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Nets’ Michael Porter Jr. receives ‘best in league’ praise as trade buzz grows
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- Nets’ Michael Porter Jr. receives ‘best in league’ praise as trade buzz grows
Nets' Michael Porter Jr. receives 'best in league' praise as trade buzz grows appeared first on ClutchPoints . Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
Michael Porter Jr . is turning heads across the NBA following his trade to the Brooklyn Nets . Cast off by the Denver Nuggets as a salary dump this summer, the 27-year-old is playing the best basketball of his career as the Nets' No. 1 option.
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Porter Jr. has averaged 25.6 points on .497/.399/.813 shooting splits over 21 appearances with Brooklyn. His off-ball movement and elite shotmaking have elevated an offense many assumed would be the NBA's worst to a respectable level.
"Gravity is the buzzword for him because he does attract so much attention. What he gives us is a stabilizer on the offensive end. Somebody to play through, someone to calm everybody down when the other team is going on a run," said Nets assistant Steve Hetzel. "He is one of the best, if not the best, off-ball players in this league. The way he's able to read how he's being guarded, seal switches, slip to the rim, slip out and curl off of Nic from the top of the key. The degree of difficulty of shotmaking is elite. He gives us somebody to play through, and he's played on a winning team for a long time, so he knows what it looks like."
While Porter Jr. has posted career-high usage as the Nets' lead scorer, he's continued to operate primarily off the ball. Jordi Fernandez has crafted Brooklyn's offense around the 6-foot-10 forward's movement shotmaking.
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The former Nuggets starter has excelled in the featured role — curling off dibble handoffs and pindowns for jumpers and drives to the rim, cutting backdoor, and corraling high-low passes for easy layups.
How will tanking Nets move forward with Michael Porter Jr.?
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Porter Jr. is one of five players averaging at least 25 points on over 49 percent shooting from the field and 39 percent from three, alongside Nikola Jokic , Shai Gilgeous-Alexander , Anthony Edwards and Giannis Antetokounmpo .
He recently became the first forward in NBA history to score 30 points with five made threes in four straight games. Only five other players have ever managed the feat: Stephen Curry , James Harden , Damian Lillard , Edwards and Gary Trent Jr .
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When asked about his breakout with Brooklyn, Porter Jr. recently offered high praise to Fernandez.
"I think Jordi is a genius of a coach," he said. "He's a genius in terms of the schemes he puts out, especially offensively for me. The way teams are face-guarding me and trying not to let me catch the ball, and the different creative ways that Jordi has our team running plays to help me get touches and looks off, it's really next level. He's making it so easy for me to play my game. I really have to thank just Jordi and the offensive coaching staff for how I've been able to produce."
Porter Jr. is expected to draw interest on the trade market amid his red-hot start. The Nets are likely to gauge offers for the veteran, whom they acquired alongside an unprotected Nuggets 2032 first-round pick for Cam Johnson .
Brooklyn operated this offseason with a tanking agenda in mind. However, Porter Jr.'s elite play has the rebuilding squad on the outside looking in regarding top-three lottery odds. Following a 0-7 start, the Nets are 7-11 over their last 18 games, dropping them to sixth in the draft lottery standings .
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Trading Porter Jr. would bolster the Nets' lottery odds and add to their league-leading cache of draft picks. However, they could choose to keep their top player. With the Houston Rockets owning an unprotected swap on Brooklyn's 2027 first-round pick, the team will aim to be competitive next season.
Porter Jr. is young enough to serve as a building block for Brooklyn. Whether the Nets choose to sell high or retain him as part of their next iteration will be among the NBA's top storylines leading up to the trade deadline.
"We have him here because we believe in him," Fernandez said last week. "We know how good he is, and we believe we can develop him… Mike [can] keep getting better, I think his ceiling is even higher. And I'm not going to say that, right now, what he's doing is just enough. He's got to maintain what he's doing, and can get even better."
Related: Jordi Fernandez has joking response to Nets' 45-point win during his absence
Related: Nets rise in NBA power rankings after stunning 45-point win over Bucks
