As a (Please Use More Appropriate Word) outsider, tell me 'bout Henderson.

[SUN]

Is he a beast or bust?

Scrub in the tub? What's he like? What can he become?

[countryboi]

baby beast....he is really going to be a good player on offense and he is as good a on ball defender as has any player in the league......check back in 2 years

[BigSlam]

If he can improve his handles a little and add a some what reliable 3pt shot (think Grant Hill'ish) then I think the sky is the limit for him.

I have no doubt he has the right NBA attitude to be great - it'll just be a matter of him improving a few little things slightly.

[bobcats3wallace]

If he can improve his handles a little and add a some what reliable 3pt shot (think Grant Hill'ish) then I think the sky is the limit for him.

I have no doubt he has the right NBA attitude to be great - it'll just be a matter of him improving a few little things slightly.

Defiantly agree with the persona. He has that winners edge, really reminds me of Kobe in a lot of ways. He seems to have a killers instict that kicks in down the line in games. He's not afraid of the ball in crunch time either. Right now he is still raw, but is having a lot of success. Like Slam said, if he can just fine tune a few things over the summer, he could really be as great as he wants to be. I'll put it this way, he seems to have everything that you cannot teach a guy. Plus he does have skills. If he can just get better at the things you can teach, then the sky is the limit for him. I have no doubt in my mind he will work his ass off this summer to come back even better next year. I think at the least he will be a decent starter. At most he could develop into a very consisent, borderline all star player. He has stiff competition at the SG position, but I think he could edge into the discussion at some point in his career. And Oh yeah, his defense on ball is phenomenal. So good that you can put him on any guard in this league for the closing 10 seconds of a game and feel pretty confident that that guy is not scoring.

[thruthefire]

He's gonna be a stud.

[Paydro70]

I'm among the more pessimistic on the board regarding Henderson, but he's definitely a long way from being "great." The closest guy to Henderson's TS% at his usage rate is Willie Green, to give an idea. Picking up a 3-point shot is possible, but rare. Far better players than Henderson never put one together.

His defense will keep him on rosters for a long time, probably, but I don't know if he'll ever be more than a role player.

[Eoghan]

Great man defender, improving jumpshot, makes patient basketball decisions. He's like Raja Bell except with hops and a shaky outside shot. Not a guaranteed starter on every team but in the right system he can shine. I think Charlotte is one of those systems.

[Stun704]

I'm among the more pessimistic on the board regarding Henderson, but he's definitely a long way from being "great." The closest guy to Henderson's TS% at his usage rate is Willie Green, to give an idea. Picking up a 3-point shot is possible, but rare. Far better players than Henderson never put one together.

His defense will keep him on rosters for a long time, probably, but I don't know if he'll ever be more than a role player.

you can't go by stats for everything, Hendo is far better then Willie Green

[Fred Williamson]

he's the rich man's version of Michael Jordan

I'm among the more pessimistic on the board regarding Henderson, but he's definitely a long way from being "great." The closest guy to Henderson's TS% at his usage rate is Willie Green, to give an idea. Picking up a 3-point shot is possible, but rare. Far better players than Henderson never put one together.

His defense will keep him on rosters for a long time, probably, but I don't know if he'll ever be more than a role player.

Brian Cardinal has a higher TS% than Kevin Garnett.

[Paydro70]

Fred: I qualified with usage rate for a reason.

Stun: Better overall, sure, but offensively? I'm not sure why. He's an SG who shoots 45% from the field without taking any 3s. He's OK at getting to the line, I guess? And that's as a 3rd option on a bad team. He can get better, but the point is that RIGHT NOW he's a considerably below-average offensive player. He gets to take shots, and sometimes he gets hot and puts up 20 (as he almost did tonight), but then so does Willie Green.

Regardless, all the talk of him being a "beast" or "a stud" or having borderline all-star potential is wild-eyed speculation. The list of NBA shooting guards who have zero 3-ball and play 20mpg goes like this: Ronnie Brewer, Demar DeRozan, Evan Turner, Gerald Henderson. And of course, 3 of those guys are 6'7". If you lower it to 15mpg you get Tony Allen, Marquis Daniels and some guy named Alonzo Gee (I thought I knew everyone in the NBA... who the hell is that?).

Again, it's not that it's impossible for him to become good... but unless that 3-ball shows up, he's Tony Allen. Tony never picked up a 3-ball, and he was better at them in college than Hendo. It's not a small thing to learn to shoot 3s, and it's not something we should count on.

[BigSlam]

Again, it's not that it's impossible for him to become good... but unless that 3-ball shows up, he's Tony Allen.

Except that Tony Allen is a dumb as a house brick at times. Hendo has a much higher BBIQ.

[doc.end]

Worst Case: athletic Raja Bell without a 3pt shot (he is already on par with Raja defnsively)

Best Case/Ceiling: poor man's Kobe without treys

[Rich4114]

What we know about Henderson: He is an outstanding defender. This comes naturally to him and he probably got it from his Dad who was also one of the better defenders ever out there. That alone will give him a place in the NBA for a long time.

He's also quite athletic, more than his father was it seems. He's got the ability to get to the rim and finish. He can slash and has a pretty decent jump shot which is a surprise to a lot of us.

He's got potential to step his game up to another level by being more of a leader and more dominating/demanding with the ball. I agree with others, he'd need to extend his range to become more of a threat. Right now no teams focus on stopping him so if he does continue to improve or score more he will see more defensive focus. It's 50/50 on if he becomes a go-to guy in the NBA or not. He's definitely our top prospect and only just now getting his chance for playing time.

[fatlever]

pluses
- elite defender able to cover both pgs and sgs
- good mid range game, step back jumper and jumper off curl/downscreen
- athletic
- confidence, not scared of big moments
- bball iq

negatives
- no 3pt shot
- doesnt finish well for someone with great athletic ability
- struggles going left
- suspect handles
- doesnt get to line enough

like others have mentioned, many of his flaws are areas that can be easily improves through practice and experience, such as handles, getting to line and range. his pluses, defense, athletic ability and confidence are largely things that are not so easy to teach. therefore i still believe hendo has a lot of room for improvement. he while never be a great 3pt shooter, but i dont think its too much of a stretch to see him improve his range out to 3pt line.

the comparisons of a smart tony allen or an more athletic raja bell with less range appear to be pretty spot on.

assuming he can add one or two areas to his game this summer i think he will solidify himself as a reliable starting sg (3rd or 4th option) or a fantastic 6th man (assuming he would embrace such a role after being a starter).

i still see 15ppg as his ceiling on offense, which is fine for a player whose primary function on a team will be as a defensive ace.

as for the hendo vs derozan debate i would gladly take hendo. its much tougher to find an elite defensive sg (who isnt a liability on offense) as it is to find a wing who can score but not really impact other parts of the game.

[Marvel]

you can't go by stats for everything, Hendo is far better then Willie Green

Um, you're talking to Paydro....remember.

Again, it's not that it's impossible for him to become good... but unless that 3-ball shows up, he's Tony Allen. Tony never picked up a 3-ball, and he was better at them in college than Hendo. It's not a small thing to learn to shoot 3s, and it's not something we should count on.

And except TA never had a jumpshot.

Best Case/Ceiling: poor man's Kobe without treys

Doesn't have the handles, offense out of the triple threat, ability to create own offense off the dribble, can't finish in traffic - seems to get easily unstable when help D cuts his lanes off, FOOTWORK.

Can never be too strong, get in the gym and lift.

IF he puts in the work over the off season, he can become a bordeline All Star. All the tools are there, he just needs to learn how to use them.

And his jumper needs minor tweaking...and he needs to learn how to use, finish with his left. Speed deception, accelaration, explosiveness in transition.

[amcoolio]

I think his biggest problem is aggression. You can tell because there are points in the game where MJ is yelling at him so he forces the issue with what I call "fake aggression". He needs to demand the ball more. That way he can drive and get to the line more and score more. His defense is already very impressive so there is no reason he shouldn't be allowed to be rewarded on the other end of the court.

But, I think Paydro and others are being too harsh on him...this is essentially his rookie season and he has played far fewer minutes than Derozan and similar young SG's. And I think MJ likes him...enough that I think MJ will work with him over the summer to turn Henderson into a formidable player. If Gerald Wallace can learn to shoot 3's (Gerald is actually a decent 3 point shooter now), then I have full faith that Henderson can as well.

[SUN]

So I'm getting the feeling of Raja Bell and prime Roy.

[freakon0mics]

I'm going to start off with things I don't like from him now. One being his handles. Sometimes it seems like the ball is going to go out of bounds when he dribbles. Last, he is not a three point threat. I don't think he should become Ray Allen out there but teams know he that he is horrible out there from three point land.

Other than those things, he brings everything else to the table. He has the intangibles down already at a young age. You can already tell that he wants it out there, sort of like a killer instinct mentality. He already has become a solid man on man defender. In my opinion, he has what it takes to guard opposing two guards in the league and I can see that will be his primary role for the rest of his career. He can hit the mid range shot and drive to the basket. A comparison for him is a less offensive Michael Finley and Latrell Sprewell.

[Battery]

I think his biggest problem is aggression. You can tell because there are points in the game where MJ is yelling at him so he forces the issue with what I call "fake aggression". He needs to demand the ball more. That way he can drive and get to the line more and score more. His defense is already very impressive so there is no reason he shouldn't be allowed to be rewarded on the other end of the court.

But, I think Paydro and others are being too harsh on him...this is essentially his rookie season and he has played far fewer minutes than Derozan and similar young SG's. And I think MJ likes him...enough that I think MJ will work with him over the summer to turn Henderson into a formidable player. If Gerald Wallace can learn to shoot 3's (Gerald is actually a decent 3 point shooter now), then I have full faith that Henderson can as well.

Paydro is a compiler of stats and rarely watches games. So it's not a surprise he bases his performance on season long stats as opposed to each individual game. His stat compiling is also much more heavily focused on offense therefore he cannot accurately judge a player on a game by game overall performance. Probably be shocked and question his fancy magical stats if he actually spent some time watching Hendo on a regular basis...and not just on the offensive end.

But teams that aspire to be real good need great role players too, and if all Henderson ever becomes is a great role player then you would have to say he was a successful draft choice. Either way, Henderson has already proven he can be a huge asset to this team going forward and one thing I think all of us can agree on is that it's going to be a lot of fun watching him develop.

And anyone who suggests taking Derozan over Hendo prefers losing lots of games. Defense is consistent, scoring is not.

[Paydro70]

And except TA never had a jumpshot.

I guess the point here is that Henderson's midrange jumper suggests something about his potential 3-ball? I don't think that follows. Tyrus Thomas has a fantastic midrange J, better than Henderson's. Is he going to develop a 3-ball too? Again, this isn't a matter of possible... it's a matter of likely, and a guy who literally never takes 3s, and misses those few he does take, and wasn't a good shooter in college is a pretty unlikely candidate to pick one up.

I wonder if Gerald Wallace has lifted everyone's expectations about how players typically improve in the NBA... and in what ways. He was very unusual to develop all the new aspects of his game as his career went on, and the reality is that most players just don't do that. It isn't just a matter of work, or physicals... there are basketball skills that some people simply never master.