Michael Porter Jr., a lottery prospect who may be selected by the brain geniuses of Sacramento at No. 2 or may fall somewhere around the seven-ish range, sure has draft experts mumbling about his Character Issues. Their voices descend to bassy, knowing tones, and their sentences swell into ominous generalities.
“Yeah, the intel from his time at Missouri was very, very, poor,” said ESPN expert Mike Schmitz on the Dunc’d On podcast Monday, after being pressed by host Nate Duncan to expand on what it is that makes people nervous about Porter. “I think he has a lot of questions to answer about how is he going to fit in an NBA locker room.”
The intel is poor. The questions must be answered. Here, at least, is one particular to work with: Porter Jr. was asked yesterday by CBS radio host Damon Amendolara to pick an NBA player comparison he felt was apt. The 19-year-old then inserted himself in the conversation with two of the NBA’s best forwards, somehow compared himself favorably to both, and then expressed gratitude for being in that conversation, a conversation he was put in by Michael Porter Jr. Also, you have to throw T-Mac in there for good measure. It’s masterful:
Right now, I’m a little, I’m a mix of Giannis and KD. You know, I like going to the hole a little more than KD does, I like bumping into people a little more physical than KD. But I also, you know I like to shoot the ball more than Giannis. So that’s what I like to compare myself to. Then also Tracy McGrady. I get compared to him a lot and I like that one a lot too. You know, those are three amazing players. So it doesn’t feel bad to be in the same conversation as them.
It is possible that Porter Jr. likes his own Durant comparison because he too is a cheesebutt.