The Denver Nuggets have started the season slow with some visible issues across the roster. No, this season wasn’t going to be perfect with the team’s second-best player, Jamal Murray, sidelined with a torn ACL, but with an MVP on the roster, the Nuggets should be better than .500.
After beating the Houston Rockets on a game-winning block by Nikola Jokic, the Nuggets are 5-4 on the season and about to enter a four-game home stretch against four playoff teams including the Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks.
Before entering those games, I’ll run through three stats that are concerning for Denver Nuggets fans for various reasons, both on the team and individual side. The first is extremely concerning for a team that not only wants, but needs Michael Porter Jr. to grow into a sturdy second option.
Denver Nuggets concerning stats: Michael Porter Jr. is shooting the ball worse than Gary Harris
Michael Porter Jr. only played seven minutes in the team’s one-point victory over the Houston Rockets before leaving with a back injury. He appeared to tweak it in a non-contact, wide-open layup in the first quarter.
He will miss Denver’s next game against the Miami Heat after undergoing testing on his lower back per Mike Singer, The Denver Post.
Before this game, in which MPJ was 1-4 from the floor, it hasn’t been any prettier than the blown layup.
After signing a five-year, $207 million maximum extension just before the season started, there’s a lot of pressure on MPJ to live up to those maximum expectations. Additionally, with Jamal sidelined, he defaults as the second scoring option behind Jokic, a tall task but one that he excelled at in the home stretch of the 2020-21 season.
On the season (excluding the Houston game), Porter Jr. is averaging 10.9 points on 36 percent shooting from the floor and 22 percent from behind the 3-point line. It’s a far cry from the blistering 22.8 points per game in the post-Jamal injury games where he shot 45 percent from behind the arc.
This season, MPJ is scoring 85.2 points per 100 shot attempts according to Cleaning the Glass, a figure that would put him in the fourth percentile among all wings in the league. It’s world’s different to the 133.2 figure he posted last season and this season, he’s less efficient than players like Gary Harris, Josh Giddey, and P.J. Dozier.
That’s not a knock on those three players, but a max-level player like MPJ should be vastly outperforming them in what he does best – shooting.
Head coach Michael Malone is trying to get his scoring wing involved early, drawing up plays to get him looks where he usually likes it but it’s not dropping.
He’s still shooting an excellent level at the rim, 71 percent, but the further he gets from the rim, the less effective he gets.
Michael Porter Jr. is too skilled as a shooter to stay in this slump and his end-of-season success came with nearly this exact same unit. He will get over it and turn back into the MPJ we hope he will be but for the meantime, it’s not fun and it’s not looking good.
Will he turn back into the Porter Jr. from last season or will he grow into the Most Improved Player candidate he was supposed to be?