Michael Porter Jr - Hurt Or Going No. 2 To The Kings?

Well, we’re officially in the territory of a new draft rumor per day with it exactly one week away. That said, this is an interesting one. The Kings, sitting at No. 2 are seriously considering Michael Porter Jr. with the No. 2 pick. Now, if you said this before the season it wouldn’t be shocking, because, here was the scouting report on Porter back in October:

He has the height, a wingspan of 7’0? and can really shoot the ball. He’s absolutely excellent at attacking off the bounce to the midrange game with an excellent pull up from 15 feet out. He’s almost automatic from the free throw line as he shots 86% from there last year for his high school team and does a good job of getting to the line. A lot of this is due to his ability to play out on the wing and draw a mismatch against a slower four. He is an excellent athlete – not to the strength of Bagley – but moves well, can jump and protect the rim due to that on defense. He does need to add some strength as he’s sort of that tweener from being a stretch player to a true wing. 

Then Porter got injured. More importantly he suffered a back injury that took him out for essentially the entire season and now there are legit questions about how healthy he is and if that injury will linger for years to come, resulting in a shortened career or anything like that.

But, something seems to be up with Porter and possibly the Kings. MPJ was scheduled to work out in front of teams in Chicago on Friday, but he cancelled that. There’s a variety of reasons as to why he may do that – one of which is he already has a guarantee that he’s going to get drafted by a specific team. The other side could be his back is acting up and doesn’t want to look slow/less athletic/signs of injury in front of front office members.

That was tweeted out after I wrote up this blog. Now, one important thing to remember here. He missed all that time at Missouri due to a back injury that was initially labeled a hip injury. There’s also questions about him from a personality standpoint. Reports have surfaced that he was a bit of a diva at Missouri and a sense of entitlement. A lot of people will say they never got that vibe from him and I don’t have an opinion either way, just what’s out there.

Now, does a player like Porter make sense for the Kings? Absolutely. He fits the modern day NBA perfectly. He’s that stretch player, can protect the rim and can handle the ball. You can play him on the wing with Bogdanovic and Hield with Fox at the point. Then you can work on finding what big you want to play with them. Either way, that’s a solid core for a young team going through the complete rebuilding process.

Leave it to the Kings to be the one linked to Porter at No. 2 this early on. They sure do like to make it interesting.