On Monday, the Portland Trail Blazers held their annual media day, a time-honored tradition shared among all NBA teams. For the uninitiated, the concept of media day is one that unofficially begins the forthcoming NBA season. Before a squad of press members, team managers field questions, justify their team’s offseason moves, and explain the goings-on that have transpired over the summer, while players detail their offseason work and their vision for their place in the lineup.
With so many questions asked and answers given, it’s rare for media day to conclude with more questions than answers. However, that’s exactly where we find ourselves with Scoot Henderson’s situation and fit.
Scoot Henderson is playing for his Blazers future this season
The Trail Blazers famously re-signed Damian Lillard after his post-injury expungement from Milwaukee, and went on to trade for Ja Morant, all the while retaining Jrue Holiday and Shaedon Sharpe. Lillard, Morant, and Henderson played all of their minutes at the point last year, while Holiday played 75 percent of his minutes there as well.
Neither Lillard's, Morant's, nor Holiday’s contracts come off the books until the summer of 2028. Meanwhile, Henderson’s rookie-scale contract ends at the conclusion of this season. This is not a promising setup for Henderson’s future with the club, and General Manager Joe Cronin offered up nothing to assuage the doubt about his long-term fit.
On Scoot’s possible extension deal, Cronin emphasized that Scoot is still a “high-priority player” while seemingly downplaying his contributions, going on to call him a “high-variance player." Cronin went on to muse that “[the Blazers] still have one more offseason to deal with [his extension] if we need to”.
With the addition of two more point guards in the offseason, it appears that Henderson’s contributions are secondary to the primary goal of winning and that the team could possibly be strong-arming Henderson into accepting a modest extension. This is not to say that the front office has lost faith in Scoot, but calling someone a “high-variance” employee in any capacity isn’t exceptionally encouraging.
With that said, Cronin said he was expecting a “big training camp” from Scoot, which seems to be more of a directive than an open expectation. Shaedon Sharpe’s offseason meniscus injury opens up a few minutes for Henderson, albeit at a different backcourt position and one at which Holiday spent a quarter of his minutes last year.
There is something to be said about the defensive side of the Blazers’ attack; Scoot’s newfound defensive versatility will surely open up minutes in a backcourt plagued with a lack of it, so he may find time to play himself into a lucrative extension yet. Head coach Micah Nori emphasized the flexibility of the guard rotation without mentioning Henderson by name, which alludes to Cronin’s expectations of a big training camp to force Nori’s hand.
Cronin and Nori did not mince words regarding the Blazers’ guard rotation; more was said about Scoot’s expected contributions by not mentioning him and it’s clear that they expect him to come off the bench. If he progresses like Joe Cronin appears to expect, it would place Scoot on the short list of Sixth Man of the Year candidates.
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