Michael Porter Jr. was at the Fanatics Fan Fest in New York Friday and made a bit of news both on the free agency of his friend and former Denver Nuggets teammate Peyton Watson as well as his own.
While most pundits do not put the Brooklyn Nets in the forefront of potential landing spots for the 6’9” 23-year-old Watson, there he was with Porter Jr. yesterday at the Jacob Javits Center on Manhattan’s West Side pushing the idea. As a fan recorded, MPJ has not giving up on bringing PWat to Brooklyn…
His key line from an impromtu conversation involving him, Watson and a fan went something like this:
“He boutta sign for $130 million. I’m tryna get him in Brooklyn, though.”
At the moment, pundits think Watson who averaged 14.6 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists with 49/41/73 splits, is likely to return to Denver or wind up in a sign-and-trade with the Bucks, Clippers or Hawks. That’s what Tony Jones wrote for The Athletic Friday. He doesn’t even mention the Nets, in fact. Last week, Jake Fischer also didn’t mention Brooklyn in his analysis of Watson’s free agency. The Nuggets want to keep him, but basically have tried to scare off competitors by indicating they will match any offer for the restricted free agent. Sign-and-trades, while possible, are tricky under the new CBA.
The $130 million figure MPJ mentioned would seem to match the prevailing league wiseom that Watson wants a starting salary of around $25 million and a five-year deal.
It’s always possible that Porter Jr. was trolling fans but the close friendship between the two has been one big reason that, until recently, the Nets were thought to be legitimate contenders for Watson’s services. Porter mentored Watson in his early years in Denver. The Nets of course still have a deep cache of draft assets including 10 tradeable first round picks which became more valuable with the change of NBA lottery rules. Ironically, their biggest non-draft asset would have to be Porter.
Putting Watson aside, however, the comment by MPJ had additional revelance in that he readily admitted he was recruiting for his current team. This week, Sean Marks told media in Las Vegas that while he wants to MPJ back and happy, he was not in a rush to engage Marc Bartelstein. Two days later, Chris Haynes of TNT speculated that if there isn’t progress in talks on an extension, the Nets might deal MPJ, which seemed unlikely considering all the positive things the two sides have had to say about their relationship.
Porter, 28, will earn $40.8 million next season has been eligible since June 19 for a four-year extension worth as much as $234 million. It’s likely a final number would be more in the four year, $160 million range, however.
And in a live interview on ESPN from the FanFest, MPJ once again talked about his happiness with the Nets and their fans while adding “we’re building something special over there.”
“It’s really an honor because as an athlete because during the season, a lot of it is going to the gym, going to play games, coming home and you don’t get a chance a lot to interact with the fans and see how much love they really have. So to come out here and shake people’s hands and sign their autographs and take pictures of them is really an honor.”
Asked to compare his experience in Denver where he won a championship with last year in Brooklyn where he was mired in rebuild. Porter put this spin on things.
“Las year, it was a like new rookie season. It felt that drastic of a chance — in Denver being one of the younger guys, part of an established culture and winning a championship to come to Brooklyn and be the leader on the team, one of the oldest guys on the team — we have five rookies, youngest team in the NBA — was a completely different role that I had but it was soemting that I cherished and we’re building someon this special over there.”
There’s no urgency for the Nets to ink an extension with Porter. They have until next summer to finalize things. And it’s not at all absurd to suggest that Marks wants the additional team — and cap resources — to work on other possibilities. Perhaps PWat?
