When the Denver Nuggets traded Michael Porter Jr. to the Brooklyn Nets during a frenzied opening night of free agency, immediate optimism surrounded the move for the former first-round pick. A featured threat on the 2023 NBA champion squad, Porter now gets an opportunity to become the guy for a team without a bevy stars like the roster in Denver.
“I’m really excited for this next chapter in Brooklyn,” Porter said. “Over in Denver, I feel like my ceiling had plateaued. … We have a way of playing, how Joker (Nikola Jokic) plays and how Jamal (Murray) plays, that two-man game is very potent. I’m so appreciative of the way we play, but I do feel like my ceiling plateaued a little bit.”
Porter started every game for the Nuggets during the postseason and played the fourth-most minutes on the team (33.7). However, he was never going to be a high-volume player at the offensive end with Denver’s scheme going through its top two — Jokic and Murray — along with Russell Westbrook commanding attention off the bench.
Porter, whom the Nets traded for Cameron Johnson, expressed excitement to “expand his game” in Brooklyn, but assumed he was staying with the Nuggets after conversations with Jonathan Wallace, the franchise’s newly-appointed executive vice president of player personnel .
“We talked for a while and he started telling me how we’re going to build the team, who he wants to get and who he wants in the second unit,” Porter said. “I also think he heard in my voice, I wanted to grow my game and keep getting better throughout my career.”
Porter expressed shock after his agent informed him of the trade.
“For me, it was tough because I wasn’t able to hoop the way I wanted to hoop in the playoffs because of my shoulder,” Porter said. “I was severely limited for what I could do in the playoffs. That’s the taste I left with the Nuggets fans and organization. I was playing with one arm, legitimately. Regardless, I went out there and tried to play after the shoulder injury, but I wasn’t able to be myself and help the team.”
Nets projected starting lineup for 2025-26
Porter arrives in Brooklyn Thursday, where he meets with the Nets’ brass and unofficially start his career at his new stop. Porter averaged 18.2 points, 7 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game last season, but struggled in the postseason with the shoulder ailment.
He joins a starting rotation that includes Cam Thomas and Ziaire Williams — or Terance Mann — on the wing and be depended on to aid with low-post help alongside Nic Claxton. Brooklyn has not re-signed Thomas yet, but that’s the expectation.
