Michael Porter Jr. Says He Felt His Ceiling with Nuggets 'Plateaued' Before Nets Trade
Michael Porter Jr. is appreciative of his time on the Denver Nuggets, but he believes he can reach a higher ceiling with a larger role on the Brooklyn Nets.
"I'm really excited for this next chapter out here in Brooklyn," he said in a YouTube video he posted Wednesday (six-minute mark). "Over there in Denver, I feel like my ceiling had kind of plateaued. We just have a way of playing, and how Joker plays, how Jamal plays, that two-man game is very potent.
"That's how we play. I'm so appreciative of the way we played. We ended up winning a championship, but I do feel like my ceiling in Denver kind of plateaued a little bit. I'm excited for this next chapter in Brooklyn, for sure."
With Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokić as the two primary options in Denver, Porter and everyone else always needed to find a way to fit in around them without the ball in their hands as much.
And that formula largely worked, as the Nuggets won the title in 2023 and reached the second round of the playoffs in each of the last two seasons. It also meant plenty of open shots for Porter, and he took advantage by connecting on 40.6 percent of his three-pointers during his time in Denver.
Yet it isn't difficult to see why he would say that he plateaued with the team that selected him in the first round of the 2018 NBA draft.
He was always going to be an overqualified catch-and-shoot player playing alongside those two stars, and he surely recognized that. Perhaps playing for a Nets team that is in rebuilding mode after a 26-56 season will allow the 27-year-old to create his own shots and be a focal point of the offense.
That could lead to even better individual numbers and perhaps put Brooklyn in a position to outplay expectations in a wide-open Eastern Conference.
As for the Nuggets, they landed Cam Johnson in the Porter trade as part of a busy offseason that also saw them bring in Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Jonas Valančiūnas. They will be in championship-or-bust mode even without Porter shooting three-pointers next season.
