TUALATIN — As Scoot Henderson lounged in front of his stall in the Portland Trail Blazers’ locker room on Sunday night, he couldn’t help but flash a wide smile.
“I feel amazing,” Henderson said. “I’m ready.”
Ready enough to make his season debut?
The Blazers’ third-year point guard on Monday inched one step closer to playing for the first time this season, participating in extensive three-on-three and one-on-one workouts with teammates and coaches at the practice facility in Tualatin.
Afterward, Henderson stopped short of declaring himself available for the Blazers’ Tuesday night matchup against the Phoenix Suns at Moda Center, saying he would leave that decision up to the team’s medical and coaching staffs. But Henderson appears to be on the cusp of playing for the first time since March 27, 2025.
If that happens to come Tuesday, well, there would be more than one reason to celebrate.
“I hope so,” he said, smiling. “That’s my birthday.”
Either way, it seems likely, barring some kind of setback, that Henderson plays sometime this week. He started to increase his non-contact basketball activities in late December and early January and was finally cleared for full basketball activities roughly two weeks ago. Henderson has participated in a variety of scrimmaging, including three-on-three half-court games and five-on-five full-court games, and said that Monday’s workout was his best yet because it “was honestly one of my first days where I’m like, ‘OK, I can keep going now. I can keep playing even longer … I felt great.’”
Henderson said he and Chantelle Green, the Blazers’ director of mind health and wellness, have compiled a list of benchmarks he needs to meet in order to return. And he’s checked all of them off.
It will take a few games for Henderson to work into midseason shape, of course, but he said he’s “eager” to do so.
“He’s a little behind Blake (Wesley),” Blazers acting coach Tiago Splitter said Sunday, when asked for an update on Henderson. “But very, very soon, I think, we’re going to see him playing. He was playing in those contact games — three-on-three, four-on-four, five-on-five — and this morning he was sprinting all over the court. So he’s getting there.”
It’s a long time coming.
Henderson suffered his injury in late September, the week before training camp opened, while playing in a pick-up game at the practice facility, delaying an important and highly-anticipated season. But no one expected the delay to last this long. Initially, the Blazers said Henderson would be sidelined between four and eight weeks, and general manager Joe Cronin suggested at media day that the rehabilitation could stretch up to 10 weeks.
That was on September 29.
Henderson has gone on to miss four months — all of training camp and 50 games — as his persistent injury lingered for more than half of the regular season.
He acknowledged that there have been some rough nights over the last four months, during which he found himself excessively “frustrated and asking why.” But he leaned on his faith, using it to guide his rehab and maintain his typical cheery, positive outlook.
“Just another steppingstone, another obstacle that God has prepared me (and) thrown at me to give me the courage and strength to get past,” Henderson said. “I give all my worry to him and feel great at the end of it. Now we’re here, time has passed, and, like I said, He just pushed me through all those nights where I’m just frustrated and asking why. But, like I said, just giving my words to Him. I feel amazing.”
Before his injury, Henderson was facing a pivotal season in his evolution from the No. 3 overall pick of the 2023 NBA Draft into a key piece of the rebuilding Blazers. He has averaged 13.3 points, 5.2 assists and 3.1 rebounds in 128 games over his first two seasons, during which he’s offered plenty of promise but failed to establish himself as the franchise’s point guard of the future.
But armed with the best supporting cast of his young career and a pair of veteran All-Star point guards (Damian Lillard and Jrue Holiday) eager to nurture him, this was supposed to be a breakout season.
Instead, Henderson has been forced to watch from the sidelines.
So as he inched closer to a return, Henderson could barely contain his enthusiasm.
He said he plans to bring speed, full-court pressure, intensity and lots of energy to the second half of the season as the Blazers (23-27) chase a spot in the NBA Play-in Tournament. They enter Tuesday night’s game sitting in 10th place in the Western Conference standings, one game behind the ninth-place Los Angeles Clippers (23-25).
“I’m giddy,” he said. “I’ve been giddy this whole season. I’m just ready for another opportunity to show what I’m capable of, for our team to show what we’re capable of. It’ll just feel good, to play again, man.”