Michael Porter Jr.: 2018 NBA Draft player profile

Weaknesses

Defense 

Michael Porter Jr. really struggles on the defensive end and it could potentially limit his offensive value. Starting with man-to-man defense, there is not a ton of effort and he really struggles with faster players. He does not make fundamentally sound closeouts and looks a little heavy-footed, which is odd for a player who is not a true big man.

Defense can be hard to gauge for high school players, especially ones like Porter. However, it is an area of his game that should contain question marks.

Porter’s off-ball defense did not stand out either. He tended to lose his man at times, being more focused on the ball or just caring more about grabbing the rebound and initiating his team’s offense. Lastly, I saw very few rim rotations down low. He was good for a block or two in high school with his overall size, but I would be pleasantly surprised if he maxes out at a block a game in the NBA.

Creating separation

Porter seemed to struggle more with thicker and taller defenders. In his game I watched against Sierra Canyon as a senior, Porter struggled early on with UCLA commit Cody Riley, who did not play this season. Riley stood at 6’8″ and was noticeably quicker on the perimeter than most bigs that would guard Porter, but also much larger than the quicker wings that teams would match up with Porter.

He never really had to create much separation in high school either. Mainly he would just shoot over his smaller defenders who were not really contesting his shot because of the tremendous elevation Porter gets on it. Then, if he was matched up with a big man, Porter often would be able to have enough of a speed advantage to get to the rim.

He can probably create more separation eventually. There just needs to be a little more work done with his handle, along with his lower body muscle. As his legs get stronger, it will present Porter with the opportunity to create more space on his step-back jumper.

Strength 

As I just mentioned, Porter’s lower body strength would help him out tremendously offensively. His body just needs to become stronger as a whole too, especially if he wants to take advantage of matchups offensively.

Porter weighed in at the NBA Draft Combine at 211 pounds. Wings and combo forwards like Miles Bridges, Rawle Alkins and George King weighed more than him despite Porter having more than three inches on all of them.

Defensively, if Porter could put on some muscle it would do him wonders as well. Since he does not appear to be the fleetest of foot on the perimeter, if he can muscle up with opposing 4s and 5s, he would become a much more valuable defender.