{"id":91565,"date":"2024-08-21T07:29:45","date_gmt":"2024-08-21T11:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=91565"},"modified":"2024-08-21T07:29:45","modified_gmt":"2024-08-21T11:29:45","slug":"nuggets-michael-porter-jr-compared-perennial-all-star-paul-george","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/08\/21\/nuggets-michael-porter-jr-compared-perennial-all-star-paul-george\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuggets\u2019 Marksman Compared To Perennial All-Star"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When Denver Nuggets forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/portemi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michael Porter Jr.<\/a> left Seattle\u2019s Nathan Hale High School, ESPN ranked him as the second-best prospect in the country. At 6-foot-10, his combination of physical traits and a pure shooting stroke was unique. Furthermore, he averaged 36.2 points and 13.6 rebounds per game as a high school senior.<\/p>\n<p>Fast forward to today and Porter\u2019s still widely regarded as one of the league\u2019s better players. However, since he injured his back in Missouri\u2019s season-opener, his career has taken a dramatic turn. First, Porter almost fell out of the NBA lottery. After being drafted, missed all of what would\u2019ve been his rookie season after undergoing a second back surgery. He then had to overcome physical, emotional, and psychological obstacles in his effort to get his career back on track.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a testament to his mental toughness and passion for the game that he\u2019s now <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/23\/nuggets-triumphant-story-leads-franchise-record-michael-porter-jr\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">a key starter<\/a> for a championship contender. However, he knows that he still hasn\u2019t realized the potential he displayed when he was in high school. His closest confidants would agree.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Trae Young was there when Michael Porter Jr.\u2019s back injury changed his career.<\/p>\n<p>Special talent before it, and STILL a special talent now. Salute MPJ \ud83e\udee1 <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/xolHDRUGTa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/xolHDRUGTa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Podcast P with Paul George (@PodcastPShow) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PodcastPShow\/status\/1824174260807762365?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 15, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Indeed, appearing on <em>Podcast P with Paul George<\/em>, Atlanta Hawks point guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/y\/youngtr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trae Young<\/a> says Porter \u201cwould\u2019ve been another PG\u201d without the injuries.<\/p>\n<h2>Nuggets\u2019 Michael Porter Jr. Compared To Paul George<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cI was at the practice [when] he hurt his back,\u201d Young reveals.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI was with him a week ago and we still talk about that. Like, the difference in his game &#8211; he would\u2019ve been another (Paul George). Like, he\u2019s so offensively skilled and he\u2019s just so smooth with his game. And he was as a really good defender in high school, but he could have been an even better defender at this level.<\/p>\n<p>If his back wasn\u2019t so stiff and he (hadn\u2019t) had these screws and things messed up in his back, like, it\u2019s just unfortunate. He would\u2019ve been a really, really high-level player. Thankfully, he\u2019s still made a good career, so far.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>A Fair Comparison<\/h3>\n<p>As Young notes, Porter isn\u2019t just a deadeye shooter.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s smooth with the ball in his hands, particularly for a player with his size. As he continues to gain distance from his surgeries, he\u2019s been even more fluid off-the-dribble. It\u2019s also aided him defensively, as he\u2019s no longer standing as upright when guarding on-ball.<\/p>\n<p>Whether Porter would\u2019ve been another George is an interesting hypothetical. However, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/georgpa01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paul George<\/a>\u2019s key strengths are scoring off-the-dribble, 3-point shooting, rebounding, and perimeter defense. Even when he wasn\u2019t healthy, Porter was one of the best jump shooters and rebounders. So, with the strides he\u2019s made while healthy, it seems like a fair comparison.<\/p>\n<p>All of that being said, Porter has averaged 17.6 points and 6.6 rebounds per game in his last three healthy seasons. That\u2019s without him being <em>allowed<\/em> to have more of an offensive role, rather than <em>able<\/em> to, as Nuggets head coach Michael Malone has leaned rather heavily into the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jokicni01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nikola Jokic<\/a>&#8211;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/murraja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jamal Murray<\/a> two-man game. In an expanded role, Porter may eclipse the 20-points-per-game threshold for the first time in his career.<\/p>\n<p>Statistically, this will put him that much closer to George, who has averaged 23.0 points per game over the past five seasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Denver Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. left Seattle\u2019s Nathan Hale High School, ESPN ranked him as the second-best prospect in the country. At 6-foot-10, his combination of physical traits and a pure shooting stroke was unique. Furthermore, he averaged 36.2 points and 13.6 rebounds per game as a high school senior. Fast forward to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":91612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,4,1608,62,3,13,36],"tags":[1223,4745,50,1349],"class_list":["post-91565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nuggets","category-hawks","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","category-76ers","category-podcasts","tag-michael-porter-jr","tag-nba-injuries","tag-paul-george","tag-trae-young"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}