Michael Porter Jr. injured his shoulder in Game 2 of the Nuggets’ series against the Clippers. But instead of sitting out, he played through the injury to avoid letting the Nuggets get shorthanded. Ever since that game, Porter Jr. has struggled to perform at his best but refused to sit out due to injury as his team needed him. However, some critics felt he did more harm than good by staying on and playing through the injury. Among those critics is the NFL legend Shannon Sharpe.
After the Thunder blew the Nuggets out in Game 7 of their series, Sharpe went on his podcast to react to this abysmal showcase by the 2023 NBA champions. While discussing their Game 7 struggles, Sharpe said, “Look at Joke, he only had five shot attempts–I mean nine shot attempts. Yeah, so in order for him, you need him to be somewhere in the 20s. You wouldn’t have been disappointed if he had 25 shot attempts. You wouldn’t have been disappointed if Murray— Now you’d like to have, Murray had 16, but you like to be him a little bit more efficient.”
“But the one thing, the most disappointing thing this series, was Michael Porter Jr. I understand he’s injured, but bro if you can’t give us any more than that, bro you got to sit down. Yeah, he’s giving us nothing, he gave us nothing”, he further added.
Michael Porter Jr.’s Performance In The Playoffs
Porter Jr. was arguably the reliable No. 3 option on offense for the Nuggets, which helped them win a championship in 2023. He’s a career 40.6% shooter from beyond the arc, making him a lethal threat to space the floor. In normal circumstances, he would have expectations on his shoulders to carry the team if Jokic and Murray had an off-night.
However, the Nuggets’ forward struggled throughout the Playoffs after suffering a Grade 2 shoulder sprain. In the five games he played in the Clippers series after injury, he averaged 11.6 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 0.8 assists while shooting 42.7% from beyond the arc. While the efficiency remained at par, the volume of shots he took had reduced.
In the Thunder series, Porter Jr.’s struggles became worse. In five of the seven games of this series, he had single-digit scoring only, including just 6 points in the elimination game. As a result, Porter Jr. averaged 7.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 0.9 steals in 7 games against the Thunder in the 2025 Western Conference Semifinals.
While making sacrifices for the team is heroic of Porter Jr., unfortunately, his contributions were doing more harm than good for the Nuggets. I agree with Sharpe that once he realized he can’t help the team, he should’ve sat down. If the Nuggets need to improve their roster this offseason, trading Porter Jr. may be the only viable option to get something significant in return.
