John Henson isn’t old. He’s only 24 actually. However, besides Ersan Ilyasova, no player on the current Milwaukee Bucks‘ roster has played more years in Milwaukee than Henson.
This season was Henson’s third year as a Buck and that means he’s seen the team change a lot. He’s seen Larry Sanders walk away from basketball, Tobias Harris get traded for half a season of J.J. Redick (MISS YOU, TOBES!), an ownership change, and even Monta Ellis have it all.
John Henson is the man that bridges the gap between the old era of Bucks’ basketball and the new era. He’s the FIFA-playing, joke-cracking, goofy locker room presence that we’ve come to expect over the last few years. The playoffs this year revealed a different side of him, though.
Henson proved to us that he can get mean and tough when it’s necessary. It’s something that I suspected he was capable of, but no coach during his time with the Bucks has really given him the consistent minutes to prove it.
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John Henson has played for four different head coaches during his three years in the NBA. He has stayed relatively healthy, never playing in less than 63 games. Yet somehow he has never started more than 23 games in a single season and even those starts were due to injuries to the starting center.
Scott Skiles didn’t put him in his starting five, Jim Boylan didn’t, Larry Drew didn’t, and Jason Kidd did not either. I think the coach that finally does start Henson will be pleasantly surprised, though.
Enough with my campaign to get Kidd to start Henson, though. Here’s how Milwaukee Bucks’ center John Henson graded out in 2014-15.
Offensive Grade: C+
Bucks fans have been patiently waiting on Henson to develop his offensive game for years and Henson is taking full advantage of that patience. He’s continues each season to very slightly raise his important offensive numbers.
| Season | Age | Tm | Lg | Pos | G | GS | MP | FG | FGA | FG% | 2P | 2PA | 2P% | FT | FTA | FT% | ORB | AST | TOV | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012-13 | 22 | MIL | NBA | PF | 63 | 9 | 827 | 7.1 | 14.6 | .482 | 7.1 | 14.5 | .486 | 2.4 | 4.6 | .533 | 5.0 | 1.3 | 2.0 | 16.5 |
| 2013-14 | 23 | MIL | NBA | PF | 70 | 23 | 1856 | 6.7 | 12.4 | .538 | 6.7 | 12.4 | .539 | 1.8 | 3.4 | .514 | 3.3 | 2.2 | 2.2 | 15.1 |
| 2014-15 | 24 | MIL | NBA | C | 67 | 11 | 1228 | 5.7 | 10.1 | .566 | 5.7 | 10.1 | .566 | 2.3 | 4.0 | .569 | 3.6 | 1.7 | 2.6 | 13.8 |
| Career | NBA | 200 | 43 | 3911 | 6.5 | 12.2 | .531 | 6.5 | 12.1 | .533 | 2.1 | 3.9 | .537 | 3.8 | 1.9 | 2.3 | 15.0 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/27/2015.
Henson raised his field goal percentage to an impressive 56.6 percent while also making marginal improvements in his free throw shooting. His free throw percentage is still only 56.9 percent, which shows he still hasn’t really figured it out, but it’s at least approaching a territory where he’ll be able to get by.
Most of his offense to date involves dunking, put-backs, or if the crowd is really lucky, his patented lefty-hook.
Fingers crossed that this is the off-season Henson learns to use his right hand in the post.
Defensive Grade: A+
The Milwaukee Bucks lost an elite rim protector in Larry Sanders this past season, but John Henson was every bit as effective in that role this year as Sanders was. The difference is Sanders was awarded a $44 million contract while Henson can’t even crack the starting lineup.
Opponents shot far worse than the league average when guarded by Henson anywhere on the floor. Playing against other interior players, he held whom he guarded to 37.9 percent from the floor, per nba.com. That’s 8.9 percent worse than the league average. The area of the floor that he really dominated though was the paint.
Opponents shot 14.8 percent below league average from six feet and closer against Henson.
Henson averaged two blocks in just 18.3 minutes per game. He’s long enough to block opponents jump shots and smart enough to know when to help on a driving guard.
The Bucks had a defensive rating of 98 when Henson was on the floor. For context, that is the same defensive rating that the Clippers had when Defensive Player of the Year candidate DeAndre Jordan was on the court. John Henson is that good on defense.
Final Grade: B+
The 2014-15 season was probably not what John Henson expected. He started out the year with two established centers in front of him on the depth chart. Fortunately for him though, the shot-blocking center position opened up instead of the ball-distributing center position.
Whether or not the impressive numbers that Henson put up in limited minutes this season will be enough to earn the starting spot over Pachulia will be something to keep an eye on moving forward. All I can say is that I’ll be more than pleased to see John Henson taking the opening tip to start the Milwaukee Bucks 2015-16 season.
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