Strike 2: Michael Porter Jr. the basketball player is an enigma: Mysterious, puzzling and difficult to understand.
And if that doesn’t change almost immediately, the Denver Nuggets aren’t going to win another NBA title as currently constructed. And given their current roster makeup and salary situation, that construction can’t and won’t be changing any time soon. So Denver desperately needs their third highest paid player and the guy that’s supposed to be the one filling things up from the 3-point line to start doing so in more than an ‘every other game’ fashion.
After an acceptable 2-2 eastern road trip, the Nuggets find themselves in a dogfight for high seeding in the upcoming NBA playoffs. The schedule is daunting. Nikola Jokic continues to put up almost unthinkable performances and stats and Jamal Murray has accelerated his play since the calendar turned to 2025.
But those two being what they’ve always been isn’t going to be enough. For Denver to reach the heights they enjoyed at the end of the 2022-23 NBA season, Porter Jr. has to be more. More productive, more consistent and even more reliable, especially late in games.
Just before the All-Star break, it appeared that he might. Over a three-games-in-four-days stretch, the 26-year-old Porter put up 36, 39 and 30 points respectively against the New Orleans Pelicans and the Orlando Magic. Was this finally the MPJ Nuggets fans were going to get to see the rest of the season? A night-in-and-night out big-time scoring threat?
Alas, a sore hamstring put him in street clothes for the final three games before the break and the hot streak ended. (To his immense credit, those are the only three games Porter has missed this season. His durability has been amazing and is no longer in question.)
When he did finally return to the lineup after not playing in a game for almost two weeks, MPJ mustered just six points against Charlotte and a measly 13 in an important national TV loss to the Lakers, leaving Nuggets faithful scratching their heads. Where was the MPJ we saw before he got dinged up?
In reality, Denver has been riding this MPJ roller coaster pretty much full time over the past two and a half seasons. Hot one night, absent the next. Back and forth we go. As Forrest Gump would say, MPJ is like a box of chocolates.
Once again to be fair, in many ways Porter has improved his overall game immensely. He’s playing much better defense and has been a much better rebounder ever since he contributed in those areas so vitally during the NBA Finals win over Miami almost two years ago now. He gets to the rim better than he ever has. And his best ability has been availability. He played in and started 81 of 82 games a season ago, and this year has missed just those aforementioned three games before the All-Star break, presumably for precautionary reasons.
Yet while his scoring average is up by almost two full points to nearly 19 per this season, the numbers are an average between nights when he’ll put up six and others when he’ll score 30. On the Nuggets recently concluded road trip, he put up 19 and 28 points in wins over Indiana and Detroit, but just 12 and 10 in losses to Milwaukee and Boston.
The fluctuation is what’s mystifying. Joker and Jamal can’t do it all. While Porter is doing better than he ever has at things other than shooting, his shooting is what Denver needs the most and only gets every other night.
Unless something clicks and Porter starts producing big scoring nights on a more regular basis – and in nearly every big game, the Nuggets season will end well before Nuggets Nation wants it to. If that happens, MPJ’s days in a Denver uniform will very likely numbered.
