Michael Porter Jr.’s future is undecided, but he knows what he needs to improve
By Chris Stone
In recent history, being named the Gatorade National Boys Basketball Player of the Year has been a pretty good precursor to hearing your name called first in the NBA Draft. In each of the last three drafts, the No. 1 pick — Andrew Wiggins (awarded in 2013 and drafted in 2014), Karl-Anthony Towns (2014/15) and Ben Simmons (2015/16) — won the award the year prior. This season, Duke’s Jayson Tatum has an outside shot of accomplishing a four-peat.
This year’s winner has a good chance to make it four out of five even if Tatum doesn’t come off the board first in June. On Wednesday, Nathan Hale’s Michael Porter Jr., the No. 1 ranked high school recruit in the country according to ESPN, received the award at his home in Seattle, WA.
Porter Jr. led his team to a 29-0 record, a No. 1 national ranking and a 3A state championship this season. He averaged 36.2 points, 13.6 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 3.2 steals and 2.7 blocks per game. Now, he’ll have an opportunity to put his skills to work at the next level, although what college he’ll play at is now in question.
In November, Porter Jr. signed a letter of intent to play for the Washington Huskies, but with the firing of head coach Lorenzo Romar, he’s opting to re-open his recruitment. Porter Jr. confirmed via a conference call on Wednesday afternoon that he’ll be requesting his release. “I’m starting fresh,” he said.
Porter Jr. didn’t give the conference call a list, but he spoke affectionately about the possibility of reuniting with his MoKan Elite teammate Trae Young at Oklahoma, mentioned his family ties to Missouri where two of his sisters play and also noted that Washington isn’t out of the running as the school has hired a good coach, former Syracuse assistant Mike Hopkins, to lead the program.
He said he’ll look for a coach that he connects with, a system that he can thrive in and somewhere that the fans will be supportive. Porter Jr. didn’t give a timetable for his decision, saying that it will take him a few weeks to sort out a list of options, but he did note, “I’ve always been the type of kid that wants to go make a difference at a school.”
Whoever lands Porter Jr. will be getting a special player. The 6-foot-10 combo forward is a fluid and explosive athlete who can attack the rim. He’s also turned into a strong outside shooter with nice elevation on his jumper. Porter Jr. credits Nathan Hale head coach Brandon Roy with a lot of his improvement over the last year, “That’s an ex-NBA All-Star and everyday in practice we were going over Xs and Os…It was the perfect situation for me.”
Porter Jr. has an understanding of where he needs to improve, though. Although he says that his ball-handling has gotten better this last year — “I feel like on the wing there aren’t too many people who can stop me from getting to my spots” — he’s still spending time with Roy, his father and his trainer to work on those skills.
It’s an important trait for someone who views himself as a positionless player. “I like studying things that I need to get better at and being a point guard and a floor general is one of them,” Porter Jr. said after noting that he enjoys when people compare his game to ex-NBA All-Star Tracy McGrady. The 18-year old seemingly has a smart understanding of where basketball is headed and with his size, he knows that adding a better handle will make him tough to guard, “If you can be 6-9, 6-10 with point guard skills there’s not a lot of people that can defend that.”
There are other things, too. Porter Jr. is staying in the weight room to get stronger and working on his footwork to make getting more efficient shots easier on him, but if he can develop those ball-handling skills, he has the potential to hear his name called first in the 2018 NBA Draft.
Next: 2017 NBA Draft Big Board: Pre-Tournament edition
First, though, he’ll go through the recruiting process again before playing a year of college basketball where he’ll have the opportunity to transform yet another team with his unique combination of size, athleticism and skill.