Trail Blazers’ Scoot Henderson’s development aided by Chris Fleming, who worked with Bulls’ Coby White-copy

Portland Trail Blazers assistant coach Chris Fleming stood under a basket watching guard Scoot Henderson go through his pregame shooting routine before Sunday night’s game against the Chicago Bulls at the Moda Center.

Fleming, entrusted to help develop the second-year point guard, eyed Henderson’s technique for areas to refine. Their pregame process also includes viewing game videos on a laptop.

This routine is repeated nightly, just as Fleming did while coaching Bulls point guard Coby White for five seasons before joining the Blazers staff last offseason.

Like Henderson, White got off to a slow start to his career in 2019. He didn’t begin to shine until his fifth season.

Blazers coach Chauncey Billups hired Fleming last offseason partly because of his success working with White.

The Blazers hope Henderson, the No. 3 pick in the 2023 draft who struggled as a rookie and got off to a rough start this season until recently, can develop similarly with Fleming’s guidance.

Fleming took the job, recognizing Henderson matched White’s talent, drive, determination and ability to remain undistracted by adversity.

“The expectations from him are so high,” Fleming said. “He’s been a brand since he was 16. I respect him so much because he deals with that really well.”

REINVENTING COBY WHITE

The two players certainly differ. The 6-foot-5 White, out of North Carolina, is more of a scoring lead guard similar to the Blazers’ Anfernee Simons. The 6-3 Henderson values getting teammates involved more than scoring. But that doesn’t change the coaching approach used by Fleming.

“There’s two different things that you want from them, but I just think Flem’s process has been good with Scoot,” Billups said.

Their personalities also differ, but Fleming said the two guards share the same level of determination.

“They’re challenging you every day because they want to get better,” Fleming said.

Early in the season, Fleming showed Henderson video detailing White’s progression. Henderson saw White’s flawed play from earlier in his career and how much he improved during the past two seasons.

That laid the road map for the work Henderson would do with Fleming.

White entered the league in 2019 as the No. 7 pick in the NBA draft to the Bulls, a team needing a point guard. White struggled to run the team and lacked shooting efficiency. Through his first two seasons, White shot 40.6% from the field and 35.7% from three-point range. By year three, the Bulls had given up on White being the team’s lead guard and acquired Lonzo Ball through a sign-and-trade deal with the New Orleans Pelicans.

White went from starting 54 games in his second season to seeing only 19 starts over the next two. Even during the 2022-23 season that Ball missed with a knee injury, White started just two games.

“Coby had a little bit of adversity early on,” Fleming said. “Everybody was saying he wasn’t a point guard. He had all of these storylines around him.”

Fleming worked patiently with White during those tough years, helping him mature as a player. Trust, honesty, and tough love were at the heart of their working relationship.

“He was always honest with me,” White said. “He never gave up on me in times where a lot of people did. He always vouched for me in rooms that I probably wasn’t getting vouched for a lot.”

White said Fleming instilled confidence in him that he could improve, even after he had failed to meet initial expectations based on his draft status.

“He always helped me stay the course,” White said.

That included building White’s confidence while being honest about his shortcomings. Fleming told White that inconsistent offense wasn’t his only issue. In fact, his shooting improved during his third and fourth seasons, but inadequacies in other areas limited him to about 25 minutes per game. To receive more playing time, White had to become more physical, improve defensively, set screens and develop many other skills to increase his value.

“He was honest with me about what to do,” White said.

Some players, White said, might disagree with a coach and not work to improve in certain areas. Not White, who put his faith in the relationship he had built with Fleming.

“I think the biggest thing was just that trust,” White said. “That what he was telling you was the truth and was right.”

White’s all-around improvement in areas other than scoring helped him earn coach Billy Donovan’s trust last season.

“Those things got me on the court,” White said. “It wasn’t because of what I was doing offensively.”

White started 78 games and finished third on the team with 19.1 points per game, shooting a career-high 44.7% from the field and 37.6% from three-point range. White has started all 40 games this season and still maintains a relationship with Fleming.

“He’s always gonna be family to me,” White said. “He was someone that I could always rely on, and I still rely on to this day.”

FLEMING TO PORTLAND

From afar, Billups saw the work Fleming did with White. While White shined last season, Henderson struggled as a rookie. Maybe, Billups thought, Fleming could help the Blazers’ young point guard fine-tune his skills within the details of the game as he did with White.

“He has the patience for it,” Billups said of Fleming.

Henderson entered the NBA under massive pressure. He was billed as a generational point guard. The Blazers opted to keep the No. 3 pick to select Henderson rather than trade the selection for a veteran to place in the lineup with beloved superstar Damian Lillard.

Ultimately, Lillard sought a trade because the Blazers failed to demonstrate they sought to win immediately.

It became clear early that Henderson would not take the NBA by storm and needed time to develop. He ended the season having averaged 14.0 points and 5.4 assists while shooting 38.5% from the field and 32.5% from three-point range.

Henderson’s struggles were predictable, given that he shot poorly in the G League with the Ignite. Plus, unlike other positions, Henderson had to learn how to run a team. That requires mastering the playbook while understanding teammates’ strengths and weaknesses. Plus, studying the opponents’ tendencies.

It all proved overwhelming.

Fleming’s first task was to help Henderson see the game more clearly while developing the skills necessary to survive against more experienced players.

”You’re trying to get them to have the game slow down for them,” Fleming said.

Henderson said he has valued the relationship.

“It’s cool always to get somebody else’s point of view on things,” Henderson said.

During their early-season video sessions, Fleming broke down various parts of White’s game as a young player in comparison to how well he’s played in recent seasons.

One area, for example, is how White became better at keeping his eyes on the rim while in transition presenting the threat of shooting or going to the basket, which can cause a defender to hesitate on defense, potentially creating other opportunities.

Henderson, Fleming said, has already improved tremendously finishing around the basket. Last season, Henderson shot 47.3% in the restricted area.

“He is elite at getting to the rim,” Fleming said. “Last year, he struggled to finish, which is absolutely normal for a rookie point guard.”

This season, he is shooting 53.2% in the restricted area.

Fleming, Henderson said, has helped him defensively.

“In general, knowing I could be a great defender, just the technical things,” Henderson said.

Details specifically pertaining to becoming a better on-ball defender.

“He’s got really good instincts,” Fleming said.

The two spend a lot of time working together after practice and, of course, during pregame warmups.

“We watch film pretty frequently,” Henderson said.

HENDERSON RISING

Comparing Henderson and White as players is difficult. But not as competitive personalities.

Both, Fleming said, are stubborn when it comes to chasing greatness.

“That’s what makes those guys really special,” Fleming said. “They’re not going to listen to things on the outside.”

White, Fleming said, was determined to become a starting point guard in the NBA and not be relegated to being a shooting guard.

Henderson demonstrated the same type of determination when the two began working together this season. But the results were slow to come.

Henderson began the season poorly, not demonstrating much improvement at all. By Jan. 11, he was averaging 10.9 points and 56.0 assists while shooting 39.9% on the season and 29.9% from three-point range.

“Scoot has had some really, really rough nights,” Billups said. “But Flem has the patience to keep him up, keep his spirits up.”

Then, on Jan. 14, something for Henderson clicked. He scored a career-high 39 points in a loss to the Brooklyn Nets. Over the last five games, Henderson averaged 22.4 points and 7.8 assists, shooting 56.1% from the field and 51.4% from beyond the arc.

“Everything slowed down for him,” Fleming said.

Player development coach Pooh Jeter and coaching consultant John Townsend work with Henderson on his shooting.

“If a player like that improves, it takes a village, so everybody’s all hands on deck to help them out,” Fleming said.

During this run, Henderson has handled going from starter to backup to starter again due to injuries resulting in lineup changes.

“It didn’t change him when coach took him off the bench yesterday,” Fleming said, referring to Henderson scoring 21 points with 11 assists in Saturday night’s loss to the Houston Rockets. “Other guys, that would have torpedoed them. But it didn’t bother him. He played the same way, played with the same spirit.”

Henderson won’t shoot 50% from three-point range the rest of the season. But specifically, he has improved in a key area of catch-and-shoot threes, sinking 36.3% this season compared to 30.5% last season.

The key has always been to find consistency in all areas.

“The ups get higher and the valleys get not as deep,” Fleming said.

Teammates have been impressed with his recent rise, especially with his shooting.

“He’s stepping into it with confidence,” forward Jerami Grant said. “That’s huge. That’s half the battle. Having confidence to take the shot, but also having the ability to make them.”

Simons encourages Henderson to continue being himself through the ups and downs.

“That’s the advice I got when I was younger,” Simons said. “Just continue to be yourself. “Live with the results. Don’t let anything else outside try to change who you are as a player, and you believe in who you are. Because at the end of the day, they’re going to bash you for it, whether you’re playing bad or playing good. So, being yourself out there playing, at least you can live with the results.”

The results lately have been uber-positive, and Henderson credits Fleming for helping him along.

“Sometimes you need somebody to pull that out of you,” Henderson said.

Henderson has a ways to go to reach the level of consistency White has demonstrated over his last two seasons. But truthfully, the Blazers expect and need Henderson to surpass White as an all-around player. Helping him try to get there is Fleming, who sees the same traits in Henderson that he saw in White.

“Everybody’s a little different, but one thing for sure is they do get better if they work,” Fleming said. “Scoot’s work rate is phenomenal.”

-- Aaron Fentress | [email protected] | @AaronJFentress (Twitter), @AaronJFentress (Instagram), @AaronFentress (Facebook)