Michael Porter Jr. hit a clean milestone in the middle of another Nets loss, and the timing said plenty about where things stand in Brooklyn.
Porter drilled a 3-pointer out of his familiar dribble-handoff look with Moritz Wagner to reach 7,000 career points, then kept pouring it on. He came into Monday’s game against the New York Knicks needing 17 points and got there in the third quarter, putting Brooklyn ahead 73-69 before the fourth-quarter unraveling.
By the end of the night, Porter had 35 points on 13-for-24 shooting, including 7-for-11 from deep, along with seven rebounds and four assists.
The 6-foot-10 wing now sits in rare company. Porter, Luka Dončić, James Harden, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Lauri Markkanen are the only players with at least 7,000 points, 2,500 rebounds and 1,000 made 3-pointers in their careers.
It took him 336 days to get from 6,000 points to 7,000. He crossed the 6,000-point mark on Dec. 1, 2025, against the Charlotte Hornets.
Brooklyn has watched Porter’s scoring game expand since acquiring him last offseason. He averaged a career-best 24.2 points last season, and coach Jordi Fernández gave him the freedom to operate as the primary shot creator. That meant more shots, more self-created offense and more downhill attacks off simple dribble moves.
At the same time, Fernández kept leaning into the off-ball game that helped Porter become a championship piece with the Denver Nuggets. The dribble hand-offs and flare screens have continued to give him clean chances to score.
This season, Porter is again producing in that same lane, but with a slightly different feel. He’s leaning more into the role-player traits he brings next to Julius Randle, and his early 38.1% shooting from three is closer to his usual mark.
Even with Porter helping keep Brooklyn’s offense afloat in close games, there’s a cloud hanging over his future. He and the Nets remain stuck on a contract extension, with no real movement since July 6, when he became eligible.
Porter is looking for $40 million per year, a number that lands close to maximum territory. Brooklyn hasn’t shown urgency to get a deal done, and the longer this stretches out, the less appealing he becomes as an asset.
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Nolan Traor gave Brooklyn a lift with 17 points and four assists, and the young guard was one of the few Nets able to generate consistent offense. The bigger issue was on the other end, where perimeter defense remained shaky and the free throw gap added to the uphill climb, leaving Brooklyn with another reminder of how thin the margin has been in this matchup. [Read more 🡒]