Ranking the 10 Blazers who need to play the most minutes the rest of this season

1. Scoot Henderson

This one's pretty self-explanatory: Portland drafted Henderson with the third pick in the 2023 draft with the hopes he would become the next great Blazer after Lillard's departure. His career got off to a rocky start, but he's shown legitimate improvement since then.

It's time to take the reigns completely off and see what Scoot can do as the leader of an NBA offense.

From October to December, the 19-year-old posted averages of 8.3 points, 2.4 rebounds and 4.3 assists on shooting splits of 33/20/67. He turned the ball over nearly 4 times per game and averaged 4 personal fouls a night.

Since then, he's averaging 14 ppg, 3.2 rpg and 4.7 apg while cutting his turnovers and fouls down to 2.8 a night. He's shooting 35 percent from three on almost 4 attempts per game and is getting to the line almost 4 times a night and shooting 83 percent from the stripe. He posted four double-doubles and had a 33-point, 7-rebound, 9-assist performance against the Suns on Jan. 14.

He's averaging 27 minutes during that 32-game span and even fewer since the turn of the calendar year. With Sharpe out and Brogdon injured, the Trail Blazers' backcourt belongs to Scoot and Simons. It should remain that way for the rest of the '23-24 season.