What’s Blazers’ Worst Case Scenario?

ThePortland Trail Blazersare beginning their first season in over a decade without Damian Lillard running point.

Instad, that job belongs to No. 3 overall pick Scoot Henderson with last year’s No. 7 pick Shaedon Sharpe as his new backcourt partner. While both have a lot of potential,Bleacher Report’s Zach Buckleyserves up a dose of reality that their superstardom is far from a slam dunk.

Henderson is an elite competitor with explosive athleticism who conjures up images of Russell Westbrook or Derrick Rose in their primes. Sharpe, who has as much bounce as anyone in the Association, looked like a rising star late last season when he averaged 23.7 points on 46/37.8/77.3 shooting, 6.1 rebounds and 4.1 assists over his final 10 outings.

Then again, Henderson’s next NBA minutes will be his first, so there’s no telling how he’ll handle the jump up to this level. And by the time Sharpe was stuffing stat sheets, the Blazers were playing stakes-free basketball while tanking to keep (and improve) the pick later spent on Henderson. So, while they might be capable of soaring to stardom, there’s no telling when or even if those flights will get off the ground.

Luckily for the Blazers, time is on their side. There isn’t going to be a pressure to win immediately with this current team and there will need to be patience. However, very few teams have a strong young core quite like the Blazers when beginning a rebuild, so the optimism is warranted.

It will be up to Scoot and Sharpe to lead the team in proving the optimists right and the pessimists wrong.