Michael Porter Jr.’s seven-year tenure with the Denver Nuggets came to an end at the onset of the offseason. The 14th overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft was traded to the Brooklyn Nets, along with a 2032 first-round draft pick, for Cameron Johnson.
The 2022-23 NBA champion spoke with the media for the first time since his departure from the Nuggets. While he revealed that he felt his ceiling had plateaued in Denver, Porter Jr. also may have tipped the organization’s hand regarding their plans for future Hall of Famer Russell Westbrook.
“Two days prior (to the trade), I was walking around my home in Denver — I actually was staying at the Four Seasons Residences and I was down there at the bar or something and I ran into (executive vice president of player personnel) Jon Wallace.”
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“We sat down, we talked for a while and he started telling me how we’re going to build the team, who he wants to get, who he wants to surround us with and who he wants in the second unit,” Porter Jr. added. “He wants to find a point guard that can feed me the ball in the second unit.”
While Porter Jr.’s comments don’t directly indicate that the organization plans to move on from Westbrook, their interest in a new backup point guard suggest his time with Denver may be up. The nine-time All-Star remains a free agent and appears destined to wind up on his seventh team in the past eight seasons.
Westbrook averaged 13.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, 6.1 assists, 1.4 steals and 0.5 blocks per game while shooting 44.9% from the field, 32.3% from three-point range and 66.1% from the free-throw line in his lone season with the Nuggets. His numbers dipped in the postseason as he averaged 11.7 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 2.6 apg, 0.9 spg and 0.1 bpg on 39.1/31.7/70.0 shooting splits. The market for the 2016-17 MVP remains unclear.
More NBA: Nuggets champion Michael Porter Jr. shares he may swap houses with Cameron Johnson
