HoopsHype just gave Portland Trail Blazers point guard Scoot Henderson strong bulletin board material heading into next season.

With Frank Urbina handling the writing duties, the HoopsHype staff voted on the top 26 point guards for the 2025-26 NBA season. The voting criteria didn’t just take into account previous seasons; it considered voters’ future projections of how players will fare. Still, Henderson didn’t make the list.

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Instead, the rankings’ back-end was occupied by players like Tyus Jones (No. 26), Dennis Schroeder (No. 24) and Stephon Castle (No. 22).

After a rocky rookie season, Henderson steadied the waters during his sophomore campaign, especially starting around the New Year. He looked much more controlled with the ball in his hands, while improving his efficiency at the rim and beyond the arc. The 21-year-old also produced some big scoring performances, showing proof of the high potential that made him the No. 3 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. Over 66 appearances, the production added up to averages of 12.7 points, 5.1 assists, 3.0 rebounds and 1.0 steals per game.

Following the departure of guard Anfernee Simons, Henderson should be a more featured part of Portland’s offense on the ball next season. With another offseason under his belt and a more tailored role, the potential is there for the third-year guard to take a leap and make this list look silly by next summer. He’ll need to play at a high level with more consistency to make that happen.

While HoopsHype didn’t include Henderson, new Blazers guard Jrue Holiday slotted in at No. 21 in the rankings. Urbina said Holiday was a tough player to rank in the exercise because of the unknown circumstances of his new situation. But, no matter what role Holiday takes on in Portland, Urbina said the veteran guard will be a quality player.

Two-time NBA champion Jrue Holiday is a tough player to project for 2025-26 after being traded from the Boston Celtics to the Portland Trail Blazers this summer. On one hand, the 35-year-old will be the most reliable guard on the Blazers’ roster, so maybe Holiday will finally get a bit more selfish and seek out his own shot more often than he did in Boston. That could lead to an uptick in numbers for the two-way point guard.

On the other hand, Holiday, now 35 and with a lot of miles on him, was brought in to Portland to provide leadership for their young team, and could be satisfied being a table-setter as the young Blazers’ guards continue to find their footing as NBA players.

Regardless, when healthy, Holiday remains one of the most effective two-way guards in the NBA thanks to his slashing on offense, his spot-up shooting and his feisty defending.

In HoopsHype’s point guard rankings last offseason, Holiday ranked No. 18. For what it’s worth, Henderson ranked No. 29 on that list, which included 30 players. With this summer’s rankings shrinking to only 26 players, it’s unclear if Henderson dropped or maybe even moved up a few spots.