As the new NBA season approaches, one of the hot topics around the league is which rookie-scale contract players will receive contract extensions. The deadline for reaching deals is the eve of the regular season, in this case October 19th. The issue impacts the Portland Trail Blazers as Scoot Henderson, formerly the third-overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, is eligible to sign a deal. If the two sides do not come to an agreement, Henderson will enter the restricted free agency process at the end of the coming
season.
This week Brett Siegel of Clutchpoints wrote an article predicting which of the league’s prime extension candidates would receive extensions in the coming weeks. To nobody’s surprise, he deems Henderson unlikely. Scoot has been up and down during his Blazers tenure, battling injuries besides. He’s playing behind three former All-Stars at point guard. It doesn’t make sense for the Blazers to guarantee him money when the market for his free agency is likely to be weak, both because of Henderson’s history and because salary cap optimization prevents most teams from clearing space to make free agent offers anyway.
The more surprising part of Siegel’s story came when he described Portland’s relationship with their young guard. Per the article, the Blazers still believe Scoot is a potential “foundational piece” and have rebuffed trade offers for him.
Henderson will 100 percent be coming off the bench again this season, and he will have his minutes impacted by Morant, Damian Lillard, and Jrue Holiday. Even so, the Blazers are still exceptionally high on Henderson and do not wish to let him go.
Before the trade deadline in February, the Trail Blazers received calls from a few different teams inquiring about Henderson as a potential trade option, sources said. Each time, the Blazers turned down the opportunity to engage in talks centered on Henderson because they believe he can be a long-term foundational piece.
Henderson averaged 14.2 points and 3.7 assists in 24.9 minutes per game over 30 appearances last year. He shot 41.8% from the floor and 35.2% from the three-point arc.
