Michael Porter Jr. has looked like two different players on either side of the All-Star break, and the numbers don\u2019t need much help telling the story.<\/p>\n
Before the break, Porter was building the kind of season that usually earns you a real All-Star conversation. In 41 games, he averaged 25.0 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists while shooting 47.7% from the field, 38.5% from 3-point range and 85.3% at the free-throw line. That wasn\u2019t a hot week. That was a half-season of production, the kind that puts a scorer in the room even if he doesn\u2019t end up getting the call.<\/p>\n
Since the break, it\u2019s been a different picture. In four appearances, Porter\u2019s averaging 20.0 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.0 assists, and his efficiency has slipped with it: 43.8% overall from the field, 17.2% from deep.<\/p>\n
The long ball, in particular, has betrayed him. He\u2019s 5-for-29 from distance over his last four games.<\/p>\n
The thing is, this slump has a shape. Porter\u2019s still converting his 2-point field goals at a 65.7% clip. That\u2019s not a player who\u2019s lost his touch everywhere. That\u2019s a player whose jumper isn\u2019t cooperating, even while the rest of the scoring package is still alive. The misses stand out because that shot is usually the cleanest part of what he does.<\/p>\n
Porter doesn\u2019t shy away from it. He\u2019ll tell you he hasn\u2019t been good enough lately and he\u2019ll tell you why he thinks it happened. He pointed to the timing and routine around the All-Star break, to the way rhythm can disappear when a shooter stops playing, even briefly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could be playing better,\u201d Porter said. \u201cI\u2019ve got to get back in rhythm. Before the All-Star break I didn\u2019t play a couple games, and then I honestly didn\u2019t do much over the break, so I\u2019ve got to get back in rhythm and play better.\u201d<\/p>\n
He explained it the way real shooters do, with words that sound less like a press conference and more like a guy talking through his own film in his head. Timing is fragile. Feel isn\u2019t guaranteed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the feel. It\u2019s the timing,\u201d Porter said. \u201cMy shot hasn\u2019t felt this off for the last four or five games. That\u2019s what happens when you\u2019re out of rhythm and you don\u2019t play for a while. People don\u2019t understand that you can lose your timing in two or three days of not playing. I think not playing before the break and not getting in the gym much during it, I\u2019m paying the price for it, but I think I\u2019ll get back to it sooner rather than later.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re looking for a tactical explanation, he doesn\u2019t offer much mystery there, either. Porter insists defenses haven\u2019t changed the rules on him. He\u2019s seeing the same closeouts and the same attention, and he\u2019s missing shots he normally expects to make.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, they\u2019re still guarding me the same way,\u201d Porter said. \u201cThey\u2019re closing out tough, trying to blitz handoffs. I\u2019m shooting tough shots, but they\u2019re shots I normally make and I\u2019m missing some I feel like I should make. I just have to get back to that good feeling when it leaves my hand.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez keeps it, too. The Nets head coach isn\u2019t selling panic, and he\u2019s not pretending the drop-off doesn\u2019t exist. He\u2019s basically saying the math will normalize if Porter keeps doing the right things, because the process hasn\u2019t collapsed.<\/p>\n
Fern\u00e1ndez has repeatedly stressed that he doesn\u2019t think opponents are guarding Porter any differently than they were before the break, even when the best defender is attached to him and a second body shows up. He\u2019s also liked what he\u2019s seen from Porter when he\u2019s cutting with purpose, finishing those plays and putting pressure on the rim. The shots haven\u2019t fallen, but the work hasn\u2019t stopped.<\/p>\n
Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s bigger point is the one every coach makes to a shooter who\u2019s pressing: there are ways to impact the game when the 3 isn\u2019t falling. Get into the paint. Cut. Make the simple play. Force help to move, then re-space and keep the floor honest. Keep letting it fly, too, because the worst thing a shooter can do is start acting like he\u2019s not one.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s worth remembering when the post-break stat line starts to feel like a verdict. This is four appearances since the All-Star break, and 41 games before it. Four games can twist any perimeter shooter\u2019s splits. Forty-one games usually tell you who a player is.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also a human layer here that isn\u2019t hard to see. It was clear the idea of getting his first All-Star nod meant a lot to Porter. He didn\u2019t get it. Maybe that\u2019s weighing on him. Maybe it isn\u2019t. Maybe this is just the kind of slump every great scorer is entitled to, because that\u2019s the nature of the game. Maybe with the season almost over and the playoffs well out of reach, motivation comes and goes in waves.<\/p>\n
Either way, the point is the same: a cold stretch shouldn\u2019t swallow the season whole.<\/p>\n
Porter\u2019s admitted this year has required a different kind of mental approach. He\u2019s called it a learning curve, a new experience, and an adjustment from seasons when the calendar after the break was all about ramping up for playoff basketball. But he\u2019s also been adamant the work still matters, even in a developmental stretch where the standings aren\u2019t the point.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a new situation that I\u2019ve been in, but no basketball game is meaningless,\u201d Porter said. \u201cIt\u2019s all part of the journey. We\u2019re not just looking at this year \u2014 we\u2019re looking at the next one, two, three, four, five years. All these games matter for growth, continuity and chemistry. Sometimes it\u2019s hard to focus on that, but we\u2019ve got to come in and work every day and realize it\u2019s a bigger picture. At the end of the day, we\u2019re playing basketball, a game we all love.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Porter Jr. has looked like two different players on either side of the All-Star break, and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3767],"tags":[22611,10263,7,670,247,3803,562,6,671,82211],"class_list":{"0":"post-625263","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn-nets","8":"tag-3-pointer","9":"tag-all-star-break","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-brooklyn","12":"tag-brooklyn-nets","13":"tag-brooklynnets","14":"tag-michael-porter-jr","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-nets","17":"tag-shooting-slump"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116134856158851458","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625263","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=625263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}