The 27-year-old made his first public comments since the trade.
On the outside looking in, you’d think it was a raw deal for Michael Porter Jr.
After all, he was traded from a Denver Nuggets team that drafted him (and later won a championship) to a Brooklyn Nets team that’s in the middle of a potentially long rebuild.
From his perspective, it’s an opportunity to get beyond the “ceiling” he says he reached in Denver and “expand his game” in Brooklyn, going beyond catch-and-shoot, his big role with the Nuggets.
The interview comes 10 days after the trade was announced and a day after the trade became official. The Nets sent Cam Johnson to the Nuggets and received MPJ and unprotected first in 2032, likely a valuable pick considering Nikola Jokic will be 37 and presumably beyond his peak by then. The deal was announced the day after Porter Jr.’s birthday.
The 27-year–old learned about the trade as he was on a plane headed to vacation in St. Tropez, France, with loved ones. Not the same way most of us found out, he noted. After all, he isn’t on social media.
“I’m really excited for this next chapter out here in Brooklyn,” Porter Jr. said on his Curious Mike YouTube channel. “Over there in Denver, I felt like my ceiling had kind of plateaued. We just have a way of playing, you know, how Joker players, how Jamal [Murray] plays — that two man game is very potent.
“That’s how we play and I’m so appreciative of the way we play[ed], we ended up winning a Championship. But I do feel like my ceiling in Denver kind of plateaued a little bit and I’m excited for this next chapter in Brooklyn, for sure.”
MPJ continued by saying how he and Cam Johnson are “boys” and that the two even discussed the possibility of swapping homes in their new respective cities, at least to start. Both have two years left on their respective deals.
“Obviously Denver got a great player and a great dude, and I’m excited for him to finally be able to compete for a championship over there. I, myself, am excited to expand my game [in Brooklyn] and be able to do what I do.”
As he mentioned, the trade enables him to get outside Jokic and Murray’s “potent” two-man game and roam free as a No. 1 or No. 2 scoring option in Brooklyn.
After reflecting on his journey and thanking former teammates and coaches and “the little people,” he told the story of how he learned he was traded. It was, like so many of that genre, unique.
“I actually was on the way here to St. Tropez and I’m here trying to enjoy my time before I head back to Denver and head back to work,” he started.
“I’m laying down on the plane and I got on the WiFi and I saw a text I got from my agent and someone from the front office in Denver, I think it was Jon Wallace (Denver’s new GM), just saying ‘yo, can you get on a phone call? It’s urgent.’ And I immediately knew what was up. I immediately knew what was going on.
“So, I couldn’t get on the phone with either of them because I’m on the plane and I just started texted back and forth with my agent and I was like, ‘Where are we going? Like where am I headed to?’ and he told me Brooklyn. My first thought was just kind of shock because honestly I think two days prior, 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 Jon Wallace
“I didn’t even know he was the newly appointed GM because I’m off social media, so I had no idea. I ran into him, we sat down and talked for a while, he started telling me how we’re going to build the team, who he wants to get, who he wants to surround us with, who he wants in the second unit. He wants to feed me the ball in the second unit, all this stuff, getting me excited.”
Porter admitted that he thought Wallace heard some uncertainty in his voice.
“I also think he heard in my voice that I kind of, you know, wanted to grow my game. I didn’t want to plateau, I want to get better throughout my career. And I think he also heard that, but I had no idea. I’m thinking from that conversation that we’re going to make some changes, we’re going to move some things around, I’m going to feel more comfortable next year.. I was excited for it.
“So when I heard the news…. I was shocked. At the end of the day, that’s the NBA, that’s the business and I have no hard feelings.”
Indeed it’s the business. Jake Fischer noted after the trade was announced that the two sides had been working on the deal well before MPJ and Wallace had their talk at the hotel bar. “I’m told Denver and Brooklyn quietly worked on this deal for several weeks before fine-tuning the framework on Monday,” he reported for The Stein Line.
Perhaps MPJ is better off in Brooklyn.
In the video, Porter Jr. mentioned a shoulder injury he’s rehabbing from this past season. He’s certainly no slouch — the. 6’10” forward comes to Kings County with a career average of 16.2 points on 50/41/80 shooting splits… and of course a ring. But there is a reason for some concern, a history of injury that date back to Draft Night in 2018, although in recent years, he’s been somewhat of an ironman, missing only six games in the last two seasons.
“It was tough because I wasn’t able to play the way I wanted to play,” he said of the shoulder injury, “I wasn’t able to hoop the way I wanted to hoop in the playoffs because of my shoulder. It’s still a little messed up, it’s still healing up. I was severely limited in the playoffs and that’s the taste I left with the Nuggets fans and organization. I really felt like I let the team down in this past playoffs. I tried but I was playing with one arm. My whole shoulder popped out and was torn. I was putting a needle in every other day trying to get the pain down.”
Despite the injury, Porter Jr. played in every one of Denver’s 12 playoff games.
Porter Jr. mentioned in the video how he’s going to meet with the team Thursday, presumably when they play their first Summer League game in Las Vegas. It’s viewed by many around the league as a salary dump. That’s what it appears to be. It was one of several moves Denver made to reduce their salary commitments. Others note that it’s not often teams get a first rounder and arguable the better and younger by two years player as Brooklyn did.
There are several reasons to believe Porter Jr. will ball out in Brooklyn if he continues to be healthy. Expanding his game is what he wanted to do and he’ll have that opportunity on a rebuilding team where he’s the second oldest player at 27, a year and a half younger that the team’s other newly acquired veteran Terance Mann.
WATCH THE FULL VIDEO | @CuriousMike