Michael Porter Jr. played only three college games but said he is ready for the grind of an NBA season.
His back may not let him make good on that promise
Youth Luke Kuechly Jersey , but the Denver Nuggets‘ newest young player said he’s ready to go after being selected 14th overall in the NBA draft
Thursday night.
”I have no reason to not believe that,” he said. ”I feel good.”
Porter was limited to 53 total minutes as a freshman for the Missouri Tigers due to the back injury, which required surgery. He averaged 10 points and 17.7
minutes in the 2017-18 season.
He said his back won’t be a problem, nor the hip that had him cancel most of his workouts for NBA teams and contributed to him falling to the last lottery
spot in the draft.
”After pro day teams at the top of the draft telling me I was their guy, then I had that episode last week,” Porter said. ”Hip hurt and I think that kind of
scared some teams.I was feeling really good, had a good pro day. I was jumping
really good again and everything was coming back together. I just had a sore few
days but I’m on the right track and I’m getting better every single day.”
Denver decided Porter’s talent was worth the risk.
”We were very surprised, and happily so, that Michael continued to fall down the board,” Nuggets president of basketball operations Tim Connelly said. ”At
some point it becomes a risk-reward ratio. We think he’s an elite talent, a guy
with no back issues we wouldn’t have the good fortune of drafting. You have to
take a swing at guys like that. You have to get lucky.”
Connelly said the team’s executives and medical staff pored over Porter’s medical records and felt comfortable taking a chance on him.
”We’ve looked at so many medicals,” Connelly said. ”We felt well-informed every step of the way. We feel it’s a well thought-out and well-designed risk
that we’re unbelievably happy is going to be in a Nuggets uniform.”
Porter joins a young team with a strong nucleus that has missed the playoffs for five straight seasons. Denver’s offense starts with playmaking center Nikola
Jokic, who has 16 career triple-doubles, 10 of which came last season for the
46-36 Nuggets.
Denver finished a game out of the postseason each of the last two seasons.
In addition to the 23-year-old Jokic, Denver’s young core consists of point guard Jamal Murray, 21, and shooting guard Gary Harris, 23, which gives the
franchise a foundation to build upon.
That foundation now includes the 6-foot-10 Porter, who turns 20 on June 29. He could immediately fill a need at small forward if veteran Wilson Chandler
opts out of his contract and Will Barton
http://www.patriotsauthorizedshop.com/authentic-adrian-clayborn-jersey , an unrestricted free agent, doesn’t re-sign with Denver.
”I know they’ve got a good young point guard in Jamal Murray, Gary Harris at (shooting guard) can score the ball. Jokic, great passer, and Paul Millsap,”
Porter said. ”It’s a good, good young team who is very unselfish and that’s what
I like about it. That’s how I like to play. When I watch them that’s the feeling
I get from them.”
The Nuggets traded a future second-round pick to move up two spots in the second round to take Jarred Vanderbilt out of Kentucky at No. 41. They also
drafted center Thomas Welsh of UCLA with the 58th pick.
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Shin-Soo Choo changed up his swing going into this season with a modified leg kick. Maybe more significant was a return to some of the mental focus he had
lost along the way.
”Every pitch, each pitch, is the last pitch of my baseball career … I think that way,” Choo said.
After a slow start to this season, Choo realized he had gotten away from what he refers to as the ”sniper focus” he wants to have every time he goes to the
plate for the Texas Rangers.
Choo now has a 38-game on-base streak. It is the longest of his 14-year big league career, and the second-longest this season behind a 40-gamer by
Philadelphia’s Odubel Herrera.
”The physical side of it is a byproduct of him making a conscious effort to get back to who he is, what his foundation has been as a hitter, an on-base guy
first,” Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. ”When he’s doing that and he’s
seeing pitches, he’s focused in more on driving the ball, that he gets to hit
his pitch. He’s really good at it.”
With three singles on Monday night, including the tiebreaking RBI hit in a 7-4 win over San Diego, Choo has the longest on-base streak for Texas since Otis
Nixon’s 44 games in a row in 1995. Julio Franco’s 46-gamer in 1993 is the
franchise record.
Choo was hitting .239 after going 0 for 4 with three strikeouts May 12 at Houston, along with a .316 on-base percentage.
Since then
George Kittle Jersey , the outfielder and designated hitter has 48 hits and 37 walks in 38 games – reaching base an average of 2.2 times each game during his
streak. That has raised his batting average to .285 and increased his on-base
percentage 79 points.
”He sticks to his approach more than anything. He doesn’t really care who is on the mound,” said Delino DeShields, the young center fielder whose locker is
next to Choo’s. ”He knows himself, he’s done it for a long time. He knows when
he’s getting away from that and it’s an easy adjustment for him to make.”
DeShields said Choo keeps things ”really simple” and sticks to his routine.
For Choo, that includes almost always being the first player in the clubhouse – whether before sunrise at spring training or around lunchtime before night
games during the season.
Banister remembers showing up at the team’s complex around 5 a.m. one day early during the manager’s first spring with the team in 2015. Choo was already
there.
”Next few days we got there at the same time and then one day I got up earlier for some reason and beat him to the ballpark,” Banister said. ”I didn’t
beat him to the ballpark the next day.”
Choo, in his fifth season with Texas after playing for Seattle, Cleveland and Cincinnati, is also tidy. The two stalls he occupies in the home clubhouse are
organized, including the array of batting gloves stacked neatly and organized by
color. He knows where everything is because it all has a specific spot – and
says it’s the same at his house.
”He’s real particular,” DeShields said. ”He packs his own bag. … He always looks nice. It’s just how he is. He’s a professional. Whatever you define a
professional to be, that’s him.”
Choo will turn 36 on July 13, four days before the All-Star Game. He has never been an All-Star before but is a strong candidate to represent the Rangers
as a first-timer.
Banister said Choo certainly has played to a level to be considered for the American League squad in Washington next month.
”This is a great teammate. He really is. This is a guy who cares about every player in that locker room. He cares about the game. A lot,” Banister said. ”The
respect for the game of baseball, how it’s played, the look of it, the players,
the style of play, the way you should play the game.”
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