Top NBA Draft prospect is looking to compete against Kings’ De’Aaron Fox
Happy NBA Draft Day!
Scoot Henderson said in a pre-draft interview on ESPN that he wants to challenge himself in the NBA and compete with other guards, notably mentioning Sacramento Kings’ De’Aaron Fox.
"“I wanna play all the guys, I wanna play Dame, I wanna play De’aaron Fox, I wanna play against Steph Curry… I wanna get in there”"
It’s good to see De’Aaron Fox get mentioned with two of the best guards in the NBA, especially from a player who likely would be the number-one pick any other year if it were not for Victor Wembanyama.
With everything up in the air about the second pick being a toss-up between Scoot Henderson and Brandon Miller, we could see Henderson go third to the Portland Trailblazers, teaming up with Dame and creating a potential rivalry in the Western Conference against the Kings.
Of course, nothing is set in stone, and who knows what will happen with the top few picks (or if the Hornets/Blazers will keep their picks), but there is one question we can ponder:
What would a West Coast match-up look like if Scoot goes to the Portland Trailblazers?
Fox and Henderson, in a way, are similar players due to their speed and explosiveness.
It is widely known that De’Aaron Fox is the fastest player in the NBA. He’s incredibly electric, good at finishing through contact, and an overall great playmaker. Henderson is also great at these things, which would make him a fantastic asset to pair with Damian Lillard if they had the choice.
Henderson averaged 16.5 points and 6.5 assists through 19 G league games this past season with the G League Ignite, compared to Fox’s 25 points and 6.1 assists.
With the Kings and Blazers playing each other three or four times next year, this could help the Blazers out this time around. The Kings went 3-1 last year against the Blazers, only losing the first game of the season by a slim 7 points and blowing the Blazers out the other three (one of the games ending in a score of 120-80).
The addition of Henderson to Portland would mean that teams would have two major backcourt threats to worry about, making them extremely difficult to cover and greatly improving the Blazers. The Kings struggled defensively a few times throughout the past season, so this could be a worrisome match-up, but thankfully the Kings have one of the quickest offenses that caused problems for so many teams last year.
Depending on how well the draft and off-season go for the Kings, I will say the Kings should win the series, but a clean sweep of the Blazers would be very difficult.
