As the Portland Trail Blazers' third consecutive down season enters its home stretch, one big positive as of late has been the emergence of 3rd overall pick Scoot Henderson.
While still not particularly efficient (under 40% from the field shooting primarily two-pointers), he's been putting up some bigger scoring performances against solid teams, with his elite athleticism slowly being put on display.
In response to this, current Portland head coach Chauncey Billups has revealed his new plans for Henderson going forward, per Sean Highkin of Rose Garden Report:
This is both good and bad – good because it reflects Billups' resounding confidence in Henderson despite his inefficiency and issues with turnovers, but bad because it implies that guard Shaedon Sharpe won't be returning this season – unless he does so while coming off the bench.
As the Blazers continue to lose in the hopes of getting a higher draft pick, there's little to gain from having Sharpe play outside of gaining intel on how their young core fits together at this stage in their careers.
More likely than not, however, we'll see a combination of their core alongside their high draft pick from the 2024 NBA Draft open the 2024-2025 season, which should be the first without Billups since 2021.
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