Does Scoot’s Injury Impact Portland’s Team-Building?

Scoot Henderson has a medium-term injury and the Portland Trail Blazers just concluded their 2025 Media Day availability that was not without intrigue… so Conor Bergin and I had to talk about it on the latest episode of We Like the Blazers!

One topic we briefly touched on was whether the injury to Henderson has any implications for how the team plans its in-season transactions (conversation starts at 4:35):

Brandon: Well, this makes me think of something and I want to shout out our colleague Adrian who wrote a think piece a few days ago [and here it is!] asking the question: should the Blazers trade for Lauri Markkanen? In his proposal, he has the Blazers sending out Scoot Henderson as part of the value to entice Utah to make a deal. Markkanen had a couple of down years, and maybe his value is not where Utah would like it to be. They’re probably not going to trade him until they rebuild his value. But to the point about how long will this injury last: yes, the trade deadline Conor is in early February. And so if the Blazers are trying to rebuild the value of Jerami Grant for example… the Blazers are trying to see what they have in Scoot Henderson, either to keep him or frankly to trade him, his being injured until… until 2026, again, the trade deadline’s in early February, could really throw a wrench into those plans just from an evaluation standpoint.

Conor: It’s such an important point. There’s all about data [and] I’ve been hearing so much about that the last few years during a rebuild. You need to collect data on players, and when all these injuries have happened it just muddies the water because you it you don’t get the data to make as well of an informed decision.

We also touched on what the team talked about a few days ago on Media Day, including of course what Jerami Grant said about his role and his being surprised at returning to Portland this season (conversation starts at 16:40):

Conor: [Jerami Grant] caused quite the stir and I thought from inside the room where it happens, Brandon, I thought it was awkward, some of his answers. And you kind of felt it in the room where it was kind of every it was kind of like, oh. And of course, I’m talking about when he was asked, do you consider… could you see a role coming off the bench this year? Jerami just said, “Nah, I don’t really expect that.” And did not elaborate any further. And you know, maybe if somebody had asked to follow up, he would have given a more nuanced answer perhaps. But I think it’s I think it’s telling that he just let it he just let it drop right there and was like, there’s not anything beyond that.

Brandon: I mean, it would have been it would have been easy for him to just say the canned answer of like, you know, I’ll do whatever the team asks of me. That doesn’t bind you into anything to say that. I’m with you. I do think that answer, the fact that he chose to share that in the way that he did, I do think that that means something. And I don’t mean to get you into hot water, but where my mind goes, and we’ll talk about the other comment that he made in a moment, too… where my mind goes is where Chauncey Billups said, “Hey, I haven’t decided on the starting lineups because I’m going to let the players essentially, you know, decide it for me.” I think Chauncey Billups said something of like, “I’m not, hey, I’m not deciding the lineups. The players are.” Yeah. It’s like, “Sure, coach, whatever.”

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