Cleveland Cavaliers: Statistics predictions for current bigs in 2019-20
By Dan Gilinsky
2019-20 stats predictions for Henson: 4.5 PPG on 54.1% true shooting, 4.8 RPG, 0.7 BPG, 13.8 MPG and 15 games active
Henson did not play at all last season for the Wine and Gold after he was traded to the Cavaliers from the Milwaukee Bucks along with Matthew Dellavedova due to the aforementioned reported torn wrist ligament.
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I would think the Cavaliers will be cautious with him in preseason and mostly cautious with him in the 2019-20 regular season, too.
Due to that, and with Henson not really being a floor-spacer, anyway, outside of a bit of him showing the potential for that in a 14-game sample size last year while shooting 35.5% from three-point range with the Bucks last year (per Basketball Reference) in his first stint really shooting those looks, I don’t see Cleveland head coach John Beilein playing Henson a whole lot in meaningful minutes.
Yes, Henson is a capable rim protector with 1.5 career blocks in 20.1 minutes per game, as our own Tyler Marling noted recently, but Henson is not a big that’s realistically capable of switching in pick-and-roll, anyhow, and with him not having much of a scoring repertoire outside of as a decent roller but not being the qualiy of roller of Thompson, Zizic or Nance, I’d imagine his minutes-share is cut down considerably in a rebuilding situation where Zizic and Nance need to get meaningful minutes.
Along with that, I’d think he’ll have some DNP’s due to coach’s decisions.
Again, as Marling hit on, Henson does provide a rotational shot blocking presence if healthier, though, and I would think he could bring some value in that realm for a team in the earlier portion of the season that’s in need of some spot rim protection off the bench, and packaged with Clarkson or Knight, I’d think Henson could be moved if he shows a bit of an impact defensively in his remaining time with the Cavs.
If he’s not eventually traded, I would still believe the Cavaliers would focus on him continuing to recover fully and being a good locker room presence, and perhaps as Marling suggested, could work out a buyout for Henson, anyhow.