Scoot Henderson

The hard part of evaluating Scoot’s film this year is that there were essentially two Scoot Hendersons.  A Scoot who was locked in and moved with a real sense of purpose and seemed bent on destroying opponents.  And a Scoot who coasted and played upright, while letting his teammates repetitions in what is essentially a developmental program.

Offensively, Scoot is special physically.  He’s an explosive athlete with a quick first step, great speed with the ball, strong fluidity, and great body control.  While Scoot has the ability to play off ball (to a degree), if he’s on the court, he is the focal point of the offense.  He has strong handles and a pretty advanced collection of moves for someone who was 18 for most of the Ignite’s season – crossovers, hand dribbles, hesitations, hostage dribbles – he has a full arsenal and keeps the ball on a string, which makes him very difficult to guard.  Combine this with his strong footwork and body control and Henderson is able to put immense pressure on the defense.  He’s already very good at varying his pace and lulling the defense before exploding towards the hoop with his speed.  Once Scoot starts to drive, he has two options.  First, he is a strong mid-range shooter, which he can get to pretty quickly.  If the defender plays up even a step to try to prevent the jumper, Scoot is happy to go to the rim (he very well might even if the defender doesn’t step up).  Scoot’s great body control and footwork allow him to slither around defenders, even in traffic to get a good angle.  As he gets close to the hoop, he already has a strong runner he can utilize if the defense packs the paint.  Or if there is a sliver of space, Scoot can use his combination of leaping, hang time, fluidity, touch, and strength / frame to create all sort of angles to get a quality look inside.  Another weapon to get open looks / get inside is that Scoot is also talented running the P&R and is able to use screens to get favorable matchups or a step on his defender, which is very hard to recover from with Scoot’s speed.  Scoot is a very savvy and high awareness player, who is adept at running the P&R and is good at reading the defense and knows how to attach hedges, drops, blitzes, or help defense.  This is partially, because Scoot is a very strong passer.  He won’t be mistaken from prime CP3, but he clearly understands how plays are developing and is able to read and react to defensive schemes and rotations and then has the ability to make the full spectrum of passes, from no looks, kick outs, cross court tosses, or hitting his big man / roller at virtually any angle.  He’s also a great live dribble passer and even when there is not an immediate play, he can patiently probe the defense and keep his dribble before scoring or throwing a dime to an open man.

Scoot’s biggest offensive weakness is his shot.  While he improved a lot on threes this year (both his form and results), he’s still rather pedestrian from deep.  Defenses would still dare him to shoot and try to play back to hedge against him attacking the rim.  It is worth noting that the G-League uses the NBA three point line, so while this is a legitimate critique he will need to improve for next season, it’s a bit unfair to compare his three point shooting directly to NCAA players.  Right now, Scoot is at his best shooting in rhythm, especially off the dribble when he can step into his shot (hence the good midrange shooting).  When he is forced to move or even catch and shoot, he isn’t as effective.

Defensively, the tape is more bad than good.  But the good is when he seems to actually be trying.  There’s no sugar coating the fact that the Ignite defense was bad and Scoot played a real role in that.  There’s long stretches of tape where he is not in a stance.  He’s reaching and gambling on plays.  He takes careless fouls.  And he just doesn’t seem like he is giving effort.  Unfortunately, that can be true for a lot of high usage players in the NCAA and other lower level leagues.  So I tend to focus a bit more on how these types of players defend when the game is on the line and they appear locked in.  And I think this is what gives me hope with Scoot defensively.  When he’s locked in, he can get into a stance and play defense.  In these moments, you see very good lateral speed and the ability to change direction on the perimeter.  You see the ability and strength to fight through screens (though his technique and angles will need some cleaning up).  You see him having the strength, length, and explosion to be at least somewhat switchable and to absorb contact from drivers.  And someone who covers ground quickly and has the explosion and wingspan to rotate and contest shooters or at least provide some congestion inside.  His offensive awareness also translates to defense when he wants it to.  He as plays where he hedges a screen his man sets, tags a roller after a second screen, and then gets back to his man.  He has quick hands and good anticipation and does get into passing lanes and strip ball handlers.  And he’s an good rebounder who is explosive and strong getting to the ball and then immediately becomes a grab and go threat pushing the pace.  He is simply too gifted physically and too heady of a basketball player to be as bad defensively as he looked when he is disinterested.