The second round has collapsed for two consecutive years! Is the Porter Little deal inevitable?

Everyone knows that the Nuggets season is over.

The second round tiebreak, the Nuggets defeated the Thunder 93-125 away. All Nuggets' performance was not outstanding in this game, and so was Porter Jr.

In the whole game, Porter Jr. played a total of 23 minutes, made 3 of 8 shots, 0 of 4 three-pointers, and scored only 6 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assist.

Losing is definitely not a problem for one person, but Porter Jr.'s performance in this round of series is really hard to satisfy:

—G1, 1 shot 8, 0 of 3 three-pointers, 2 points

—G2, 2 shot 10 shots, 2 of 8 three-pointers, 8 points

—G3, 7 shots 10 shots, 5 of 6 three-pointers, 21 points

—G4, 1 shot 7 shots, 0 of 5 three-pointers, and 3 points

—G5, 1 of 7 shots, 0 of 5 three-pointers, 2 points,

—G6, 4 of 9 shots, 2 of 5 three-pointers, 10 points,

—G7, 3 of 8 shots, 0 of 4 three-pointers, and 6 points,

seven games in the series, averaged only 7.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, 0.6 assists per game, with a shooting percentage of 32.2%, a three-point shooting percentage of 25.0%, and a real shooting percentage of only 42.2%, which is quite explosive.

Among them, except for the G3 explosion, which scored 21 points, Porter Jr. made up 4 of 30 three-pointers in the other six games, with a shooting percentage of only 13.3%. As a projection player, it is not an exaggeration to describe it as a defiant player.

Of course, a little Potter had an injury on his shoulder, which somewhat affected his feel.

But I personally think that this cannot be an excuse for Porter Jr. to perform in the second round. After all, when he played against the Clippers in the first round, Porter Jr. also played with a shoulder injury. At that time, he performed well: averaged 10.9 points per game, made a total of 34 three-pointers, and his shooting percentage reached 44.1%.

Going forward, in the second round of the 2024 playoffs, the Nuggets were eliminated by the Timberwolves in tiebreak. In that round, Porter Jr.'s performance: averaged 10.7 points per game, shooting percentage of 37.1%, three-point shooting percentage of 32.5%, and real shooting percentage of 49.5%, also had serious aberrations.

In the impression of many fans, Porter Jr. has always been a three-pointer machine that "ignors defense". However, the facts have proved that even Porter Jr. cannot maintain a normal level when facing top defensive teams such as the Timberwolves last year and the Thunder this year.

Moreover, Porter Jr.'s defense is also a problem. The problem of horizontal movement caused by back injury has always existed. Throughout the playoffs, he averaged only 9.8 shots per game, and his opponent's shooting percentage increased by 0.4%, of which 3.6% increased within 10 feet of the basket.

narrowed to the Thunder series, which was even worse, with 8.6 shots per game, the opponent's shooting percentage increased by 4.3%, and the inside 10 feet increased by 8.8%.

Specifically for the matchup, Porter Jr.'s main defender was Chett in the second round, defending a total of 105 rounds, Chett shot 8 of 16 shots and scored 22 points. As a singles machine like Alexander, he would never waste any chance when he switched to Porter Jr., and only played 34 rounds in the series. Alexander made 5 of 8 shots and scored 19 points and 4 assists.

You can see that Porter Jr. really has to bear a lot of responsibility when he is eliminated in the second round of the Nuggets this year.

is also because of his poor second round performance for two consecutive years. Potter Jr.'s future may be a question mark, or he has a high probability of becoming the target to be dealt with.

Here you might as well take a look at the salary status of the Nuggets. Next season, there will be 13 Nuggets with contracts, with a total salary of 201 million yuan, a luxury tax of 36 million yuan, and a record high for teams. There is no draft pick this year, which makes them have very limited space for operating in draft and free markets.

Among them, the salaries of the four main players Jokic, Murray, Gordon and Porter account for 82% of the Nuggets' team, but Jokic, Murray and Gordon are the absolute core. Not to mention Jokic and Gordon, even Murray's possibility of operating is very low.

Then Porter Little will naturally become the most likely object to leave, but there are also problems, and there are many:

1. Porter Little has a bad second-round performance for two consecutive years. His trading value is not high, and it can be said to be at a low point

2. Porter Little has two years of contract, with an annual salary of 40.81 million and 40.81 million (12 million guarantee), a serious premium

3. Porter Little's regular season The performance is still not bad, with an average of 18.2 points per game, a three-point shooting percentage of 39.5%, and a real shooting percentage of 61.7%. The Nuggets are ranked fourth in the Western Conference this year. Porter Jr. has made great contributions

4. The Nuggets' quad-core has been formed. It is difficult to find a substitute in the market, whether it is tacit understanding or the style of the game. I am afraid that avalanche will occur if Porter Jr.

5. The Nuggets' GM has not settled, and there are rumors that Porter Jr. is an alumnus of the boss. How dare the new GM touch the boss?

It is worth mentioning that after the Nuggets were eliminated, Jokic once talked about the team's lineup depth: "We do need (increase the lineup depth). It seems that those teams with longer rotations and thicker bench depth are the winners, and Indiana, Oklahoma, and Minnesota are all."

Porter Jr. has problems, but the Nuggets' bigger problem is that there is insufficient rotation. No one can stand up on the bench except Westbrook. G6 can make the game huge difference by just a strauer.

However, with the Nuggets' salary, it seems that they can only rely on basic salary to strengthen the substitute, but only the basic salary is the one. Who are the players in the market like Denver who are willing to join? Trading seems inevitable.

I can only say that the Nuggets really have a lot of work to do this offseason, from coaches, management, to strengthening, whether to trade Porter Jr., as well as potential contract renewals for Jokic and Braun, all of which need to be thought about (except for renewing Jokic, there is no need to think about it at all). I hope that the Nuggets' offseason operations will not delay Jokic's peak.