Adrian Bernecich wrote a column<\/a> urging the Blazers not to extend Henderson early, with the basic premise being that he\u2019s too mercurial to gauge. Any offer they\u2019d make would need to be comped on the low end of his production scale to be safe. Henderson likely wouldn\u2019t accept that kind of deal.<\/p>\nHaving read and pondered, I\u2019m going to suggest something further: if the Blazers come with anything short of a fantastic offer, Henderson shouldn\u2019t take it. Contract negotiations are a two-way street. Scoot shouldn\u2019t be in the business of making the Blazers feel secure. He should be milking everything he can out of his talent and career. That\u2019s not likely to happen if he signs early with Portland.<\/p>\n
Acknowledging Henderson\u2019s variability, we also have to note that the high end of his scale still reaches to, or at least near, stardom.<\/p>\n
In last night\u2019s game versus the Dallas Mavericks, Henderson picked up a dribbler full court defensively. That\u2019s not a huge deal in itself; it\u2019s part of Portland\u2019s scheme. Toumani Camara does it all the time. But this one play was different. It typified the upper end of Henderson\u2019s promise.<\/p>\n
Being guarded full court, the Dallas dribbler (forgive me, I forget who it was now\u2026I was so blown away by the play I forgot to check) responded typically. He put on a burst of speed, trying to get past Scoot\u2019s defense. Henderson responded appropriately. He kept in front of his man, impeding progress and the ball. But the Dallas player was persistent. He took an angle and drove forward, trying to get past Scoot.<\/p>\n
Once again Scoot reacted. He slid into the dribbler\u2019s path. But instead of retreating as he did so, which would have been customary, Henderson simply held his ground. When he did, the dribbler ran directly into him\u2026and bounced right off, backwards. I\u2019ve never seen anything quite like it except when mammoth big men set picks on smaller players. This guy literally drove forward, went bonk, and reversed about two dribbles before he figured out he should probably go a different way. All that time, Henderson did\u2026not\u2026move. It was damn near cartoonish, like Wile E Coyote hitting the side of a cliff. It was absolutely spectacular.<\/p>\n
Physical presence isn\u2019t Scoot\u2019s only strong point. His shot has improved. His passes have too much pace still, but it\u2019s good to know he can throw it that fast. (He reminds me of Jeff George back in the 1990\u2019s NFL: canon of an arm, needs to learn to not overthrow his receivers.) Don\u2019t even talk about Henderson\u2019s drives. If he ever learns to finish, watch out.<\/p>\n
None of these are conclusive sales points on a contract, let alone a high one. Scoot probably doesn\u2019t deserve one yet, even with his potential. But they do add up to a strong conclusion for him personally. If ever a player was destined to bet on himself, it\u2019s Scoot. He has all the hallmarks: unique gifts, huge potential, just lacking the ability and\/or opportunity to show either of them fully yet.<\/p>\n
If Henderson and his agent believe in his game, there\u2019s absolutely no way he should ink a deal as 2026, injured-most-of-the-season Scoot. He\u2019s got almost $33 million of potential in the contract he\u2019s already signed. He should use that as his fallback position, then plan on talking turkey as 2027 Scoot, carrying a potential qualifying offer and using it as the bottom line, not the aspiration.<\/p>\n
If the Blazers come to Scoot with anything less than a lucrative, long-term deal this summer, Henderson should tell them no. He should know they\u2019re trying to lock in the lowest version of himself. With confidence and a little more playing time, he should wager on making them pay for the highest version.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not sure that this becomes a real issue, though. Henderson\u2019s profile isn\u2019t just the kind that encourages players to bet on themselves. It\u2019s also the kind that makes teams confident in waiting until Restricted Free Agency, seeing what the market things of their guy\u2019s potential before overpaying for it early. Variability works both ways, but it leads to the same end: waiting is better.<\/p>\n
If Henderson does sign a modest extension this off-season, that says volumes about his own self-assessment. Like Woody Allen not wanting to belong to any club that would have him as a member, an NBA team probably shouldn\u2019t covet a potential star who will accept an offer that implies his value is lower than expected. I don\u2019t see it happening. Either the Blazers are going to pay bigger than we think or both sides are going to wait. That\u2019s nothing to be afraid of for either party. Sometimes, particularly in these variable cases, it really is the right move. That\u2019s as true for Henderson as it is the team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Summer of 2026 approaches, multiple NBA players will consider their future, seeking and negotiating the contracts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":684830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3784],"tags":[7,601,37787,6,687,471,3967,1617],"class_list":{"0":"post-684829","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-nba","12":"tag-portland","13":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","14":"tag-portlandtrailblazers","15":"tag-trail-blazers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116308979385206266","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684829","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=684829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}