The Portland Trail Blazers fell 124-118 on Friday in their NBA Cup game against the Los Angeles Lakers. Part of that was being in the wrong place at the wrong time, as Luka Doncic continued his scoring tear, finishing with 53 points to push his season average above 40.
Portland still kept it competitive but ultimately couldn't get over the hump, largely due to their 24 turnovers. It's hard to win on the road when Doncic is playing that efficiently, even against lockdown defenders like Toumani Camara and Jrue Holiday. But it's nearly impossible when you keep shooting yourself in the foot with these frustrating turnovers.
It was a massive problem for the Blazers last season, as their 17.3 turnovers per game ranked dead last by a wide margin. Portland has been better this season at 16.8 per game, ranking 20th. They're likely middle of the pack when you account for Ja Morant's injury and this 24-turnover night skewing the mean this early in the season.
But on nights like Friday, when Morant, Shaedon Sharpe, and Vit Krejci all remained sidelined, you'd like to think they could rely on former No. 3 overall pick Scoot Henderson to step up. A large part of Portland's playmaking struggles, and why they had to trade for someone like Morant, is because Henderson still leaves much to be desired as an on-ball creator.
Scoot Henderson hasn't stepped up as a playmaker in Blazers' offense
In this game, he finished with two points, two rebounds, and five turnovers in 23 minutes. Halloween may be over, but we got some spooky flashbacks to the negatively impactful player Henderson was as a rookie, and to games where he recorded historically bad plus-minus.
The offensive struggles and turnovers didn't entirely fall on Henderson. Deni Avdija was even the leading culprit with eight of his own, which he'll have to clean up going forward as he takes on more of that point-forward role in the offense without Morant. But at least Avdija's turnovers are coming from good intentions in terms of his aggressiveness, downhill style, physicality, all trying to force the issue and create scoring opportunities for both himself and teammates.
Part of that is Henderson's off-ball role in this offense, as the Blazers typically don't need him high up in the offensive hierarchy with the amount of backcourt pieces they've added. But the same can be said of Damian Lillard, who has been playing more off-ball this season after returning from his torn Achilles.
Jrue Holiday, in typical fashion, stepped up to fill the playmaking void when he came off the bench, finishing with seven assists and no turnovers against the Lakers. But when Morant is out of the picture and Holiday isn't in the starting lineup, the Blazers need Henderson to step up, at least show some flashes or attempts at playmaking.
This loss looked more like the Blazers team we saw last season, with an overly stagnant offense that struggled with turnovers as it relied too heavily on Deni Avdija in that point-forward role. Portland's early-season success showed the blueprint: surround Avdija with ball handlers and decision-makers. That should include Henderson, but that hasn't been the case at the start of the season.
Through eight games, he's now averaging 7.9 points, 2.3 rebounds, 1.3 assists, and 2.8 turnovers while shooting 31.7 percent from the field and 19.4 percent from beyond the arc. It's easy to overlook those early-season struggles when the Blazers are still finding ways to win. But Friday's loss to the Lakers exposed Henderson as a liability in this offense.
He still has plenty of time to turn things around, and could very well do so given the volatility he's shown through his first three seasons with the Blazers. Hopefully that comes in this stretch of November, when the Blazers have a demanding schedule that coincides with multiple backcourt injuries.
Henderson's inconsistency is becoming a bigger problem in Portland
But Portland has to be getting tired of the inconsistency Henderson has shown. That was a huge reason they couldn't reach a rookie scale extension, with GM Joe Cronin acknowledging the challenge of finding the right deal for such a high-variance player.
Henderson has time to find more stable ground in his career, considering he's just 22 and the point guard position typically takes the longest to adjust to. But at this point, he's not even a point guard for Portland; he's playing more of an off-ball role as someone who hasn't even been able to space the floor.
Henderson's defensive impact has been underappreciated, as he's done a good job of constantly harassing guards and denying the ball. But unfortunately, his offense still leaves much to be desired, especially on certain nights.
The Blazers could afford to be patient with that volatility when they were rebuilding and didn't need to win most of their games to secure a top-six playoff spot in the Western Conference. Now expectations are higher, and Henderson isn't rising to the occasion consistently enough.
This November stretch could be viewed as now or never in terms of proving to the Blazers he actually belongs as part of their young core. Henderson either needs to become a more reliable 3-and-D option playing off-ball or help take some of the playmaking burden off Avdija with Morant sidelined. Right now he's doing neither, and the turnovers are only making things worse.
Henderson's next chance to turn his season around comes Saturday against the San Antonio Spurs. We've seen high highs and low lows when Henderson played against them in the first round last year, so we'll see what version Portland gets in this contest. But regardless of what Henderson shows up Saturday, the problem is that there are two different versions.
Add us as a preferred source on Google