the rim against a tough Clippers defense. But with the month he’s had, it was an improvement.
The slump Henderson was in until Friday is unlike anything he faced in his two seasons in the G League. The NBA schedule is another thing he’s had to get used to, along with the size and physicality.
“It's a longer season now, so you kind of get that wall a little later,” Henderson said Friday night. “After 50 games in the G League, you're like, 'OK, let's play another one.' But when you hit 50 or 60 [in the NBA], it's a little tougher now.”
Going into Friday, Henderson was playing a stretch of basketball that was as deflating as his early February was encouraging. In seven games since returning from the injury, he was shooting 35.3 percent from the field and 22.2 percent from three-point range, with nearly as many turnovers (22) as made baskets (30). In that time, he was shooting 45 percent at the rim, which Cleaning the Glass has in, quite literally, the 0th percentile of players in the NBA.
All season, you’ve heard numbers thrown out there about how bad the Scoot rookie experience has been. Through it all, there have been enough flashes of brilliance and strings of good games to hold onto. There wasn’t much redeeming about his mid-March stretch, but it wasn’t entirely unexpected.
“Guys that age that haven't played this many games,” Billups said Wednesday. “I know for me, and I'm pretty sure for him too, especially at that position, it's more mental than physical. In every game, every team plays different. You have to guard somebody new. They're putting two or three different people on me. Sometimes they're going under [screens]. Sometimes they're trapping. 'Oh, I've got to get [Deandre Ayton] the ball.' It's so much. You're just fried sometimes. That's the wall that most people talk about for point guards. For other players, you don't have as much. But for point guards, it's tough.”
“I think all rookies around this time hit a wall,” Henderson said. “The best thing is to continue doing what I've been doing the whole season. Taking care of my body, coming in the next day and making sure I'm doing treatment and keeping my mind right.”
In talking to those around Henderson, the sense I’ve gotten is that he’s remained as he is since he’s been in the league—relentlessly positive and upbeat. His coach certainly thinks he’s handled this early adversity better than he did early in his own playing career.
“He really impresses me with [the mental side],” Billups said. “I've been him before. And I wasn't that steady. I was wearing those struggles day-in and day-out. He doesn't. You've got to have a short memory in this league, and that sounds very cliched, but it's so true. He has that.”
His teammates notice that, too.
“He doesn't let missing shots or turnovers affect how hard he plays,” Kris Murray said.
Henderson will get plenty of reps in the Blazers’ final 12 games of the season. Billups had already reinserted him into the starting lineup after a ramp-up from the groin injury. Those opportunities will only increase in the next three weeks after Anfernee Simons tweaked his left knee on Friday. The injury isn’t believed to be serious, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see the organization be cautious with it. That means for the stretch run, Henderson will get the keys.
Friday’s performance against the Clippers was a step in the right direction towards breaking out of the slump he’s been in.
“I just think I made the right reads,” Henderson said. “When I make a certain read, I get an assist, that's a checkpoint. That's what I'm looking for in my game.”
Thanks, Sean.
Great read as always!!!