What Makes This Play Great, Episode 5: The Michael Porter Playbook

“What makes this play great” is a brand new series I will be doing here at DNVR in which I break down in detail a single play, moment, or sequence from a Denver Nuggets game and explain all of the subtle details that you might’ve missed the first time around.

On Wednesday, Michael Malone talked about how he and his staff had created a series of plays that are designed specifically for Michael Porter Jr. that he had dubbed the “Michael Porter package of plays,” or maybe more simply, The Michael Porter Playbook. Over the first several months of the season, Porter was asked to fit into the Denver Nuggets’ offensive system. For the most part, that is still the case.

But slowly, Malone has begun to provide Porter with a few go-to plays that get him the ball in his favorite spots where he can attack his defender in isolation or shoot over the top after a favorable switch. In this episode, I break down two of those actions, “Peel” and “4 up quick,” and explain how they help place Porter Jr. in a position to succeed.

I first started noticing those two plays popping up right around the time that Porter got his first start 10 games ago. Since then, the Nuggets have gone to one of those two actions at least once per game. And over that 10-game stretch, Porter Jr. is averaging 11.4 points per game on an incredibly efficient 66.2% shooting. Most of those points are coming off of putbacks, transition baskets, and in the regular flow of the Denver Nuggets offense. But it’s probably not a coincidence that Porter has started to play well at the exact moment that the Nuggets are starting to consistently run actions that help him get comfortable touches.