Brooklyn Nets forward Michael Porter Jr. has built his name on the same thing that made him so valuable in Denver: the jumper. At 6-foot-10 and 218 pounds, he’s one of the NBA’s most dangerous three-point shooters, and the nickname “Never Swing The Rock” traces back to the way he reads the floor and trusts his shot.
Porter broke down the label during an appearance on " The Dawg Talk Pod" with Philadelphia 76ers guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Jordan McGruder. He said that in the moment, he often feels like the shot is there, even if the film later tells a different story.
"In the game, I'm telling you, I feel open. But, when I'm looking back in the film, like ah, [I could've done] that swing, swing. He [whoever his teammate was that was open] might have had a better one, but it feels open," Porter said during his appearance on " The Dawg Talk Pod" with Philadelphia 76ers guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Jordan McGruder.
He said that everything looks available to him because of the way he gets the ball off, and pointed to the Nuggets’ offense as the place where the nickname really took hold.
"Everything feels open to me. I'm over the top with a release point up here.
It feels like it's open," Porter continued. "So, over there in that system [Nuggets], we are [playing with] the best player in the world.
Joker [Nikola Jokic} is touching the ball every possession. Then you got Jamal [Murray], who's very dominant.
He's a point guard, but he really wants to score. This is where the name Michael "Never Swing the Rock" Porter Jr. came from."
Porter, 28, is coming off the best season of his career with Brooklyn. 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-point range. He also set career highs in shots and points per game, and posted his highest assist numbers too, along with a career-best 18.2% assist percentage.
For Nets fans who watched him all season, the shooting was the headline, but Porter showed more than that as the year went on. The nickname may still follow him around the league, but now there’s at least a clear explanation for why it fits.
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