When John Henson plays real minutes? Turns out he's pretty good.
The Bucks' 2012 lottery pick played more than 20 minutes for just the second time in his career on Wednesday, and for the second time he put together a monster game. The former North Carolina star scored a career-high 20 points on a sizzling 10/11 from the field while adding nine boards and a block, eclipsing his previous high of 17 points (along with 18 boards) in 27 minutes against Miami back in November. As seen in the video above, Henson was a perfect 7/7 with his left hand while adding a pair of two-handed dunks and a straight-away 18-footer, with his only miss coming on a right-handed banker from close range. Which raises a practical question: considering how biased he seems to be towards using his "off" hand, can we just call him a lefty who happens to shoot jumpers right-handed? The strange part is that even Henson doesn't seem to have a good explanation for how he got so good at going to his left hand.
John Henson wishes there were a better explanation for why he became so left-hand dominant, but he's content to let the results speak for themselves.
"Some people ask me, did I break my right hand when I was younger?" he told reporters in Milwaukee on Friday, the day after the Bucks selected him in the first round of the NBA draft. "But nah, it's just something that happened. I think it's a great advantage for me."
Henson's efficient night brought his season field goal percentage up to an even 50.0% (the exact same as in his last two years at UNC) and elevated his PER to a team-best 18.2.
Henson's latest exploits will certainly give Scott Skiles something to think about as he ponders his big man rotation going forward, but will it mean more minutes for the talented 22-year-old? Our Jake McCormick writes that while Henson may be the most offensively gifted of the Bucks' big men, his steep learning curve on the defensive end may well limit him in the near-term. It might seem like a backward thing to say about a two-time ACC defensive player of the year who wasn't a great scorer in college, but for now Henson is still a rookie suffering through defensive growing pains. He'll get over them eventually, but the question is how soon?