Blazers No. 3 pick Scoot Henderson out 2-3 weeks with ankle injury
The Portland Trail Blazers will be missing No. 3 overall pick Scoot Henderson for a significant amount of time.
The team announced Saturday that an MRI had revealed bone bruising in addition to the point guard's right ankle sprain, giving him a return timeline of two to three weeks. From that time frame, best-case scenario would see Henderson return Nov. 26 against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Henderson sustained the injury Nov. 1 in a game against the Bucks, exiting in the third quarter and not returning. He has missed three games since and is now in line to miss at least seven more.
He might not be the top player on the Blazers this season, but few, if any, players loom larger for the Blazers' future than Henderson following the Damian Lillard trade. The Blazers drafted Henderson months before sending their all-time leading scorer to the Bucks, landing on a point guard of the future while trading the one of the past.
Five games into Henderson's career, the results haven't quite been what the Blazers would want, with the 19-year-old shooting 34.6% from the field and 9.5% from 3-point range, with four turnovers per game against 4.6 assists. He wouldn't be the first young ballhandler to struggle to acclimate to the NBA at the start of his career, though.