MPJ is averaging over 33 points on 50+% shooting from three in the month of December
https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nba/brooklyn-nets/news/michael-porter-jr-lighting-it-month-december/c2f8882c554f6168c26cbf53
I dont “blame” jokic for mpj being worse last year but i find it hilarious the slander other stars would get if mpj had this kind of leap after leaving them
If Kuminga leaves GS and averages 23 and 6, Kerr gon catch lotta strays
Our gms needs more criticism than Kerr imo. We have the oldest “core” in the league by far & we’ve gone multiple seasons with Dray/1st or 2nd year round 2 Center holding it down. That’s not mentioning our Kuminga, Moody, & Podz.
Our game planned every fucking game is basically get carried by Curry & hope Jimmy feels like trying hard in a regular season game.
I do not see the attraction the Warriors have for Pods, he is not a great defender and massively streaky with kinda sus decision making at times.
I think it’s ball handling and shooting (39% from 3) on a team that lacks both. The coaching staff definitely sees something that they like
I think thats very apt here too though. Malone was famously extremely harsh on Mike as a player.
He was clearly so talented (There are not 25 better players alive than Mike right now. He has better P/R/A than lauri and KD on better efficiency. 120 Offensive rating on, 105 off.), and the Nuggets never designed much of their offense around him
No one can tell me Aaron Gordon can’t do what Claxton is doing right now as a passing hub. Why was MPJ/AG not the stagger without jokic? They won their minutes together without jokic for years!!
there aren’t 25 players alive better than MPJ rn??? are we joking
Yeah lol there’s like 25 all stars
His name is Michael porter truther lmao don’t expect reasonable stuff from him
MPJ is rocking 35/8/4 on 50/50/80 this month, he is top 25
you’re right, there’s more like 30-40 players better than him rn
Your username is very fitting.
i wonder how many okc players would breakout if they got a green light on a tanking team
Probably a lot, they are so good lol
Gonna miss this whole group
exactly, it’s not a slight to sga. good players have to take smaller roles on contenders
I dont understand why it would be a slight. They are the best constructed roster in the 2nd apron era and 2nd place is not close. I don’t think there is a fanbase in the entire league that doesn’t wish Sam Presti was running their front office or Mark Daigneault was their head coach because both of them literally broke the nba matrix.
One of their problems next year is figuring out how to keep their good performers because they have a lot of them and they can’t pay them all, so another team will.
yet most of this thread about mpj is talking about jokic
The things is this isn’t a green light on a tanking team situation
This is the players around him just aren’t that good
This is what he was projected to be going into college before the injury
Andrew Wiggins and Cason Wallace for sure imo
I think you mean Aaron Wiggins, aside from that i fully agree with you 😂
Based on this sub, only Jokic makes his teammates better and if his teammates does not, it’s that they are bums.
Based on Nuggets fans*. Nobody hates on their own team more than them just to prop up Jokic. Murray had a 50 ball and if you mention how good he is Nuggets/Jokic fans first thing will be to talk about how inconsistent he is lmao
This sub is all nuggets/jokic fans
We are legion
oi that’s the goatest of all goat peaks you’re talking about, watch yourself
Happens when the sub shuts down during your lone championship run and about 4% of the redditors actually called the bs for what it was. People shit on the mods now but not too many batted an eye while it was happening then. Shit carries over.
This is made up.
Nuggets fans WANT his teammates to never become All Stars so they can keep pushing the ‘Jokic has never played with an All Star’ narrative
I think you mean Jokić fans. Nuggets fans would absolutely love for him to have a teammate that plays consistent enough through a regular season to be all star/all nba/all defense.
Was he supposed to average 25 as a 3rd scoring option? What do you guys expect?
He went from being a 3rd or 4th option in Denver to the 1st option in Brooklyn. Everyone expected his scoring to go up.
Everyone expected his scoring to go up at the cost of his efficiency
Which it hasn’t. He’s been more efficient.
You can’t quote someone and add words he didn’t say.
Dude hit us with a tabloid journalism.
https://www.espn.com/nba/player/advancedstats/_/id/4278104/michael-porter-jr
The one year he didn’t have over 60% TS is the year he only played 9 games due to the 3rd back surgery. He has always been efficient. He has always been a ~40% high volume 3pt shooter on the season, every season (except for the year he sat out due to the 3rd back surgery).
His usage% has gone up from 20% to 30%ish and his points per 40 mins has gone up from 20ish to 30ish, which makes sense going from a 3rd scoring option to the 1st scoring option.
He has maintained his high efficiency while finishing a lot more of his team’s plays.
Who said that?
I feel like the general expectation from fans was he’d chuck up more shots, score more, but have an efficiency drop.
He’s been exactly the same shooting.
He hasn’t gotten more efficient, or less efficient
It’s not just he’s taking more shots
Maybe if the Nuggets weren’t the 2nd seed and Jokic didn’t have a history of making players better, then you’d have a point. But we all know why you’re saying this.
Can you give a recent example of this? I’m genuinely trying to think of a player that made an All Star leap after a trade/FA in the past 5 years (and the previous star was blamed) and the only player that even remotely fits this criteria is Brunson.
Mikal Bridges
trying to think of a player that made an All Star leap after a trade/FA in the past 5 years Mikal Bridges
trying to think of a player that made an All Star leap after a trade/FA in the past 5 years
Mikal’s never been an All Star
You mostly see it with teams that have fandom infighting (they prefer one star over the other).
Harden is the big example I remember ecause people had two choices to decide “who held him back? Does the FO see it if they weren’t selfish?” Russ and KD caught slight shit for it, and they were blamed for every single OKC player who wasn’t great regardless of of it was appropriate.
There are also a lot of examples in the 90s because it was so iso-heavy, but the previous star wasn’t blamed. Jordan’s Bulls had a lot of guys have career years not next to him, but he won so it wasn’t a sensible point of critique.
Most often you see it going the other way, where known quantities lose numbers and people look for reasons.
I’ve seen it done over and over with LeBron. Wade, Bosh, Love, Russ, IT. Even weirder role players like DLo, Beasley, everyone on the 2019 Lakers shooting 60% from FT. It’s weirder for him because he made 9 Finals, but ESPN writes cheques by saying shit like that.
76ers as well, as they stalled out people found ways to blame Embiid for any and everything, most invalid. Saying stuff like “he needs to clear the lane for Ben” as if he isn’t Joel Embiid.
Even Curry has been all of “the reason KD was open in every possession for 3 years”, “riding his coattails” and “holding KD back”, KD has 0 rings, Curry has 4, he’s a ballhog, he isn’t on ball enough, Klay is the greatest shooter besides Curry, actually he can’t do shit without his gravity, Dray also single-handedly lost them the rigged 2016, but Dray is also an overrated bum.
All of this to say NARRATIVEBALL is a disease
I don’t think there are any examples. Harden blossomed on his own, but no one blamed KD and Russ for that. Haliburton did well on his own, but no one blamed Fox or Sabonis. No one thought Steph was holding KD back or vice versa. Bosh had lower numbers playing with Lebron, but everyone realized that was because he had a different role.
There are no examples because it was a strawman.
It would matter if we weren’t having the best start to a season in franchise history lol
MPJ is doing great, but he’s not better than Jokic or Murray and maybe even AG and being the 3rd or 4th best shooter on the starting 5 and the worst ball handler means you just inherently get less time on ball and MPJ is not a great off ball player. I’m glad he’s on the Nets, living in NYC, and thriving. NYC is way more his kind of city than Denver anyway.
He’s a great off ball player. A lot of his looks come off cuts and DHO. Breaking someone down off the dribble is his weakness. In Denver, he was often parked in the corner. Definitely not his game.
Maybe it was the coaching then, because this season, the Nuggets have way more off-ball screens and actions
Is it a leap? The only real change is his FGA
It is a leap, he’s averaging 26 points on better efficiency now as a first option than he did in Denver and his playmaking has also taken a leap
And yes there will be some absolute idiot that says “but muh stats on a bad team” yeah this is not stats on a bad team, he’s efficient and not just putting empty stats
he’s shooting basically his career averages across the board
He’s a first option and attempts way more shots and is maintaining 63% TS on basically 50/40/80
It’s one thing to do that when you are a 3rd option on way lower volume when defenses are not focused on you vs playing in a shitty ass Nets team where you are the main focus of defenses
Seriously is it that hard to have a large organ in the head?
You’re largely talking to people who don’t actually play basketball lol, it’s best to just say your point and not think much past that
you literally said “better” efficiency and changed to “maintaining” efficiency in this comment lol
It is better efficiency, his 63% TS is better than his 5 out of his 6 seasons in Denver..
Again lacking a very big organ
The hilarious thing is that his volume has gone WAY up with this TS. Usually guys get less efficient with that surge of volumes. Making this more impressive
On a team with 6 wins
It is absolutely big stats on a bad team situation…
What are you arguing? Should Mike have taken more shots/usage than Jokic during his Denver tenure? For real?
I’m arguing that big stats on a bad team is more impressive than putting up role player stats and efficiency in a stacked offensive team
Mentioning that “those are big stats on a bad team” is literally useless, so what they’re a bad team? Is it MPJ’s fault? Look at that roster, they’re bad and they’re 8 points worse without him on the floor imagine that
It’s slightly better efficiency but the main change is taking more shots. His playmaking is better but he went from the nuggets that had Jokic Murray to the nets so his role has changed. He was an elite scorer on the nuggets but relegated to the third option.
Increasing your volume without losing efficiency and as the defense focus is actually pretty damn impressive lol
It is and he’s a very good offensively player, but it’s also not like we didn’t know who he was on the nuggets. His scoring was never in question, guy had one of the best shots in the league year after year. He’s a 6’10 guy which also gives him a size mismatch which helps.
Even a slight bump in efficiency with that amount of additional FGA, especially on a team without other elite players to take the pressure off, is incredibly impressive.
MPJ himself said he feels like his assists will go up just by default from having the ball more. MPJ himself didn’t say his playmaking is something he improved on
People love big stats on losing teams.
Tbf I think they’re like 4-1 in this span lol
They are 3-2 with wins against Hornets, Bulls and Pelicans
They are 3-1 he didn’t play against the Jazz
What does he need to average then for people to acknowledge his play? 40 PPG? Clown take
MPj was not worse at all, just he had lower usage. And, unfortunately, he was useless in the non Jokic minutes.
dlo had a good week after being traded and people were talking about how life without lebron makes players better lmao
Mike Malone was a basketball terrorist. Unreal that the Nuggets had to give up an unprotected first and didn’t get off Zeke.
Unreal that Malone couldn’t put a functional bench together or optimize Mike in any way. His fit with Jokic was always iffy because of his lack of IQ, but there is no excuse for him not being able to lead the bench.
If we can’t beat OKC this year, the combined incompetence of Malone and Booth likely result in a waste of Jokic’s talents
So you don’t blame him, but you’re hoping to start a narrative? Did you ever actually watch MPJ with the Nuggets? I also think Malone hated his play style and would punish it heavily.
Malone was the problem. Should have been sacked long back. Jordi is a top 5 coach in the league.
In theory a catch and shoot wing is an incredible fit for Jokic too.
Nba fans when they find out that you score more when you go from first option to 3-4 🤡
Itd be different if the nets were remotely good. Everyone can look and see the team is ass and someone has to score
You won’t believe that the Nuggets have the best offense in NBA history this season. MPJ was great but he was lazy on defense and couldn’t do anything with the ball in his hands. You don’t have to act like he was being held back by Jokic when the Nuggets have replaced him and are better on offense.
I mean he’s just taking 19 shots instead of 13 on a great nuggets team.
Not like he’s shooting better on the nets, actually shooting the same
what exact “leap” did Mike take? did he learn how to dribble or defend? is he creating off the bounce? is he crashing the boards and getting 2nd chance buckets the hard way? or is he the same Mike on more shots on a tanking team?
He would plug in fairly well on most contending teams.
Surprised Lauri is always brought up when teams need another scoring option when this demon is available for cheaper
Dont tell anyone please.
Mike is a better player and actuslly won a championship as a 3rd option. Lauri has never made the playoffs. Why is the price so different?
They will both be left to rot on tanking teams due to their GMs overvaluing the heck out of them both.
Tried and true Danny Ainge strategy.
Ainge wasting Lauri’s entire career is one of the underrated botches of asset management— everyone hated the Gobert trade but what exactly have the Jazz done with their assets from that and the Mitchell trade?
I’ve been saying this for 2 years now and I keep getting downvoted for saying this.
Seriously, blue balling Walker Kessler for how long? I don’t see their long term vision either. Is Ace Bailey going to be a piece to build around? How do their books look? At least they aren’t the Pelicans or Kings or Clippers tbh. It can be much much worse scenario and have no picks and absolutely 0 cap room for next 5 years.
Who is in trade talks for MPJ?
He was actually stuck because the warriors overvalued Podz. They would have traded for Podz Kuminga, and a few picks, but the warriors wouldn’t let go of Podz.
Lauri never played with the greatest offensive player oat ya dork
Edit: nevermind just saw your username. My apologies. Carry on with your good work sir.
The jazz are notably better than the nets from a talent standpoint and Mike is currently averaging more points, rebounds, and assists than Lauri per 75 possesions on better efficiency
It isn’t now
Username checks out.
Swap Lauri for MPJ on that 2023 title team and the Nuggets sweep everyone.
MPJ is not a better player than Lauri. Every GM would laugh you at the room. MPJ is an offensive ace role player. Lauri is star player
Go check their numbers for me real quick
Neither guy is an Ironman either. It’s kind of crazy honestly
Mpj has a podcast
MPJ is getting 50M with some years left
Unless that team was worried about the salary cap and/or defense.
I don’t really understand this topic. Last year the Nets were 10-14 this time of the season. The Nets are 6-18 right now. MPJ is putting up stats but the team is about the same in net rating and just outright terrible defensively
2025⁄26 Nets: ORTG 111.88 DRTG 120.01 2024⁄25 Nets: ORTG 108.62 DRTG 115.83
The 2024-25 nets were an actual team at the start of the season. Marks traded all the good vets and loaded them up with rookies.
I understand. The Nets last year had NBA players even with that start. This year we have like 4⁄5 NBA players rest are rookies and two ways.
I don’t know how to express this more strongly but there are so many stupid people on this sub.
The Nets have a 118 Ortg with him on the court, you are punishing him for a horrible bench, which is hilariously ironic from a Nuggets fan. Lets give Booker, Tatum and Gianmis all three of Jokic’s MVPs since they won more games and their teams had better net ratings lol.
MPJ is top 20 in BPM and top 35 in TS% despite being the #1 option on a team that removed all good vets in an attempt to take
I think if you give Mike vets like Dorian Finney Smith instead of 5 rookies, he would have a good record.
Since you love offensive rating ao much, you mind telling me what the nets offensive rating is with and without Mike on the floor?
Yeah I could see him being a pretty good fit on DEN. Like imagine a much better shooting and scoring version of Cam Johnson. Nugs would be scary👀
Idk, that contract might leave them with a super limited bench. I’d hate to see them run out of gas in a big game 7 or something.
If he’s healthy they would win game 7. Hypothetically if that happened.
He’s staying in Brooklyn
This sub is fucking cancer. Good God.
Most comments being about Jokic on hypothetical slander, fucking crazy man
Yeah “Imagine how other stars would get scrutinized if a player went off on a different team”. Meanwhile all of the comments are shiting on Jokic. And similar things in every Jokic thread
The other hilarious thing is how much people overrate our 24⁄25 team lol
In every MPJ and even Westbrook thread you get a bunch of “did the Nuggets make a big mistake???” comments when the team this year is WAY better
People must have only watched the OKC series to get their impressions for the majority of the season last year’s team was extremely frustrating
These comments are so stupid. No one has anything positive to say
like an AIDS test
Seriously…I clicked in hoping people would be giving props to mpj, guess I should know better
NBA fans are the worst in general lol
What sub isn’t cancer?
MPJ is on a tanking team as the number one option and a career high in usage, why is this sub acting as if a player of MPJ’s calibre putting up great stats on the team like the nets is something crazy? he is the same player he was last year, he’s just getting more shot opportunity
Exactly. He wasn’t shipped out of Denver because he wasn’t good at scoring efficiently.
The bigger issue IMO is that physical playoff defenses tend to take him out of the game he’s great at using his height to shoot over smaller defenders but he can be schemed against
Last year’s playoffs are one thing given injury but he also struggled massively against the Heat in 2023 and especially the Wolves in 2024 while his best series were when guarded by Reaves
OKC feel like an absolute nightmare matchup for his playstyle in particular
Wasn’t scoring efficiently?? Look up his shooting percentages for his career or per year lol
I’m not sure you understood what I was saying.
Because most didn’t expect this?
The majority thought a) he’d be a lemon without Jokic or b) he’d score a ton on horrible efficiency
Scoring 26 PPG on 50⁄40 on a roster with no advantage creator is extremely impressive. We don’t need to minimise what he’s doing just cos the Nets aren’t winning (nor are they really trying to)
Facts. They’ll downvote you though
I didnt. I thought Mike Malone was a trash fucking coach who couldn’t maximize players unless Jokic was doing it for him. And that MPJ was a bad IQ fit with Jokic ball but there was 0 justification of giving up an unprotected 1st outside of the fact that Malone had ruined his perception around the league.
Agreed. He performed very poorly during Denver’s postseason last year. I felt that he was inconsistent. But so far, he’s been great on the Nets.
He had one functioning shoulder last playoff run.
Oh I forgot about that actually good point. I guess shows Denver’s lack of bench the fact the kept him in when he as doing <10pts per 36
Because it strokes an imaginary narrative some people are absolutely obsessed with.
Some people gotta take whatever strokes they can get…
Ignorant comment. He’s doing it on elite efficiency. People didn’t predict that
Except he’s getting double teamed but shooting higher percentages. He’s like pulling up in two defenders and hitting threes.
He is scoring 8 more points a game on 2% better efficiency. He isn’t just simply chucking more .
Uh idk I remember a lot of people saying jokic was making him look better than he actually was and he wouldn’t be able to create his own shot.
Brickola Chokic held him back btw. Send him to Dallas in exchange for Klay, Caleb Martin, and Jaden Hardy he’s clearly not that guy anymore.
Sources: Nico is beside himself. Driving around downtown Denver begging (thru texts) Jordan’s family for address to Jokic’s home.
Trade him 1-1 for jrue holiday. Defense wins championships
Now if a former teammate of a certain player was doing this, the agendas that would be spread…
All star him
There are not 25 better players alive than Mike right now
He has better P/R/A than lauri and KD on better efficiency.
120 Offensive rating on, 105 off. Insane numbers
SGA, Jokic, Cade, Ant, Steph, Luka, Giannis, Maxey, Jalen Johnson, Jaylen Brown, Wemby, Deni, Maxey, Mitchell, Brunson, Reaves, KD, Harden, Sengun, Mobley, Giddey, Scottie, Lauri, Bam all are better or have a stronger case to be better than MPJ lol
Sure MPJ is really good if you only care about ppg and 3 point shooting
Deni, Giddey, Lauri and Bam are arguably not better than MPJ.
Id hear an argument for bam but 0 chance on the other 3
Bam absolutely is lol.
Absolutely not. Team record matters for all star/all NBA . Who would you take out so he could be an all star? Especially with it being position less.
Team record does matter, yes. Especially for people putting up borderline all star stats. On a good team that’s enough. On a bad one it isn’t.
But MPJ isn’t putting up borderline all star stats. He’s putting up superstar level stats. Though I wouldn’t call him a superstar. But all star certainly.
26/7/3 on 63% are good stats, but superstar level in today’s game? To put it into context, he’s 15th in scoring, which is very good and impressive, but that’s also his most impactful area by far. He’s in a similar scoring tier to Austin Reaves, Lauri Markkanen, James Harden, Deni Avdija, and Kawhi Leonard this season. Would you say those players are also all putting up superstar stats? The term should be pretty contextual I feel depending on how good the best players in the league are playing, and I just don’t think those numbers scream top 10 player.
He’s 13th in scoring bro
Basketball Reference has him at 15th, and while the NBA site excludes Giannis and Curry who are above him, they have played 1 less game than Luka who is included. At this point in the season, they’re close enough to count.
Who would you take out of all star consideration for him
I’ll tell you. Give me the list
Fuck it we ball
He could really make injured reserve though as I doubt all of the front runners will play this year
yo is this a STD reference?
Looks like he’s not afraid to take shots anymore
He was never afraid lol people always questioned that he took shots too much and didn’t pass, he’s just a rhythm player, with Jokic/Murray he was 3rd option and was forced off ball
Look at his stats without Murray in Denver, 90~ games with 20ppg on 50/40/82 shooting splits
I’d say it was worse then that, In a system where everything goes through jokic who tends to make the “right” pass depending on defensive rotations he was probably the 4th option some night behind AG.
He was 3rd option still, Gordon attempted fewer shots
MPJ just did not get the ball much, he averaged like 1.2 seconds in possession in Denver, Murray/Jokic touched the ball way more, MPJ is amazing off ball but whenever we got to see him without Murray and he would get more touches and more rhythm he was great
He’s basically lite Kevin Durant, a 6’10’ scorer that can scorer in every single way
Couldn’t agree more, pure bucket and versatile to be able to fill such role.
He doesnt have Jokic screaming at him now if he takes a ‘bad’ shot
To be fair, it’s over 4 games against the Mavs, Pelicans, Bulls and Hornets.
damn thats not as cool
Only sane thunder fan in the thread
as if the team he plays for isnt as shit as these 4?
MIKE MIKE MIKE!
M(p)J
Jokic had no help tho
If you knew anything about the Nuggets you’d know that we’ve consistently have one of the best starting line ups offensively for years. Where Jokic had no help was from a backup and bench. Post championship we’ve had the biggest swing in +/- with Jokic on/off minutes. MPJ has always been good but usage was less. It just wasn’t the Kind of help Jokic needed, and trading MPJ gave the nuggets more cap space to get said help.
“Ingram made the all star team after he was traded from LA. See? LeBron doesn’t make his team better !!!!”
We are not even halfway through December. I would take a 4 game sample size with a grain of salt, but happy for MPJ.
Man he’s living up to his pre draft hype. He’s scoring like KD and it’s beautiful to see. Glad he’s out here hooping.
Now people are seeing why he was so highly touted outta HS. For 3 level scorers, so excluding Duncan and Sam Merrill types, it’s really Steph Curry then him as the best shooters outta that shotmaking bunch.
Lets go mike
Greatest tank commander of the decade
Not surprised at the points but his efficiency is very good still while he’s the main gameplan people plan against now instead of being 3rd/4th option on the nuggets, honestly probably being better coached and more freedom/motivated now he’s first option helps too
I was big mpj hater for his playoff performances being duds most of the time either injured or just bad(he was being benched and bruce brown was ending games/playing more minutes in some games in title run)
IDK if anyone is going to trade for him, his value is probably at the highest it will ever be but his contract is still A LOT like I feel like the nuggets were not expecting to win the title because all the bonuses and upgrades his contract got from that was high lol
Happy for MPJ!
Question to nuggets fans:
Am I imagining this or did MPJ have some sort of comments about the organization (the Nuggets that is) after getting swept by the Suns (or was it the Lakers series in 2020)
I googled and I found nothing. Might be my imagination. I remember someone saying that he’s calling out the front office for not getting them “help”.
The only thing I can remember is him saying something like “we’re playing too much through Jokic and Murray” in the Clippers series when they were down 3-1.
What does any of this have to with Jokic? He’s now on one of the worst teams in the NBA, with one of the greenest lights the league has ever seen. Of course he’s gonna put up crazy stats. And the 4 games this is referring to were against other terrible teams so maybe let’s calm down
Instead of praising MPJ people have just been bashing Jokic here for whatever reason lol. It’s not like MPJ played like that in the playoffs last year were he had one functioning arm (9.1 / 5.5 / 0.6 btw).
Worst of all being OKC fans, the level of insecurity is hilarious.
Well obviously Jokic was holding him back. Credit hogger that he is.
People are bashing MPJ and still saying he’s stat padding on losing team.
These Jokic fan boys are saying he sucks still
Are you reading the comments? Or picking and choosing?
playing bf6
incoming casual fans: “why didn’t he do this on the nuggets” lmao
Was to put up stats on a shit team with an unlimited green light.
Okay but what was he averaging across every 3rd Tuesday when he wore a yellow shirt before the game?
Unreal that Malone couldn’t put a functional bench together or optimize Mike in any way
Good fucking riddance, but if we can’t beat OKC this year, the combined incompetence of Malone and Booth likely result in a waste of Jokic’s talents
Without his back issues, MPJ would be a superstar. That’s how talented he is
Yeahhhh Mike