Michael Porter Jr. Deserves ALL-STAR Consideration Amid Brooklyn Nets BREAKOUT | Is Tank In TROUBLE?

Michael Porter Jr. Deserves ALL-STAR Consideration Amid Brooklyn Nets BREAKOUT | Is Tank In TROUBLE?

On today’s show, Michael Porter Jr. has a legitimate all-star case while breaking out as the Net’s number one option. I’ll outline the secrets behind his career best start and how his success is impacting Brooklyn’s tank outlook right now. You are Locked on Nets, your daily Brooklyn Nets podcast, part of the Locked On Network. Your team every day. Welcome in to Locked on Nets right here on the Locked On Network. Now the number one sports podcast network. It’s your team, the Brooklyn Nets, every single day. I’m Eric Slater, Brooklyn SB reporter for clutchoints.com. Thank you for making me your first listen of the day. This show is 100% free on all those great platforms. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. If you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit FanDuel.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. And on today’s episode, Michael Porter Jr. leads the Nets to another win, this time over the Pelicans. I got Lucas Kaplan coming on to analyze MPJ’s All-Star case and Brooklyn’s tank outlook amid the team’s recent success. All right, got Lucas Kaplan back on the pod now. and Lucas, another Nets win, sixth of the season. Frankly, pretty surprising up to this point. We got six wins after the way that the Nets started. And the last one was a blowout of the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday at Barclay Center. The Nets are now six and 10 over their last 16 games. And if you’re going to pinpoint one driving factor behind it, I think there are several, but Michael Porter Jr. and his play got to be the top driving factor behind this whole recent stretch and especially these last few wins where he’s just playing out of his mind. I mean, in this New Orleans game, MPJ goes 35 points, nine rebounds, three assists, 14 of 23 from the field, five of 10 from three, plus 31, which is, you know, that’s pretty hilarious. And we’ll get into how embarrassing that Pelicans team is. But MBJ is playing at an all-star level. And that’s something that I’ve been saying, you know, over recent games, over these last, you know, three weeks to a month. And I think I’m I’ve gotten to the point over these last three games where I’ll say I think that MPJ has a legitimate all-star case. And I think if you look at this recent stretch, these last three games, he’s averaging 349 and4 on 55% from the field and 52% from three. And over the course of the entire season, I mean, you just look at his numbers, they’re ridiculous. He’s at 25.8 points per game. That’s 17th in the NBA. 7.6 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 50% from the field, 39 from three, 82 from the free throw line. And I actually looked at I looked at this right before this and MPJ is one of he’s one of five players averaging over 25 points per game on over 49% shooting from the field and 39% from three. The other four guys, Shyel just Alexander, Joic, Giannis, and Kawhi Leonard. So MPJ over a quarter of the way into the season. Some really elite company there. And I think that it’s not just like the stat padding. Like I post stuff of MPJ on Twitter, on TikTok, and I get a lot of these comments like, “Oh, he’s in his glory right now, like taking a zillion shots, stat padding, losing team.” And like, do I think MPJ is enjoying this? Sure. But I think there’s this narrative that these are just like empty calories. And that’s not really true because if you look at his onoff splits and all that, we’ll get into that. But he’s having a real positive impact on this Net’s team and you know them being a tanking team that’ll probably or that will probably it’ll definitely knock him in the All-Star conversation. But his numbers that he’s putting up, the efficiency that he’s doing with and the you know palpable impact that he’s having on winning for them, especially of late, that to me represents a very legitimate all-star case. So what are your thoughts on that and MPJ and how he’ll, you know, you think will come out in this race? Yeah, I mean to be honest, I haven’t looked at like the contenders for those the all-star spot he’ll be fighting for too closely. Again, I need to like even update myself on the format. I think there’s still 12 Eastern Conference players and then there’s some positional designations, right? Yeah, it’s like the same and then they’re going like after that they’re going to the international US, but if it if there’s not like a the split for, you know, how it’s selected, it’s still like east west and then if it needs to be corrected to, you know, fit like this split, they’re like going to add guys or something. I don’t know. The whole allar format is ridiculous, but like normal allstar standards, go off that, not you have like specific guys. Yeah. I mean, point being, and again, it’s like December 7th, so in in a month, right, or a month and a half, I’ll have a better like head-to-head, you know, uh, hypotheticals, but he’s having all-star impact. I don’t think that is really in question at all. You talked about some of the onoff stuff, right? Um, excluding garbage time, courtesy of PVP, 119 offensive rating with him on the court, 106, 105 and a half offensive rating with him off the court. And you can say, well, I just I wouldn’t say that it’s empty calories or stat padding or yeah, it’s a terrible team, whatever. Since Cam Thomas has gone out of the lineup and he’s been the unquestioned kind of number one option, highest usage rate, most shots per minute, all that stuff. Uh they’re six and 10 and they have a negative four net rating, which is 20th in the league. So really they’ve been like a below average team for about a month now and not horrific maybe of three weeks. But yeah, and let me throw in they’re six and 10. They’re six and seven in MPJ’s last 13 games. So like they’re near I mean like they’ve had some easy games but I mean they’re near 500 like when he’s on the court went out of the lineup. That’s what mediocre teams do. They beat bad teams and then they lose to good ones. And it’s been said before, but since the opening night loss to Charlotte, they haven’t lost to well, they lost to Utah, but they lost to Utah and Charlotte at the beginning of the year. And other than that, they really haven’t lost to a bad team. And that Utah game MPJ didn’t play. So, I think it’s pretty unquestionable that he’s having what you could generally consider all-star impact. And a lot of that is credit to, you know, his teammates and the coaching staff. but he’s also picked up the defense as of late to just kind of be below average and not like wrecking possessions uh on on defense. So, yeah, I mean this is the best case scenario in terms of uh his the start to his Nets career, I would say. Yeah. And we’ll get more into in the second segment like his actual impact on winning and is he impacting winning too much? How are the Nets gonna handle all that? But I do think it’s undeniable, as we both said, like he he’s having an impact on winning. And I think that people who don’t watch the Nets, like from a national perspective, whether you talk about fans or media or whatever, they might have the notion that MPJ’s in his glory. He’s taken a zillion shots. It’s his time to cook. Like whatever, like he’s just doesn’t care about the winning or anything like that. And I just think that that’s pretty off base if you look at from a numbers standpoint. And then also from the way that he’s playing on the court, like he’s not at all playing a like selfish brand of basketball. I would say I think he has a pretty good grasp on like what he needs to do. Are there some bad shots that he needs to take at times? Sure. Does he need to press the issue sometimes? Sure. But for the most part, we talked about this. He’s just been a really willing offball mover. He’s been really efficient. He’s been really willing to make the right play, create for his teammates, and do all those things. Then also on defense, as you said, it’s gone from, you know, just like truly embarrassing in the beginning of the season to just like bad or maybe even just like below average. Like it really hasn’t been anything that’s stuck out. Like are there still plays where the defensive effort isn’t there? Sure. But for the most part, you know, given how much he’s doing offensively, I’ve been, you know, pretty pleased with what he’s been doing defensively over the last 3 weeks to a month. And just more on like the onoff numbers, you said, you know, you gave the on-off numbers for the offense and defense. And MPJ has a plus 11.2 net rating swing. That’s per cleaning the glass. And that ranks 15th among 92 players to play over 600 minutes this season. As I said, the Nets are six and seven over his last 13 games. And they’ve actually won his minutes during that span, which is pretty that’s pretty amazing. Like they’ve won them outright. Like what you’re saying is yeah, they barely won, but still he’s a positive plus minus over his last 13 games, which on this Nets team with how bad they looked in the beginning of the season and how bad everybody expected him to be, that’s pretty unbelievable and that’s a pretty undeniable impact on winning, especially when you look at the offslits when he goes off and it just completely plummets. I think it sounds like a cliche, but in this sort of offense and um where he is oftent times like the first or second read and he’s coming up for an uphill dribble handoff or off a flare, but it’s really more so that handoff game, you know, towards the top of the key. you can see the effects of like continued chemistry and and reps on the court together where now you know his fellow guards and wings will recognize that if they set a screen for MPJ where the slips to the basket are where Nick Claxton realizes he should position himself for a catch to get into a DHO. Okay, if this corner is filled then maybe I should be a little bit up the court on the elbow. If it’s an empty side, maybe I can get a little bit more towards the sideline. Stuff like that really does make a huge difference for this offense. And just because there’s not a ton of talent doesn’t, in fact, it probably means even more that those little marginal things are helping them score 118 points per 100 possessions, 119 points per 100 possessions when he’s on the court, which is a really great offensive mark. So, he’s the focal point. He’s benefiting a lot. But to me, I think it’d be totally fine to say that is all-star impact. Yeah. And it’s pretty unbelievable because like we obviously came into the year and I didn’t think I don’t think anybody thought the Nets were going to be good defensively, but we looked at the rookie point guards and offensively we’re like, “Okay, this team has no shot creation outside of Cam Thomas. Like, it’s just going to be a complete disaster.” And then Cam Thomas has gone out and we’ve gone over like the impact of that and I don’t want to get into that but just MPJ’s ability like their ability to just completely like scheme the offense around him and his offball movement has been pretty unbelievable and like the way that they’ve done it and the efficiency level that they’ve done it at is I think a testament to obviously to Jordi Fernandez to MPJ to some of the bigs and you know the other passing guys and the IQ that they have around him but like defenses know what the Nets are trying to do with MPJ and M and frankly the Nets bigs and Nick Claxton, you know, they they have such a good connection right now that opposing defenses really just can’t stop it. And are the Nets playing like the best defenses over these last recent games? No. But they’re just they’re playing at a really high level offensively, you know, with everything orbiting around him. and he, you know, I think we kind of view uh a more offballheavy load as easier or less of a burden on a primary creator because, oh, you know, they don’t have to bring the ball up the court, they don’t have to get trapped, they don’t have to deal with, you know, point of attack, defense, and all these different types of coverages. However, he has to deal with like so much off the ball. You know, teams are being physical with him. He has to run through screens. He has to set a lot of screens himself. he has to cut back door when it’s the right time and then of course like when he gets these handoffs some teams play a really exaggerated drop which is asking for trouble. I mean we saw him uh obliterate the Hornets with Kulk Brener standing 15 ft you know off of Nick Claxton but the Celtics would double you know the Celtics would play a high drop and he would hit the lob pass. Some teams are trapping him outright. And the fact that this Net’s offense has been resilient through all of that, like there’s not one thing that can get him off rhythm, is really a testament to how well-rounded this part of his game is. I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but even in these specific situations, he’s kind of hitting all his cues. He’s right. He’s dotting all of his eyes and crossing all of his tees. And again, all-star impact and his teammates deserve credit, but when you watch these games, it probably doesn’t even show up in the usage rate really because of the opportunities his gravity creates for teammates. Yeah. And that’s the biggest thing is like not everything, but a whole lot of whatever the Nets are doing outside of him is created by all the attention that he’s drawing off the ball. All these different, you know, pin downs and split actions and back doors and like the different ways that defenses are trying to cover it. there’s so much shading towards him that it creates these openings that frankly like these other Nets players can’t create on their own. And that’s why the onoff splits are so dramatic, especially offensively to when he’s in the lineup versus out of the lineup. And I think that, you know, with the Nets being near 500 over his last 13 games, the number he’s putting up and the impact that’s having on winning overall, as I said, that’s an all-star case to me. And for the Nets, like in the second segment, we’re going to get into, you know, the tank race, his impact and all that. But, you know, the trade deadline’s coming up. If he keeps playing like this, there’s going to be conversations surrounding him. And you’d have to think like, you know, the conversation kind of had been, can he re rehabilitate his value to the point where maybe the Nets can get off his contract or they can get some kind of asset with him with him playing at this level like that asking price has to be going up. And I know that trading him is going to benefit the tank. And we’ll get into all that if they do trade him or in this next segment, too. But it’s past the point where I think you can just be like, we’re trying to get off this contract. like he’s going to have legitimate value based on how he’s playing, you know, over this last, you know, month-long sample size. I think everybody listening, if they can, should just go watch all of his three-point attempts and realize that he’s shooting 39 over 39% from three. It is ridiculous. Like just he makes four or five shots a game. Seriously, four or five shots a game that are just laughable. And I mean, you know, you look at all the volume and efficiency stuff, right? And all of these numbers, but sometimes you just go to a Nets game and you’re like, yeah, there’s not there’s not seven people better at shooting the basketball than this guy. There probably aren’t like five, dude. In the history of the Nets, I mean, like I said, since KD, like he’s bar none the best shotmaker the Nets have had. It’s not even close. And like it’s just you look at the efficiency, like he’s near 50% from the field. And a lot of that is due to the fact that he’s been so good at being, you know, a back door cutter, getting these high low passes and dump offs, even driving to the rim and creating space on drives and bumps. He’s like really strong and physical at the rim lately, which has been nice to see. So that has driven up the efficiency from the field. But as you said, the three-point shooting, it’s better as of late. Like it’s gotten better over these last three, four games, the overall percentage because he’s on a heater. But he’s shooting 40% on high volume with just some like ridiculously hard shots. A lot of them. not just some. And the fact that he’s at that level of efficiency is just a testament to the ridiculous shotmaker that he is. And you add in his ability to leverage that shot making and his understanding of how to do it, you know, with his offball movement and positioning and all that stuff to generate some looks in the mid-range and at the rim now. And that is the makings of a really well-rounded offensive player at this point. And I think that that’s just going to lead to his trade value being a lot harder, a lot higher, excuse me. But also this improved play, it’s throwing a wrench into the Nets plans because it looked pretty clear-cut earlier in the season. They start out 0 and7. They’ve done the tank right. They’re going to be one of the worst teams in the league. Hopefully the rookies develop. That’s it. And then MPJ just comes storming in and throws a wrench into all that. So what is the Nets tank outlook looking like now? How is MPJ’s play affecting that? And how might the Nets go about that? We’ll get into all that and we continue locked on Nets after a quick break. Guys, nobody knows your money goals better than you. Robin Hood puts you in control of your money with tools that work as hard as you do. Locking in on every opening, beating your PR, beating it again. Channel that drive into your money. Robin Hood puts you in control of your money. Trade stocks and ETFs, options, futures, and crypto all on one platform. You can now build and execute your own trades from a desktop with Robin Hood’s Legends Advanced tools. or take advantage of the new Robin Hood strategies with a tailored portfolio managed by a team of experts. You expect more from yourself. Expect more from your money, too. Get starting today at robinhood.com/yyoumoney. Again, that’s robinhood.com/yyoumoney. Your money, your move. Netspan’s big announcement. Starting today, Lockdown is rolling out access to the Everydayer Club, a subscription service that will give you access to adree content and bonus Nets content. And if you’re a true diehard Nets fan, the everyday or all access tier is built for you. You’ll get one-on-one texting access with me, all access episodes, uncut player and coach interviews, Zoom meetings with me, ask me anything segments, film reviews, and more. And you’ll also get a 15% discount to the locked merch store to head to lockdownnets.supcast.com to join the Everyday program and unlock all access. You can also find the link in the show notes. All right, coming back from the break with Lucas Kaplan talking about the Nets’s last win over the New Orleans Pelicans, all of their recent success and how MPJ is playing a huge role in that. And Lucas just talking about the tank outlook because the Nets did beat another not a tanking team, just another bottom of the standings team. But after this win over the Pelicans, Nets have fallen to a tie for fifth in the draft lottery standings. They are three and a half games behind the Pelicans for the top spot. They’re two and a half behind the Wizards, one behind the Pacers. You also have uh the Kings and Clippers are right in there with them and then they’re a half game ahead of the Charlotte Hornets. So, we talked about this last week and we said like we’re not sounding the panic alarm on the tank yet. I think we’re pretty close to if not past the point of being worried about the tank. Just as I said, you know, how the Nets have played over these last this last month, how bad the rest of the league is. I mean, the Pelicans are just a disgusting basketball team, frankly, and franchise. Like, we both watch that game. And just like as a quick sidebar, if I were a Pelicans fan, I would resend my fandom right now. like this is grounds to me. This type of move, you know, going into a season after trading a pick like that and in this level of draft gifting probably a top three, four pick to another franchise when you don’t have a clear-cut franchise player on your team right now because Zion’s unreliable, that’s grounds for Joe Dumar’s being fired, you know, it being his first significant move. And that’s grounds if I’m a Pelicans fan, like move the team. Just let me find another team because it’s ridiculous. Like that is one of the more ridiculous transactions that I’ve seen in my NBA lifetime and definitely my time covering the league up close. I just can’t believe how bad they were and that they’re not they don’t have their pick. I know we can talk about the trade until we’re blew in the face, but when you watch it in person and that was like as bad as they’ve played really this year in Brooklyn, that’s you know one of the lower rungs of what they’re capable of even by their low standards. Well, they’re hurt too. like they’re missing a lot of guys, but I mean they also like kind of quit on defense, which you can’t do when you don’t have that much talent. And Derek Queen had one of his worst games, which I was very sad about because I was very excited to see DQ play, but yeah, I mean that this exposes the problem, not really so much with the NBA. I’m not going to go there yet because as as much of like an unavoidable incentive as tanking is, three of these really terrible teams don’t even own their pick, right? Like Pelicans, unbelievable, dude. like Pelicans, Clippers, Jazz, although Jazz is top eight protected, so they they do, but man, just like the the bottom and mid tiers of the league, like Charlotte is going to maybe have an outside chance to make the playin and the Nets rolled them and it really was like not didn’t feel weird when you were watching the game. The Bulls were missing two starters, but you know, that’s going to happen over the course of an NBA season and the Nets just flat out had more talent and outplayed them. like it’s going to be hard for them to it feels like now this version of the team it’s like how are they going to go on a 15game losing streak or a 10ame losing streak when they can get up 45 threes a night and and find 40% from three like they’re good enough to find those shots and with a baseline level of effort on defense they’re just not going to be helpless you know yeah they’re going to have to make moves like and we’ll get into that like if that’s the priority I mean obviously there’s lineup stuff that you can do. You can hold guys out with injuries, but if they want to get to where you probably want to be in the tank conversation, like there’s going to have to be roster manipulation outside of just what you’re doing on a night-to-ight basis. And last thing on the Pelicans, it’s just pretty unbelievable. Like, that’s a game where I know the Pelicans are injured, they’re banged up, they’re probably pretty disheartened by how the season has started, but that’s a team who should be doing everything they can to win versus a Nets team that isn’t on the court trying to lose, but organizationally is trying to lose. and the Pelicans still get boat raised. So that just gives you, you know, an idea of what a disaster that situation is. But like we’re talking about, you know, the Pelicans, the Hornets, the Bulls, you know, whatever other want teams you want to say, the Jazz, like whoever, the Pacers, the Nets beat them early in the year. Like the Nets have a roster and they’re playing at a level right now with everything orbiting around MPJ where they’re just looking better than these teams on a lot of nights. like those level of teams. I mean, you look at the last five games that the Nets have played against poor teams with MPJ in the lineup. It’s the Pacers, they win by nine. The Wizards, they win by 23. Charlotte win by 13. Chicago win by 10. Uh Pelicans win by 18. Like that’s five games where their last five games against bad teams with MPJ in the lineup, they’ve won by double digits. So, you also have the win against against Boston thrown in there. So, for me, like this is past the point of the tank where it’s like, you know, this is oh, like they’re playing a little bit better than expected, like it’ll come back to whatever. Like, no, I’m worried about the tank if I’m a Nets fan right now because they’re just frankly like not that bad. Like, sure, they’re bad, but the bottom of the league is so bad as you said, like with some of these teams, it’s just hard to tank. Like, it’s just getting to a level where you have to be so bad. And I talked about this on my episode after the Jazz game where they almost won that game. And I really think the front court is playing a huge role in this. And I want to get your opinion on this because I just think that the depth that they have as a front court is raising this team’s floor relative to what they’re seeing, you know, in a lot of the rotations of these opposing tanking teams. They’re just bad teams. Like you look at MPJ, Noah Clowny, and Nick Claxton, the new starting front court for this Nets team. They have a plus 3.4 net rating in 300 minutes now as a group. So they’re playing really well. And then you got Dron Sharp and Danny Wolf behind them who like Dron’s a competent big man and Danny Wolf like they just win his minutes by a thousand points like every time that he’s on the court. But they just have a lot of frontcourt depth and a lot of these other teams don’t have it. And I think that that’s leading to them looking a lot better than some of these other teams. So barring a move, I am pretty concerned about whether they’re going to be able to get into like that top three of the draft lottery standings because the bottom of the league is just so bad right now. It’s true, but there’s also the bottom of the league is very bad right now, but there are only like two or three teams where you would say not happening, just not catching them. The Pelicans have three wins. The Wizards have three wins. Everyone else has six except for the Pacers who have five. And you kind of I kind of just trust Carlile and them getting healthier to remain competitive. Like maybe I’m giving them too much grace for last season, but it just I don’t think they I don’t think they want to though. like their pick. Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. Like that I think that I think that they’re going to probably be a tanking team as the season progresses. I mean, why not? Like, but I wouldn’t say that it’s done, right? I wouldn’t say they have no chance to the Nets to catch them, right? Fair. Yeah. No, I wouldn’t I would definitely wouldn’t say it’s done, but I’d say I mean like you have the Pelicans, the Wizards, the Pacers ahead of the Nets right now. I’m definitely worried about those three finishing ahead of them. You have the Hornets who are a half game behind them. I’m definitely worried about the Hornets being able to finish ahead of this Net’s team. So, I think there’s Yeah, the Kings like then you have the Kings, the Clippers, these other teams that have their picks. Like, the Kings could tear it down and tank midway through the year. I’m not too worried about those teams yet, but as it stands right now, like if the Nets keep this roster together throughout the course of the season, and yes, like they’ll get more aggressive about the tank regardless of whether they make trades as the year goes on, you know, like is it that is it like is fourth or fifth their most likely spot right now? Yeah, I’d probably say so. And like to me that’s worrisome. Yeah. I mean it listen ah last year is still more annoying to me. It’s like last year you had it. There was nobody last year’s in the past. Put it put it behind us. It’s it’s done. Like it it’s over. I mean dude like it’s you know I think they’re going to have to make some moves. I mean like I just said like the front court I agree with your point like this was when last year when they went on that six and one stretch in February that really doomed them and then even after that right they beat the Sixers which was kind of the nail in the coffin. Nick Claxton and Dron Sharp were just most for the most part better than opposing teams’ full center rotation for 48 minutes and you know it gave them a baseline of like rim protection and rim finishing and effort and physicality on the inside. However, it’s interesting, right? Because their defense is still allowing like opponents to shoot 70% at the rim on I think a decently high volume, but anecdotally, I testwise watching the games, you do just feel like they have a higher margin for error because they’re so big and like their front court players are legit good. So, again, they don’t feel pathetic on on defense. And I think again, size is a big part of that. Although, listen, if opponents are shooting 70% at the rim and they’re still winning games, I I don’t know, man. I I don’t know. I just think that ultimately, like I said, like the front court is playing a huge role in that. I think when you have that much depth and that much talent and maybe like these guys will come back to earth, but I think what they’re doing is a lot of the process of what they’re doing is sustainable right now. And I think that you look at the other front courts of these tanking teams, and I do think that’s worrisome. So, for the Nets to get where they want to be, which is perceivably, you know, top three, you know, in those top three in the draft lottery standings, I do think that there are going to be going to need to be moves that are made probably on the trade market. But will they do that? And what are those moves? We’ll get into all that when we close out Lockdown Nets after a quick break. Guys, NFL Sundays move fast. One big play and suddenly everything feels different. That’s what makes live betting with FanDuel so exciting. You’re not just watching the game, you’re reacting to it in real time. With FanDuel, you can place live bets as the action unfolds. Every drive, every momentum swing, every highlight moment. Live betting is best when the game starts to shift. A receiver gets hot, a defense tightens up, or the momentum flips after a turnover. FanDuel lets you jump into the moment, guys. Live spreads and money lines adjust instantly. The Eagles and Chargers are playing on Monday night. Maybe you want to go over on Jaylen Herz’s passing yards. Maybe you want to go over on some Lad Macy receiving props. FanDuel makes it happen. Player props update as guys heat up. You can bet next touchdown, scores, drive results, totals, and more. It keeps you locked into every snap, every drive, every possibility. So, if you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit fanuel.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. FanDuel. The game moves fast and so can you. All right, coming back from the break, closing out today’s Lockdown Nets episode. Got Lucas Kaplan here. We talked about MPJ, his improved play, and we’re talking about the Nets front court as a whole and how that is elevating the team’s floor and ultimately hurting their tank outlook in the early going. And I said, you know, MPJ, Noah Clowney, Nick Claxton, that front court to be a tanking team with the level that those three are playing at. I mean, Nick Claxton had a triple double in this Pelicans game, his second of the season and his second of his career. I just think that’s too good of a front court right now. like with how they’re playing against other tanking teams like that’s just going to hold them back I think and if you look at Noah Clowney he’s probably not going anywhere because he’s very young he’s showing all this promise doesn’t make sense to move off him you got MPJ and you got Nick Claxton those guys definitely it has to be a thought are we trading one of those guys are we trading both those guys how are we going about this and I know the Nets want to be better next season and like that’s going to play a factor in the decision- making somewhat but at the end of the day like this asset this pick that they have is the best asset of anything that they have right now. So, you need like deja vu back to last season. You need to try to maximize that. So, you know, I know it would be great to try to keep MPJ and keep Nick Claxton and be better next season and all that, but it’s like at a certain point, you can’t always have your cake and eat it too. I’m also like not I my opinion on MPJ really hasn’t changed a ton. I know that’s like weird to say and he’s playing so well, but this offense is so hyper specifically designed for him. And I think like the Nets don’t want that to be the case regardless of how well he plays in the future. And so therefore, I don’t know if their long-term plans have changed a ton with him just because of how unique this situation is. But I also am wondering if like a front office is going to put a lot of stock in this start because of the unique circumstances of it. Now, I don’t think he’s damaging his value. I don’t think he’s hurting his value. It’s certainly raising, but like 7 months ago, he was viewed as the type of contract where you had to the Nuggets had to get rid of their last valuable tradable asset to upgrade this core and get Cam Johnson, who’s fine. He’s a good player. You know, we had he had a great year last year in Brooklyn. But is he really going to go from that to head above water, positive value, maybe getting firsts, right, for for a first for MPJ this season? I just I just don’t see that at all, honestly. Maybe in the offseason. You don’t see a first. You don’t see a first at all. I think it depends on what’s coming alongside him. I do think that like you don’t think there’s scenarios where a team would give a first round pick. I mean, I can think of a few off the top of my head where I don’t think it’s a premium pick. Like Detroit, we have to Detroit’s one of them. I mean, yeah, like we have to throw it in. I don’t know. He’s making 40 million over the next two years. He’s going to be an expiring contract next year. I mean, I not all first round picks are created equal. Like, I’ve had some Pistons people reach out to me and say, would do you think the Nets would do um do you think the Nets would do Tobias Harris, Jaden Ivy, and the Pistons first round pick for MPJ? And honestly, I don’t probably not this year’s first round pick. It’s such a bad pick. That’s what I’m saying. Like I don’t know if they’re getting a premium first round pick for him, but they’ll get some kind of they could get some kind of pick for him if they wanted. I think I mean at that point you just sit him down. You just start like that’s not really worth it. It feels like to me, right? No, to me neither. I told the guy I wouldn’t do that. I don’t think they’d have interest in Ivy and I think that that pick is just going to be too low. But what you just said, maybe you just sit them down like they’re going to have other moves. I said it, you know, on two recent pods I’ve said it. The ace the tanking ace up their sleeve is MPJ. Whether that’s a trade or whether you go the route of, you know, like we’ve seen the uh Portland Trailblazers do it with Dame in multiple seasons where, you know, at the end of the season, you shut him down for the last three weeks of the season with whatever. I mean, MPJ has enough prior back injuries where you could shut him down and it wouldn’t be like a huge shock. But how long can you go before you do that with the way that he’s playing right now? I mean, I know you can hold other guys out on a given, you know, any given night, but like I said, it’s just like if they go another two months with MBJ Clowny, Claxton as their starting front court, they’re going to win games when they beat these when they play these other bad teams or tanking teams. And I’m not sure how much longer you can continue to do that if you’re truly committed to trying to get to the top of that draft lottery standings. But maybe the Nets say, you know, like last year, maybe a little different than last year, maybe they say, “Hey, we got flattened lottery odds. We’re going to try to be better next year. It’s not worth those extra few percentage points to move off of these guys that we like. It might be a part of the team’s next iteration, but that that kind of is like deja vu. And I just think at a certain point, you kind of got to like you can’t have your cake and eat it too. As I said, you got to kind of put your money where your mouth is and really go for it. I think they it’s proven that and I I don’t know if you can really like berate them for this that you know last year they were like yeah we’ll we’ll we’re going to play and run a lot of offense through Cam Johnson and we know that that might make us kind of formidable or at least respectable at the start of next season and we’re going to play Dorian Finny Smith and that’s like a really competent wing duo and that might win us too many games but hey Cam Johnson rehabilitates his value to where you can make the MPJ trade. You think you get a better deal for Dorian and sure you’re nine and 10 but it’s like ah we really believe in Jagor Jman at number eight right and oh well the lottery didn’t work out our way but you know maybe it could have and oh by the way it’s not like we had better worse odds than Dallas or meaningfully worse odds than Philly or San Antonio. And do I fully buy into that reasoning? Not really. But you can go that route. And again, I don’t think that the Nets have shown that they’re not going to embrace that route, which especially when you factor in that they don’t have their pick next year and they don’t want the national embarrassment of giving the Rockets the number one pick in the 2027 draft, which would be hilarious and therefore slightly plausible at this point. But yeah, I just I I don’t I really don’t know. I’m fascinated to see because when you talk to people around the organization, it’s like, “Oh, we know what this year is about.” You know, we know what this year is about, but frankly, Joai said it like he know he know but that might just mean something different to them than it’ll mean to the Sixers. Well, we said we talked about this on a recent pod. It all comes back to, you know, how how far are you willing to take it? Like how and and a lot of that conversation now factors into, you know, how much are you willing to sacrifice for next year’s team, you know, in the short term to try to maximize and juice that asset? And that’s going to be the conversation moving forward. But ultimately, my takeaway from this last month or so is that, you know, this starting lineup and this team with that front court trio of MPJ, Clowny, Claxton, it’s too good. If your goal is to be a top three in the draft lottery odds, it’s too good. Like, I just think that that’s if not completely clear, it’s pretty clear to me at this point. And how the Nets go about it moving forward, you know, the trade that December 15th date, we’re like a week away, the trade deadline. We’re, you know, going to be a month away from trade conversations really heating up and there’s going to be a lot of talk about that moving forward. We’ll have coverage of all that I’m sure here on Locknets. But Lucas, all we got time for today. Appreciate you taking the time as always. Nets’s got five days off now in a row, which is ridiculous with this NBA Cup stuff. But they’ll be back. We’ll have practices. We’ll have some meaningful quotes because we got some stuff to talk about with the coaches. But appreciate you taking the time and yeah, you’ll be back on soon. That does it for today’s Lock Nets episode. I hope you guys enjoyed the talk with Lucas. If you do not already, make sure to subscribe to Lockdown Nets on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast, whether Apple podcast or Spotify. And if you want access to exclusive content via the Everydayer Club, make sure to go subscribe at lockdownnets.supcast.com. That’s uncut player and coach interviews, that’s one-on-one texting with me, one-on-one Zoom calls with me, film reviews, and more. So, go hit that up. Also, if you enjoy the content, smash the like button, leave a comment, leave a fivestar review. Anything you can do to engage is much appreciated. The Nets got a few days off. They got some practices. So, I’m going to have coverage of all that and more when I’m back tomorrow talking more Brooklyn Nets basketball.

Erik Slater and Lucas Kaplan outline why Michael Porter Jr. should receive All-Star consideration amid his breakout with the Brooklyn Nets. They also analyze how Porter Jr.’s improved play is impacting the team’s tank outlook and what moves could be on the horizon.

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