If you haven't watched Bennett Stirtz play basketball, you're missing out. The point guard started his college hoops career at DII NW Missouri State, transferred to Drake, then transferred to Iowa, where he and the Hawkeyes are hoping to make a statement in the Big Ten.
Next stop, the Portland Trail Blazers? That could be the case, according to the latest 2026 NBA mock draft from FanSided's Christopher Kline, who has the Blazers nabbing Stirtz with the No. 11 pick in the draft. I love that pick — but if the Blazers do look for guard help in the offseason, whether in the draft or free agency, it's probably because they no longer view Scoot Henderson as the future of that position.
That's painful for everyone; Scoot, fans, and probably the front office itself. Everyone wants this to work out. But in year three, with minimal progression (and now a longterm injury) from Scoot, it's time to start considering that longterm point guard is still a position of need.
Drafting Bennett Stirtz would not be a good sign for Scoot Henderson
I don't think Joe Cronin and the rest of the Blazers' front office are ready to scrap Project Scoot quite yet. He likely did enough last season to convince the franchise he can be, potentially, a starting NBA guard. But the days of believing in Scoot as a star may be over and drafting Stirtz may be the final blow to Henderson's chances of fully blossoming into the kind of prospect he was expected to be in PDX.
As for Stirtz, he is a four-year college player who started his career well outside of the national limelight. He's slowly made his way up the college basketball ladder, and has dominated at every stop, from DII to the MVC to the Big Ten.
Maybe this is how the team must redeem itself after trading away the pick that became Cedric Coward in last year's draft. Just kidding. Kind of.
Jrue Holiday and Damian Lillard can't be trusted to play every night
I didn't forget about the old guys, don't worry. Jrue Holiday was a revelation for the Blazers at the start of this season, and Damian Lillard is the best player in franchise history. But the former has been out almost two months with a calf strain, and the ladder is going to be a 35 year-old point guard returning from an Achilles tear.
Neither of these guys — despite how illustrious their careers have been and how well-liked they are within the organization — are part of the longterm plans of this roster. Stirz could be.
And hey, maybe Stirtz and Scoot both could be. Their games have pretty much no overlap, and them sharing a backcourt could (if you think really hard) work.
But using a lottery pick on a guard screams replacement more than it does complementary piece. Bennett Stirtz in Portland would be awesome — but for that to happen, the front office might have to admit a truth about Scoot that no one wants to admit yet.