@@Portland Trail Blazers

David Thorpe is not impressed with Scoot’s summer progress

  • September 22, 2024


Paid, but here's the full article

The most relevant quote:

…he was the most disappointing player I saw in L.A. this summer. Despite his unreal athleticism, Henderson is a horrendous defensive player who can’t shoot and can’t finish at the rim. He’s nowhere near ready to help the Blazers win possessions. If he commits to, and succeeds in, improving his overall game, he can make a big jump playing alongside guys who know how. But there needs to be some movement towards the light. If Scoot hasn’t started making real progress by February, it’s a five-alarm fire. No team gets too far with a negative player starting at point guard.

Pretty brutal. Very worrying to hear about the rim stuff. You can have a bad shooting day but doesn't sound like he's progressing on the stuff he needs to progress on. Was really hoping to hear he was making big strides.

23 comments

  1. This is absolutely scathing but lll wait to see it from pre season and regular rather than random pick up league games and off season runs

  2. Bro, I’m a colts fan and Blazers fan (don’t ask). I feel like they’re the same damn team 🤣 AR is basically Scoot 😵‍💫

    Insane potential that the fan base hopes comes to fruition. But scared as hell

  4. That’s a bummer. His improvements throughout the year last season were promising, though with how bad last season was, I was just looking for reasons to be optimistic.

    We still have Simons and shouldn’t be in a rush to trade him, so scoot being bad shouldn’t be 5 alarm fire, it should just be disappointing. If we trade Simons and go all in on scoot, and he sucks, then I would panic.

  5. Oftentimes the “he’s made big strides in his game” takes don’t translate to success on the court in real games, so it’s safe to say opposite takes don’t always translate to disappointment either.

    We’ll just have to wait and see with Scoot. Again, he’s still super young. I don’t buy the “five-alarm fire” by February either. Even if he struggles and gets demoted to the bench, he’ll still have time to observe, learn and grow.

    I chalk this article up to sports journalism. They need to write an opinion and it’s “safer” right now to chop down Scoot’s potential than it is to promote it.

  7. Really hope this is just offseason clickbait. This will easily be his most important developmental year

  8. This reads both like he observed him playing in LA but then also just recounted all his problems from last year. Did he see these continued problems or did he not? The wording here is strange. It says “if he makes major improvements” but also as “he didn’t make major improvements.”

    All in all, I’m going to chalk this up to someone writing something but not having a basis for it. Did he really dig into a ton of his offseason work? Doesn’t read like he did.

    He might still suck but I doubt Thorpe has any idea if he will or not.

  9. I think it’s clear that if the defense or finishing don’t come around then he’ll be a bust (relative to expectations for sure).

    I do feel like the Blazers are hedging their bets somewhat adding plus passers at other positions, which gives Simons at point a better chance of succeeding. 

    Brutal optics if Scoot busts after they wouldn’t move the pick to retain Dame. Probably still the right bet from an objective perspective but effectively threw away Dame as a lifelong Blazer for nothing. 

  11. Who in the franchise is actually expecting Scoot to be a starter by February, or for POR to be “going far” this season?

  12. Are we seriously talking about something that came out like a week or two ago from some dude talking about pickup games?

  16. I do think “progress by February” is a realistic timeline to see if he showcases any tangible improvement.

    If not and if Cooper/Bailey isn’t available, it might not be a bad idea to take a look at Nolan Traore or even DJ Wagner if he makes a drastic jump like other sophomore PGs did.

    Obviously, that would set the rebuild back a year or two but the PG position, while vital, is one of the easiest positions to fill up so I don’t worry too much about whether Scoot busts or not (ex. we have Simons).

    Finding that 3/4 is way more difficult and far more essential to the modern game. Additionally, a well rounded star 3 does extremely well next to a well rounded star 2. Case in point, MJ-Pippen….Wade-Lebron….Middleton-Giannis….Tatum-Brown. Deni could be that player but if the Blazers can slide him to the 4 and get a legit star forward next to Sharpe, that’d be the ideal blueprint for a future contender.

  17. So? And Ben Simmons is always looking amazing in the summer. Y’all really buying into this shit, huh?

    (I can’t believe I need to explain this) but imagine a lot of you are too young and naive to realize this but people write stuff and will put out anything to get you to click and overreact. As much as the media wants to crown the next Michael Jordan they also want to find the next bust. It’s engagement and views.

  22. This was on blazersedge a couple weeks ago. The guy clearly didn’t even watch the end of year improvements Scoot made from the start of the year. Let him be not impressed while making it obvious he doesn’t actually watch Scoot. This means nothing and I say that as someone who was overall disappointed in Scoot year one (but came around by end of season)

  23. Certainly *would* be concerning if this were happening during the regular season against nba competition.

    It’s harder to take it seriously when it’s 1 opinion of offseason runs in 1 city.

    I’ll wait to either hear it from more sources, specifically ones zoomed in on Blazers, or to see how it looks in a few weeks! Stoked to get back in the Rose Garden with Rip City

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