Trail Blazers coach Micah Nori spent part of his pregame Saturday talking with Scoot Henderson, and the message was simple: stay steady, keep it simple, and don’t let the early rough patch snowball.
Henderson stepped into the starting point guard role last week after Ja Morant went down with a left hamstring injury, but the transition has been bumpy. Nori said he had a private conversation with Henderson before the game against San Antonio and made it clear the team still trusts him.
“I believe in Scoot, we believe in Scoot,’’ Nori said in a pre-game meeting with the media. “Had a good conversation before I came down here.
Over the course of 82 games, everybody is going to struggle … they just are. Right now, his struggle is coming early on.
So my job as a coach is to help him, to put him in position to shorten those struggles, because we do know he is very, very capable.’’
The results haven’t matched Portland’s record in his starts. The Trail Blazers are 3-1 with Henderson in the lineup, but he’s struggled to make much of an impact, with four assists and 11 turnovers across those four games while shooting 28.6% from the field. His Friday night line in the loss to the Lakers was especially rough: two points, no assists and five turnovers in 23 minutes.
Nori said he thinks Henderson may be pressing too hard.
“I still feel like he might be putting a little too much on himself,’’ Nori said. “Basically just getting back to keeping it simple, buy into the defense, get yourself more involved on the offensive glass, the defensive glass, and then when you get out - run. Then make the easy play.’’
There was better news on Morant, whose hamstring was examined Friday in Los Angeles. Nori said the latest update sounded more promising than expected, though he stopped short of putting any kind of timetable on the injury.
“It sounds like he will be able to - not putting a timeline on it - but it might not be as extensive as what we thought it was, which would be a positive,’’’ Nori said. “But again, I don’t know if that is four weeks, six weeks, whatever it may be. But I’m hoping it will be on the shorter end of the prognosis.’’
Friday’s game also brought a small moment of postgame chaos involving Robert Williams and Jrue Holiday. Williams tried to take the game ball for Holiday after Holiday moved into the top 100 in career scoring, but a Lakers staff member stepped in and said the ball had to be turned in to the NBA. Williams later admitted he misread the situation.
“I was taught that as soon as you get the ball, just run into the locker room.”
Nori also pointed to the team’s unselfish approach as a big reason for Portland’s surprising start. Joe Freeman of The Oregonian reported that Nori has emphasized ball movement since training camp, and the coach said the roster has bought in.
“I just told them,” Nori said, “that every single person, some way, somehow this year, if we’re going to be a successful basketball team, is going to have to sacrifice, whether it be shots, whether it be minutes, whatever. Because we’ve got a lot of depth and a lot of talent and it’s the only way this is going to work.
Sacrifice is not a bad thing. And in fact, usually, when you sacrifice and it leads to winning, everybody gets repaid tenfold at the end.
Because, in this league, they pay winners and they want winners on their team.”
In Other News...
Scoot Henderson Questions Are Growing As Blazers Old Problems Return
The Trail Blazers first road loss of the season in Los Angeles did more than snap a perfect start away from home. It also brought back a familiar set of problems that have shadowed Portland since last season, especially the kind of sloppiness with the ball and on the glass that can undo otherwise competitive nights.
Scoot Henderson sits at the center of some of the bigger questions now, because his play has not matched the expectations that followed him into this season. Portland has shown signs of improvement in a few areas, but the recurring issues around ball security and defensive rebounding, along with Hendersons uneven production, are making the rotation picture feel less settled than the Blazers would like. [Read more 🡒]
Blazers Loss To Lakers Exposed What Theyre Missing Without Ja Morant
The Trail Blazers 124-118 loss to the Lakers was a reminder that even a strong start can look a lot shakier when the offense gets loose. Portland coughed the ball up 24 times, double Los Angeles total, and the game exposed how much the Blazers lean on Ja Morant to steady the group and keep the attack organized.
Morant has been out with a Grade 2 left hamstring strain and is expected to miss most or all of November, leaving Portland to patch together its playmaking in the meantime. Even with the defeat, the Blazers are still 6-2, a start that suggests they can survive the early stretch, but this one showed how much better they should look once Morant is back directing the offense. [Read more 🡒]
Blazers Suddenly Face A Bigger Scoot Henderson Decision Than Expected
Scoot Hendersons future in Portland has become a more complicated question than it looked a few months ago. The Trail Blazers are weighing the value of a young guard still trying to find his footing against the appeal of a more established piece in Nickeil Alexander-Walker, whose improved play and longer contract would give the roster a different kind of stability.
For Portland, the decision is less about talent in a vacuum than about timing, fit and the realities of restricted free agency down the road. Any move involving Henderson would carry real strategic weight, especially with Atlanta emerging as a possible trade partner, but for now it remains a matter of possibility rather than something that has actually been put in motion. [Read more 🡒]