Draft time is a funny time.
When the Kings had the #7 pick I though Porter could be worth taking a chance on.
Once the Kings landed the #2 pick I wrote him off completely.
His injury history alone was a good enough reason to not want to see the Kings gamble on him. When you add to that his relatively loose handle, his black hole, inefficient chucking style, his tendency to pull up from wherever he is once a defender blocks his path to the rim, indifference on defense, weak lower body that lets him get pushed around, disinterest in crashing the defensive boards or challenging guys at the rim, etc it became easy to say that he shouldn't be part of the conversation at #2.
And I still think those are legitimate criticisms. He has flaws as a prospect and yet if he were healthy all year he might be a consideration at #2 depending on how he played on the NCAA level. If Doncic decides not to come over next year or tries to use leverage to keep the Kings from drafting him then I think Bagley is definitely the pick, but in that scenario I think you at least have to look at Porter again, if only to write him off completely.
And with that mindset I went back and watched a bunch of his tape again. The Hoops Summit game, the Hale/Sierra Canyon game at the Les Schwab Invitational where he had a better game than Bagley, numerous highlight clips etc. And what I saw was the same prospect that I liked more than Jayson Tatum.
That's not to say that Porter will be as successful as Tatum this year, but it made me stop and think about whether I've just been overly critical of Porter because I've seen so much of him. With Tatum it was that he had a very midrange centric game, didn't pass enough, was a good but not great athlete etc but in the right situation he became a guy who would have been ROY in most seasons. It makes me wonder how good a healthy Porter Jr can be in the right situation. And being the go-to scorer on a young team like the Kings could be the right situation.
Again, I'm not advocating for taking Porter #2. He has definite flaws without the medical red flag. But I'm also not convinced that a healthy Porter Jr doesn't have a good shot at being a more successful NBA player than Doncic.
When the Kings had the #7 pick I though Porter could be worth taking a chance on.
Once the Kings landed the #2 pick I wrote him off completely.
His injury history alone was a good enough reason to not want to see the Kings gamble on him. When you add to that his relatively loose handle, his black hole, inefficient chucking style, his tendency to pull up from wherever he is once a defender blocks his path to the rim, indifference on defense, weak lower body that lets him get pushed around, disinterest in crashing the defensive boards or challenging guys at the rim, etc it became easy to say that he shouldn't be part of the conversation at #2.
And I still think those are legitimate criticisms. He has flaws as a prospect and yet if he were healthy all year he might be a consideration at #2 depending on how he played on the NCAA level. If Doncic decides not to come over next year or tries to use leverage to keep the Kings from drafting him then I think Bagley is definitely the pick, but in that scenario I think you at least have to look at Porter again, if only to write him off completely.
And with that mindset I went back and watched a bunch of his tape again. The Hoops Summit game, the Hale/Sierra Canyon game at the Les Schwab Invitational where he had a better game than Bagley, numerous highlight clips etc. And what I saw was the same prospect that I liked more than Jayson Tatum.
That's not to say that Porter will be as successful as Tatum this year, but it made me stop and think about whether I've just been overly critical of Porter because I've seen so much of him. With Tatum it was that he had a very midrange centric game, didn't pass enough, was a good but not great athlete etc but in the right situation he became a guy who would have been ROY in most seasons. It makes me wonder how good a healthy Porter Jr can be in the right situation. And being the go-to scorer on a young team like the Kings could be the right situation.
Again, I'm not advocating for taking Porter #2. He has definite flaws without the medical red flag. But I'm also not convinced that a healthy Porter Jr doesn't have a good shot at being a more successful NBA player than Doncic.
Last edited:
