On Wednesday afternoon around 24 hours before the NBA Draft, Josh Kroenke was in Las Vegas for the NHL Awards. Avalanche coach Jared Bednar was up for the Jack Adams award, which goes to the league’s top coach, and star centerman Nathan MacKinnon was a finalist for the Hart Trophy, which is given to the league’s Most Valuable Player.
Kroenke had been keeping in close contact with the Nuggets’ front office — mainly president of basketball operations Tim Connelly and general manager Arturas Karnisovas — in the lead up to the NBA draft but was surprised when his brain trust informed him Thursday morning when he arrived at Pepsi Center that a certain prospect could be falling out of the top 10 and might be available at 14.
“We need to talk about Michael Porter,” Connelly and Karnisovas said as they delivered Kroenke their latest draft intel. “He might be there.”
“Seriously?” Kroenke replied.
Porter’s medicals were scaring off lottery teams. Sacramento, which was at one time considering drafting Porter second overall, was determined to select Marvin Bagley III. Chicago at seven figured to be another potential landing spot for the former top recruit, but they were lasering in on Wendell Carter Jr. The Clippers had back-to-back selections at 12 and 13 right before the Nuggets picked at 14 but had also soured on Porter.
Connelly and Karnisovas had already discussed the prospects of selecting Porter with Nuggets coach Michael Malone. After conferring with Kroenke, all parties with a say in the decision-making process were on the same page. A talent like Porter was too tantalizing to pass up at 14.
“When you understand what’s available at 14 and the risk vs. reward, it was a no-brainer for us,” said Kroenke.
The risks of drafting Porter were of course massive. A back injury in November zapped Porter’s draft stock. He had surgery on his L3 and L4 spinal discs in his lower back and was cleared to play in March. Porter returned and appeared in two games for Missouri but didn’t look himself.
At his introductory press conference in Denver last week, Porter said he was healthy enough to play in an NBA game right now but “could be healthier.” He walked on and off the stage where he met with the Denver media for the first time with a noticeable limp.
But the rewards for drafting Porter could be tremendous. The last ten players drafted 14th overall are Bam Adebayo, Denzel Valentine, Cameron Payne, T.J. Warren, Shabazz Muhammad, John Henson, Marcus Morris, Patrick Patterson, Earl Clark and Anthony Randolph. Porter is a different class of player. He was a consensus top-two prospect coming out of high school alongside No. 1 pick Deandre Ayton. Porter is a gifted scorer and rare type of athlete at 6-foot-11.
With team doctors in the Nuggets’ war room alongside Denver’s top executives, Porter eventually emerged as the organization’s target at 14.
“We know the risks. We felt the rewards outweighed the risks,” Kroenke said. “We’re going to bring him along slowly on our own timeframe and just keep developing him like we have some our other young players. We think he fits in pretty seamlessly with some of the other guys. High IQ player, loves the game of basketball and is a hard worker. That’s the kind of DNA we want to start with every single time.”
Kroenke wouldn’t say if Porter will play at Summer League beginning July 6 in Las Vegas, but the feeling around the team is that he’ll sit out. His status for the regular season is still up in the air. It seems like there’s a possibility Denver could redshirt Porter like the 76ers did with former lottery picks Joel Embiid, Nerlens Noel and Ben Simmons.
The ability to slow-play Porter’s development because of the core that the Nuggets will return next season, as Connelly noted on draft night, also allowed the Nuggets to take a chance on the swingman.
“Some of the organizations picking ahead of us might have needed a player to come in and contribute right away. That was part of our exercise that we did,” said Kroenke. “Essentially, I challenged the room to think about Michael Porter, to think about this year but let’s also think about Michael Porter for the following season if we have to completely shut him down or get him right. I think the room, in unison, was just excited about the possibility of having a talent like that around.
“And even if he is able to play next week, I think our roster is unique from some of the ones that were ahead of us and the style of basketball that we play and our roster, whereas some of the teams might have needed him to come in right away and contribute right away. For us, passing and cutting and reading and reacting, he’s not going to have nearly as much pressure on him as some of those other teams ahead of us.”
On the clock at 14, the potential rewards outweighed the risks that came with selecting Porter. If all goes to plan, Porter has the ability to be the best player in his draft class. That possibility, as slim as it might be, has the entire organization’s front office ecstatic about the selection.
“You don’t really get many chances to take a swing on a guy like this at 14,” Kroenke said. “I was up until 3 o’clock in the morning watching highlights again just because I couldn’t believe we actually had him on our team.”
