Offseason improvements for Michael Porter Jr. to make

Offensive improvements

Right now, Porter gets most of his offense from spot-up threes, pull-up threes and putbacks. He’s also shown himself to be adept in making acrobatic finishes when he’s around the rim and being dangerous in transition.

However, Porter’s optimal offensive skillset would see him improving his ball-handling so that’s he able to constantly create good shots for himself off-the-dribble. In addition, while Porter has shown flashes of being a solid passer and knowing when to make the right pass, his court vision could improve by learning how to make the skip pass. This will be important if Porter begins making passes out of the post.

Nonetheless, being able to take advantage of swarming defenses when he’s driving to the rim will increase his assist opportunities.

If Porter should get stronger, it makes sense for him to improve his low-post play. He already has the length and touch to take advantage of smaller players down low but he doesn’t have the footwork or low-post moves to take on anybody.

In 19 games, Porter had just 13 isolation plays in the postseason, shooting 5-12 (41.7%) from the field and scoring 1.15 points per possession. He had just 29 drives in the playoffs, shooting 7-12 from the field (58.3%) and 9-10 from the free-throw line.

Although he’s a great shooter, Porter had uncharacteristic misses from deep in the postseason. He made just 23-60 shots (38.3%) in his 69 spot-up opportunities in the playoffs, scoring 1.09 points per possession. This placed him in the 50th percentile. He’ll need to improve his consistency, getting as many shots up in the gym as possible and making sure his shooting mechanics never change.

Out of the 19 players to play at least 450 minutes this season, Porter was last with 16 total assists and 28 potential assists.