Is Scoot a bust?

[Raps in 4]

It's indeed too early, so the only appropriate answer here is to be determined.

Recently, Jalen Suggs and Gradey Dick hit similar lows in their rookie seasons, but they showed flashes of promise throughout the season, and dramatically improved as the season went on/into the next season. Scoot hasn't really shown anything to get excited about, nor has he really shown any improvements to his game.

[PlatinumState]

I cant justify calling a 20 year old a bust so I wont. Its too early, give him a couple more seasons

[Bornstellar]

Too early, and his coach is awful, but it isn't looking good.

[DeBlazerRiddem]

I agree, Scoot is looking a lot like Mudiay, who also came into the league physically strong but never developed the skills necessary to stick. There is still time for him to make a solid career, he isn't lazy but it remains to be seen how far he can improve because he has a ton of areas that need improvement.

I do disagree with the notion that he is a small guard. He has good size and strength for the PG position. 6'3 and 200+ lbs is not small and he has solid length. Of course that is saying very little considering he cannot figure out how to finish even with his physical gifts. It may even be worse because its not like he is over matched by more older more mature players and needs some time for his body to catch up. So I get that it's kind of a pointless hill to stand on, I just don't think he is particularly small for a PG.

But of course if he isn't able to cut it as a lead guard he has absolutely nothing else to fall back on. I wouldn't consider the Blazers PG position solved at all, if BPA in the draft next year is another pure point guard then I'll take them without much hesitation.

[TheHartBreakKid]

I won’t label him a bust YET, but the lack of improvement from a very subpar rookie season is concerning, and I think he’s heading that direction.

[ForeverTFC]

He stinks. He cant shoot, he has very poor defensive instincts and his finishing is impressively bad.

He has 2 dunks this year and 16 in total over 77 games. He was touted as a Rose / Russ level athlete and is just nowhere close.

He might have that Joe Alexander athleticism - elite metrics when in an open gym but just totally unfunctional on the court in game.

Its not looking good - thankfully Sharpe is starting to play up to his talents and Donovan looks like a legit pick at 7.

The main issue right now for PDX is they need to dump Simons and Ayton for anything, literally anything. Scoot as a disappointment is a distant 2nd. But, ya, PDX for sure should not cross off PG next draft when evaluating talents.

Still young, but yes it's hard to look at him and point to anything that screams potential.

Sharpe and Clingan is a very real core to build around IMO. If you guys can get a big wing in this draft to add to that core, it's a nice foundation to build from. You'll get something for Grant and Timelord for sure to keep building around them, though I'm not sure what you're really going to get for Simons and Ayton - might need to ride those out to expiring.

[Doctor MJ]

Im not sure what he does well and his athleticism doesnt standout on a basketball court. I know its still early but man he doesnt look good

The athleticism thing is the thing that just leaves me shaking my head, because it seems like something that should be easy to evaluate and yet scouts were forever talking about Scoot as if he were an outlier there when he clearly never was.

Like, with a Ben Simmons, in the end the thing that did him in was the weakness (shooting) that we always knew was the weakness, but the stuff that was supposed to be good was indeed good. With Scoot it just seems like the only thing they got right was the fact he couldn't shoot.

To me Scoot feels like like one of the great scouting failures I've ever heard of. This isn't some exotic "high ceiling prospect" from a far away land like Darko. This was someone that had the NBA's full attention, and it just seems like they completely mistook a run of the mill guy for a generational talent. How does this happen?

Honestly - I think there was an aspect of marketing. The next big thing skips college and goes to this new semi pro league, its a story and its different, that alone starts the hype train humming. Add into that the fact he started on the Ignite at like 17 and was not a full blown train wreck and you get people saying 'look at this kid at 17 playing against former NBA guys and holding his own - he has to only continue to get better and better'. No one stopped to think, maybe he is simply well developed for a 17 year old but who knows what that means long term.

Realistically Henderson has made literally no in game progress skill wise since that first season with the Ignite.

Good insight here.

I think the fact he took an atypical path made it harder for scouts to continue to do apples-to-apples comparisons, and so once the hype got going, it had a tendency to just keep going.

I also think the NBA deserves heavy, heavy criticism for the failure of the G-League Ignite because they were specifically pitching the idea that this was the best possible preparation for the NBA, but instead of actually making that their priority, they seemed more interested in furthering the hype to claim evidence for them being "the best possible preparation".

I think they ended up wasting critical years of prospects' development, and also at least in the case of Scoot gave him a false sense that he was continuing to be on pace to be an NBA star when he not only was not, but probably should never have been encouraged to think that was a likely possibility.

[dc]

To me Scoot feels like like one of the great scouting failures I've ever heard of. This isn't some exotic "high ceiling prospect" from a far away land like Darko. This was someone that had the NBA's full attention, and it just seems like they completely mistook a run of the mill guy for a generational talent. How does this happen?

I think when he was 16/17, his body was fairly mature for his age and so of course he looked dominant against similarly aged competition.

And as mentioned, the Ignite team probably wasn't a good idea for development. Just sort of the NBA's own AAU team designed to showcase/hype top talent. People got the wrong impression that young guys "holding their own" in a pro league meant they must be really good.

[Kurtz]

Im not sure what he does well and his athleticism doesnt standout on a basketball court. I know its still early but man he doesnt look good

The athleticism thing is the thing that just leaves me shaking my head, because it seems like something that should be easy to evaluate and yet scouts were forever talking about Scoot as if he were an outlier there when he clearly never was.

Like, with a Ben Simmons, in the end the thing that did him in was the weakness (shooting) that we always knew was the weakness, but the stuff that was supposed to be good was indeed good. With Scoot it just seems like the only thing they got right was the fact he couldn't shoot.

To me Scoot feels like like one of the great scouting failures I've ever heard of. This isn't some exotic "high ceiling prospect" from a far away land like Darko. This was someone that had the NBA's full attention, and it just seems like they completely mistook a run of the mill guy for a generational talent. How does this happen?

I saw Ignite live a couple of years ago - was really hyped to see Scoot. I couldn't believe what I was seeing (and posted about it on the Raps board afterwards). The kid had nothing - terrible jumper, couldn't beat anyone off the dribble, didn't make a single clever pass, looked stiff as a cardboard. Thought maybe I caught him on an off-night or something. Nope.

The only thing he had going for him was he looked jacked. But if you think about it, even that is a detriment in a prospect - for most 18 year olds you can project some upside based on their body development - bigger, stronger. But this kid was already a finished product in that regard.

I could understand the average joe hype based on his dunk pack. But still baffled by what the scouts were seeing. Complete groupthink.

[Harcore Fenton Mun]

I think the young man doesn't understand the gravity of the situation.

[zero rings]

Yes. My theory is that 90% of his pre-draft hype was due to his name.

[Tor_Raps]

Sure... trade him to the raptors for cents on the dollar then lol

[tsherkin]

He certainly looks like crap overall, but he IS 20 and the season is young. He's been finishing SLIGHTLY better and the few times he's taken it, he's hitting the short middie well right now. There is a chance that he turns it around, but he certainly doesn't look like anything to write home about from a #3 overall, leastwise in terms of ROI.

If he keeps looking this bad by the ASB, though, his potential ceiling drops ever further down, though: true high-end prospects tend to start showing SOMETHING by this point in their careers.

[Chuck Everett]

He has had enough flashes, that I still have some hope. Portland has a lot of talent on the roster (even if people seem to disagree), it's just mismashed and players on different timelines. Sometimes the light bulb just goes off and you can see the potential. Sharpe is now in his third season and is finally showing his potential. If you want to give up on 20 year olds as a rule, you might as well get out of watching the NBA.

[jokeboy86]

Every now and then I always wonder if the stock of the recent players who skipped college altogether(Jennings, Green, Mudiay, Henderson, etc) would have taken a big hit if they actually played D1 ball because they all had some habits with their game that they could get away with high school that become hard for them to break. And it’s not like the one year overseas or somewhere does anything for them except protect their high school hype going into the draft.

[jazzfan1971]

Yes. My theory is that 90% of his pre-draft hype was due to his name.

I hear you.

[dc]

The only thing he had going for him was he looked jacked. But if you think about it, even that is a detriment in a prospect - for most 18 year olds you can project some upside based on their body development - bigger, stronger. But this kid was already a finished product in that regard.

Yeah, that's my theory as well. His body looked pretty developed for 16/17 years of age. So it wouldn't be surprising if he physically/athletically dominated kids the same age who looked more "normal" at the time.

Sort of how like Tyler Hansbrough was an older/physically mature player in college (was a 24 year old rookie in the NBA) and he spent a lot of time dominating NCAA guys 3-4 years younger.

[QPR]

Im not sure what he does well and his athleticism doesnt standout on a basketball court. I know its still early but man he doesnt look good

The athleticism thing is the thing that just leaves me shaking my head, because it seems like something that should be easy to evaluate and yet scouts were forever talking about Scoot as if he were an outlier there when he clearly never was.

My theory is being an aggressive athlete with a motor can mask actual physical limitations. There were plenty of examples of him going full bore down the court for a dunk and playing at high speed, which can create a false impression of actual athletic level.

But you're also right, pro scouts are paid to analyse properly and not get fooled by the odd highlight play here and there.

[DaPessimist]

He's at the point where he needs to worry about just staying in the league.

[JRoy]

He is less terrible than last year.