The way I see it, the Nuggets are ROBBING us of primo Michael Porter Jr. action pretty much every game. I have been critical of the Nuggets organization in the past (you can’t just let the most dynamic lob combo in the league, Andre Miller and JaVale McGee, walk away), but this is an issue that affects every NBA fan. Porter has been bandied about as a smooth Durant-like scorer for so many years now, and now he’s finally in the NBA and healthy, and he’s trapped on a good team that would rather win then let a rookie chucker shoot tons of shots to try and live up to his hype?
Note: I am using the term “chucker” in the most endearing way possible right now. This is not the pejorative sense of the word that I reserve for players like MarShon Brooks (just kidding I love Mar$wag) and Jordan Crawford.
This is why the draft is the way it is. So that really good players with tons of hype go to the really bad teams who need all the hype they can get. So that players who want to chuck shots go to the teams who need players to chuck shots for them. But it didn’t work out this way for MPJ. He fell in the draft due to injury, got snagged by a fringe playoff team that turned into a fringe championship contender while he sat out an entire year, and now we’re in this sad situation.
The situation became a little less sad as Porter was granted permission to start this game against the Kings (that’s the reason why right there), the first start of his career. And he made it count. 19 points, 8-for-10 shooting, he had a little bit of something for everyone on offense tonight. You thought you were hyped when he scored 15 points in his NBA debut? You haven’t seen anything yet.
But if this isn’t the start of a trend where Porter starts all the games from now on and puts up greater and greater scoring performances, I’m going to go back to my post in front of the Nuggets arena, megaphone in one hand, pro-Porter pamphlets in the other hand, and wearing my sandwich board that says “THE NUGGETS ARE ROBBING THE PEOPLE OF THIS GREAT NATION THE CHANCE TO SEE MICHAEL PORTER JR BALL OUT ON A NIGHTLY BASIS”.