Scooting Along: Can Scoot Henderson Push for 2023's Top Pick?
A breakdown of the G-League Ignite Star's game and how he compares to France's Victor Wembanyama
If the New York Knicks play in Utah on Wednesday and then in Portland on Friday, their coaching staff isn’t thinking about the Trail Blazers for the first time on Thursday morning. Quite the contrary, their staff is spending time game-planning and putting together a scouting report for days, if not weeks, leading up to their arrival on the West Coast.
The assistant coaches aren’t the ones doing the entirety of the scouting process, though. The Knicks (and every NBA franchise) employs what are known as advanced scouts, extensions of the coaching staff and front office whose job is to literally get an advanced look at teams on the schedule.
With all the money that goes into professional sports, the draft is no different. The general manager and scouting staff in a front office don’t think about the 2023 or 2024 NBA Drafts for the first time the day after the 2022 draft wraps up. Future scouts, as we call them, are part of the process for these teams, looking ahead at the high school, international and AAU circuits to keep tabs on the guys who will someday be involved in the NBA Draft.
This year’s draft cycle will be a prime example of why. Last week, we looked at France’s Victor Wembanyama, one of the most skilled big man prospects we have ever seen as a teenager. Pushing him atop the 2023 draft class is Scoot Henderson, a true point guard with elite athleticism playing for the G-League Ignite. As a 17-year-old, Henderson was destroying professional competition last year, navigating the pick-and-roll with ease and showing maturity beyond his years. There are definite areas to improve and flaws in his game, but the rarity of what he’s shown from a skill perspective, combined with his top-shelf athleticism, make him a frontrunner to be an elite prospect next year.
Scoot has a unique flair to his game, a joyous creativity with the ball in his hands that is unlocked by an abnormally polished handling ability. The skills are definitely there to be an offensive engine of a terrific offense; he shot 45% from the field as a 17-year-old in the G-League and posted a 2:1 assist to turnover ratio. That alone builds credibility that he is the real deal.
The other statistical metrics are pretty squarely in his favor. Henderson averaged 14.3 PPG and had a great finish to the year: over his final seven games, he averaged 15.9 points, 4.9 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 1.2 turnovers, and 1.7 steals. 16-5-5 with that low of a turnover rate, productive defense and bursty athleticism is so damn rare.