{"id":510936,"date":"2026-01-02T02:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T02:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/510936\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T02:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T02:20:12","slug":"bucks-pistons-warriors-among-potential-mpj-suitors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/510936\/","title":{"rendered":"Bucks, Pistons, Warriors Among Potential MPJ Suitors"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we relayed in a Front Office article<\/a> earlier on Thursday, Nets forward Michael Porter Jr.<\/a> is an intriguing trade candidate ahead of the February 5 deadline. Just six months after essentially being treated as a salary dump by Denver, Porter has rebuilt his value with an outstanding first season in Brooklyn \u2014 he\u2019s averaging career highs of 25.8 PPG, 7.5 RPG and 3.3 APG through 26 games, with an excellent .496\/.410\/812 shooting line.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cAt worst he\u2019s returned to neutral value, which is a major development,\u201d one veteran NBA executive recently told Jake Fischer of The Stein Line<\/a> (Substack link).<\/p>\n

Brooklyn has been taking incoming calls on Porter but the team doesn\u2019t appear to be actively trying to move him, Fischer writes. Several people around the league familiar with the Nets\u2019 thinking believe they will be aggressive in trying to accelerate their rebuild next offseason if they land a top pick in the 2026 draft, according to Fischer, who suggests the team might have a fairly high asking price to consider trading Porter mid-season.<\/p>\n

Confirming a recent report<\/a> from Sam Amick of The Athletic, Fischer says the Bucks are one team monitoring Porter\u2019s situation as they look for roster upgrades around Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a>. Assuming he plays well in his return from a torn Achilles tendon, which is expected to occur in January, Pelicans guard Dejounte Murray<\/a> is another player the Bucks could pursue ahead of the deadline, multiple sources tell Fischer.<\/p>\n

Although the Pistons have not yet called the Nets about Porter, they\u2019re considered a potential suitor for the 27-year-old, Fischer reports. Detroit is my favorite theoretical landing spot for Porter, as he would provide a secondary scorer and top-tier shooter alongside Cade Cunningham<\/a>. As Fischer writes, the Pistons aren\u2019t expected to make an all-in move for Anthony Davis<\/a> or Lauri Markkanen<\/a>, but Porter makes less money than both of those players and likely wouldn\u2019t cost as much to acquire as Markkanen.<\/p>\n

The Warriors have considered making a run at Porter, sources tell Fischer, and head coach Steve Kerr praised the 6\u201910\u201d forward after Monday\u2019s game in Brooklyn. But a two-team deal between the Nets and Warriors appears unlikely right now, as Brooklyn doesn\u2019t seem high on Jonathan Kuminga, whose outgoing salary would be necessary for matching purposes.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s unclear if they\u2019ll be buyers or sellers and they aren\u2019t expected to pick a direction until closer to the deadline, the Bulls are another possible suitor for Porter, according to Fischer, who says Chicago was in serious talks to acquire Porter from Denver last year for Zach LaVine. Obviously the trade didn\u2019t occur and LaVine is no longer a Bull, but it shows Chicago\u2019s front office has an affinity for Porter.<\/p>\n

The Hawks and Sixers are two other teams who expressed interest in Porter when he was still a Nugget, but neither club seems to be targeting him this season, Fischer adds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As we relayed in a Front Office article earlier on Thursday, Nets forward Michael Porter Jr. is an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3773],"tags":[495,7,2878,296,188,3860,867,976,562,6,297],"class_list":{"0":"post-510936","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-pistons","8":"tag-anthony-davis","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-dejounte-murray","11":"tag-detroit","12":"tag-detroit-pistons","13":"tag-detroitpistons","14":"tag-jonathan-kuminga","15":"tag-lauri-markkanen","16":"tag-michael-porter-jr","17":"tag-nba","18":"tag-pistons"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115823118438351871","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}