Michael Porter Jr. has given the Brooklyn Nets exactly the kind of season that forces a front office to start thinking long term, and now the fanbase has weighed in on what that future should look like.
NetsDaily recently polled Nets fans on the right price for a Porter extension, and the results landed squarely on the higher end of the spectrum. A majority of respondents - 51% - said the sweet spot sits between $25 million and $34 million per year. Another 31% placed the proper range even higher, between $35 million and $44 million annually.
Put those numbers together, and the message is pretty clear: if Brooklyn locks Porter in somewhere between $25 million and $44 million a season, the reaction should be largely positive.
That’s not exactly surprising after the year Porter just put together. The 28-year-old is coming off what many viewed as a breakthrough campaign, one that had All-Star buzz attached to it. He averaged 24.2 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game while shooting 46.3% from the field and 36.3% from three.
Brooklyn’s offseason is essentially wrapped up now that the draft, summer league and free agency are behind them, which means the focus shifts to keeping Porter in the fold. During the Las Vegas Summer League, there were reports that Porter’s camp would eventually talk with the Nets about an extension.
The ceiling is huge. Porter is eligible for a four-year, $234 million extension, which would work out to as much as $58.5 million per season if Brooklyn went all the way to the max years and money.
Around the league, plenty of people expect that number not to be the final answer. But based on this poll, Nets fans seem perfectly comfortable with Porter landing close enough to it.
In Other News...
Sean Marks Faces A Nets Debate That Wont Go Away
Brooklyns offseason settled into a familiar debate once the Nets landed Julius Randle in a trade with the Timberwolves, then moved on with Sean Marks choosing to hold onto the clubs assets instead of making a bigger swing. The result is a roster that now leans on Randle and Michael Porter Jr., with the front office clearly betting that patience and flexibility can still pay off as the next season approaches.
Still, the conversation around whether Brooklyn should have chased Jaylen Brown has not gone away. Browns move from Boston to Philadelphia, in the deal that sent Paul George and draft picks the other way, only sharpened the question of what the Nets passed on, and it leaves Marks facing a familiar kind of scrutiny: whether preserving future options was the right call, or whether this was a chance to turn a good summer into a truly aggressive one. [Read more 🡒]
Nets Get A Real NBA Cup Test With More Hope Than Expected
The NBA Cup draw handed Brooklyn a group that looks more demanding than it first appeared, with the Nets set to meet the Pistons, Raptors, Magic and Bucks in East Group A. On paper, it is the kind of field that can tell you a lot about where a roster really stands, especially for a team that has been busy reshaping itself with the additions of Julius Randle, Keon Ellis and Mo Wagner.
The wrinkle is Milwaukee, which no longer looks like the same annual heavyweight after trading Giannis Antetokounmpo to the Heat, a move that points toward a different direction for the franchise. Even with that shift, Brooklyn still drew mostly playoff-caliber competition, so the Cup stage should serve as an early measuring stick for how far the Nets have come and how much more work they still have ahead. [Read more 🡒]