The Blazer\u2019s Edge Mailbag covers tons of Portland Trail Blazers topics. Usually we spend an entire article on one subject because they tend to be deep and interesting enough to do so. Today we\u2019re going to take a look at a couple of the briefer questions that have come in over the last couple months, cleaning house, so to speak. If you\u2019re a Blazers or NBA fan, have a look and see if you agree with these answers!<\/p>\n
Why are you dogging on Scoot? The Blazers have never given him a chance to show who he is. They need to get a coach in here who will let him play.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not dogging on Scoot Henderson at all. We\u2019ve talked multiple times about his physical gifts, his improving three-point shot, how he\u2019s starting to look like an NBA player and not just a flashy project. In the process we\u2019ve highlighted his overall development. We\u2019ve also modified expectations seriously since he came in as a rookie, switching from, \u201cWill this guy be the Next Big Thing?\u201d to, \u201cAppreciate him for what he gives, especially through injury and trying times.\u201d We\u2019ve been more flexible with Scoot than any other player in recent memory, simply because his career so far has required that.<\/p>\n
As far as coaching, I\u2019m not a Chauncey Billups defender, but I don\u2019t think Henderson could have had a greater advocate than Portland\u2019s former coach. Scoot got the keys to the car and a green light last season. His distance shooting and field goal percentage improved dramatically. His turnovers went down. That shored up weaknesses that made him all but unplayable. It still amounted to 12.7 points and 5.1 assists in 26.7 minutes per game. Those are fine numbers, but not exactly setting the world on fire. I don\u2019t think Scoot\u2019s career arc has been dependent on coaching, or even that it\u2019s a primary factor.<\/p>\n
Scoot\u2019s doing fine. And I\u2019m fine with where Scoot is right now. You will not hear me complain about him. I like his minutes on the floor. I also understand why the Blazers are not playing him more.<\/p>\n
For those who want more than that, I believe the original question shows the issue. Great players\u2014the kind of player Henderson was once forecast to be\u2014don\u2019t wait for someone to give them a chance. They take that chance every day, from practice to games and everything in between. They don\u2019t let themselves not be played. Their talent and contributions become obvious to the point of being undeniable.<\/p>\n
Scoot is a long way from that. He may not, in fact, be that kind of player. It\u2019s not wrong to say that! In fact, I believe that 99.9% of Blazers Nation is understanding (and saying) that very thing already. Plenty of people speculate that the franchise needs to get another star on board to pair with Deni Avdija. Approximately zero people pipe up with, \u201cThey\u2019ve already got one! It\u2019s Scoot!\u201d<\/p>\n
Given that, the question misses the point a little. We\u2019re moving past the stage of judging Henderson by expectations\u2014draft-position\/reputation-related, personal, or otherwise. Henderson is rightly judged now only by what he contributes on the court, including the amount of minutes he earns. Anything else is a fool\u2019s errand.<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t mean I think Scoot\u2019s journey and growth are done. I said the other day that he might need to get to his sixth season before we get a really good read on him. If the Blazers want to ride with him that long, I\u2019m down. I don\u2019t even discount that he could become a star player in the interim! But we can\u2019t anticipate how that journey will go. We\u2019re going to have to let him show us whether he\u2019s a star, a role-player, or out of the league. That will be up to him\u2026not coaching, not circumstances (outside of injury), not phases of the moon or motion of the stars, but him.<\/p>\n
Scoot Henderson has a chance at an NBA career that only a limited number of people get in this lifetime. Everybody who gets that chance faces adversity, competition, setbacks, and headwinds. Like players before him, he will either emerge stronger and more sure from those conditions or he\u2019ll lose the opportunity to someone who did.<\/p>\n
I still can\u2019t solve my internal debate on whether LeBron is the GOAT. What\u2019s your take?<\/p>\n
It depends on how you measure. Michael Jordan was the most vicious winner I\u2019ve ever seen. He also evolved his game at least a couple times over the course of his career. Inside, outside, defending the perimeter, running the court, he was deadly in just about every way imaginable.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d say if you want to put one guy on a pedestal as the best NBA basketball player ever in a frozen moment in time, that\u2019s Mike. So, too, if you need one game, one time, and you absolutely have to win. Give the ball to Jordan. He\u2019s not going to fail.<\/p>\n
Shaquille O\u2019Neal was the most physically dominant player ever. If you need just one play and it\u2019s against fellow human beings, you\u2019d want Shaq.<\/p>\n
Both Shaq and Michael were aided by reffing in their time. O\u2019Neal was probably the most cheated-for player in the history of the game. There did come a point where Michael could do anything he wanted on the floor and opponents couldn\u2019t touch him, a true Made Man in the mafia style. That colors my perception somewhat.<\/p>\n
LeBron has had some big free-throw seasons, but he\u2019s a bigger guy and more physical than Jordan was. I think I could argue that he hasn\u2019t gotten all the calls he could have over his career. He hasn\u2019t been coddled to the same level as the other two. That\u2019s an argument for him in my book.<\/p>\n
Longevity also goes to LeBron. 23 seasons so far, 22 All-Star appearances? WHAT??? Anybody who has a 22-year career is blessed as heck. 22 consecutive times in the league elite boggles the mind. 21 All-NBA nominations so far too, 13 First Teams and 4 MVP\u2019s. That boggles the mind.<\/p>\n
It keeps going too. LeBron is doing stuff at 41 that most players\u2014literally 90% of NBA participants\u2014don\u2019t do at 23. Jordan averaged 20 at 39 years of age but that was for a crappy Washington Wizards team that had nothing else to do but feature him. LeBron still has legitimate expectations at 41.<\/p>\n
The thing that gets me, though, is the 10 NBA Finals appearances. Hey Blazers fans, how hard is it to get to the NBA Finals even once? How long have you been waiting? LeBron DRUG teams to the Finals on his back. Those early Cleveland squads had basically him and nobody else. He had some Kyrie Irving help later. Obviously the Heatles were stacked. Still, there were plenty of years when you could clock a conference\u2019s NBA Finals participant by asking whether James was on the team or not. Even Jordan wasn\u2019t doing that. Neither was Shaq. I\u2019m not sure we\u2019ve ever seen anything like it.<\/p>\n
Personally, I\u2019ve always been a Mike guy. But as LeBron\u2019s career winds onward, I find myself more able to be convinced that he\u2019s the most enduring, unshakeable example of a professional basketball player the world has ever seen. If he\u2019s not the greatest of all time, no Mt. Rushmore could possibly be without him.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m also struggling to find any kind of analogy to James coming up nowadays. Victor Wembanyama is going to be a unique player and may end up Rushmore-ing himself before it\u2019s done, but already durability seems to be an issue. That\u2019s the only guy close. Otherwise, we know when LeBron retires that we\u2019re seeing something that will never be replaced, just like we did with Jordan, Shaq, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird. That\u2019s good enough for me, even if people still like Mike better.<\/p>\n
To finish, I\u2019ll go where I often go, to easily-viewed WWE comparisons. Michael Jordan was like Stone Cold Steve Austin, probably the greatest peak champion and draw the business has ever seen. But he didn\u2019t have the longevity. Shaq might be Andre the Giant, a physical anomaly and completely dominant, but also an oddball example whose size was his main feature. LeBron is The Undertaker, champion a few times, but not having to be in order to make an impact and see his greatness. Which of these is the greatest depends on what you\u2019re looking for. There\u2019s no one answer, which is why it makes for a great debate.<\/p>\n
Why have you and the blazer media stop discussing Love who showed he can score the 3 with more consistency than any other player?<\/p>\n
(Note to regular readers: it\u2019s a different Mort than you\u2019re thinking.)<\/p>\n
Caleb Love remains an interesting case. I\u2019m curious to see whether and how he fits into an NBA mold. He plays with more of the classic G League style, as a hot-button scorer with boundless confidence who can give you 10 points in 8 minutes but will also be a bit of a random wildcard. You have to live with Love\u2019s ups and downs in order to play him. He\u2019d be well served by shoring up the basics in his game and raising the floor so the cost for playing him reduces. Then you only have the ups.<\/p>\n
As far as three-point shooting, it just hasn\u2019t been there. He\u2019s shooting 32.1% for the season. That\u2019s below Donovan Clingan. It\u2019s the ninth-best mark on the team among players who have played regularly.<\/p>\n
But the main reason people have stopped talking about Love is that he\u2019s on a two-way contract with a 50-game limit on how many times he can appear for the NBA version of the Blazers. He\u2019s near that limit now, having played in 45 games already. That means any forecast growth\u2014or even participation\u2014will come next year.<\/p>\n
There are more questions in the hopper, but we\u2019ll save them for another time. If you want to send yours in, email it to blazersub@gmail.com and we\u2019ll try to answer as many as possible!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Blazer\u2019s Edge Mailbag covers tons of Portland Trail Blazers topics. Usually we spend an entire article on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3784],"tags":[7,601,37787,38295,6,687,471,3967,1617],"class_list":{"0":"post-641610","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-portland-trail-blazers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-blazers","10":"tag-blazers-analysis","11":"tag-blazers-mailbags","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-portland","14":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","15":"tag-portlandtrailblazers","16":"tag-trail-blazers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116178325754117118","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}