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Michael Porter Jr. was viewed as one of the nation's top recruits coming out of high school. He averaged 36.2 points as a senior en route to a Washington Class 3A State Championship. Ultimately, he committed to play collegiate ball at Missouri. However, the 6-foot-10 forward injured his back in the first half of their season opener, which forced him to miss the rest of the regular season.
Porter returned to action with Missouri in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament, and he later declared for the NBA Draft. Some teams were leery of taking him, though, as there were obviously injury concerns. As a result, he fell to the Nuggets at No. 14 overall in the 2018 NBA Draft.
Now, after undergoing two back surgeries, Porter has recovered, and he has looked great in the preseason. It's not clear how big his role will be with the Nuggets, as the team is loaded with talent. Still, he's feeling good, and it sounds like he's ready to show what he can do:
“I think I fit in pretty good,” Porter told Harrison Wind of DNVR. “I'm going to cut, I'm going to rebound, I'm going to push it, I'm going to play my game. I think I fit in pretty good.”
“It's easy playing with those guys,” Porter added. “I'm just going to do my thing and it will come easy.”
It's only a preseason sample, but Denver is 3-0, and the team is playing well on both ends of the floor. For good reason, many experts are already viewing the Nuggets as a favorite in the Western Conference.
Porter logged 21 minutes in Denver's preseason victory over the Suns on Monday night, scoring 11 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the field (1-of-2 from beyond the arc), five rebounds, two blocks and one steal. He's averaging 10.7 points and 4.3 rebounds while shooting 62.5% from the field in preseason.
Aside from getting back into playing shape, Porter says one of his focal points is learning how to play off his teammates:
“For me, it's about getting back into shape and learning how to play off of these guys,” Porter said in a recent interview via NBA.com. “I've always been a player that's had the ball in my hands a lot. And to play with these guys, who are all very good players, my role is going to be different. So I'm just learning my role here and listening to what the coaches have to say.”
The Nuggets finished the 2018-19 regular-season campaign with an impressive 54-28 overall record, which earned the team a No. 2 seed in the Western Conference. Unfortunately, Denver was defeated by the Portland Trail Blazers in the second round, 4-3.
Hopefully, with Michael Porter Jr. back in action and one of the more talented rosters in the NBA, Denver will find a way to make another postseason run and go even deeper this time around.
