Porter becomes the fourth member of the 2018 draft class to sign a max rookie extension with the super-max provision.
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The Denver Nuggets just locked forward Michael Porter Jr. up for the foreseeable future. Porter has agreed to a five year designated max extension, according to multiple reports. The deal is worth 172 million dollars, but it can jump to 207 million dollars. That is if Porter reaches the designated max criteria by making an All-NBA team during the upcoming campaign.
Michael Porter Jr. has agreed on a five-year max contract extension with the Nuggets worth up to $207 million, per @wojespn pic.twitter.com/3sFsigDE6o
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) September 27, 2021
The fact that the two sides were able to reach an agreement Monday isn’t especially surprising. Such were the comments that Porter made earlier this month regarding his extension talks. “Everything is sounding great, in the direction that I’d like to be headed,” he said. “Nothing is set in stone, but everything is going smooth as far as that goes.”
Porter becomes the fourth member of the 2018 draft class to sign a max rookie extension with the super-max provision. Luka Doncic, Trae Young and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had previously done the same. The Nuggets selected Porter with the 14th overall pick of the ’18 draft, but he missed the entirety of what would have been his rookie season due to a lingering back injury.
In the two seasons since, he has shown a ton of potential. As a rookie, Porter averaged 9.3 points and 4.7 rebounds in 16.4 minutes per game. Last season, his playing time and stats both jumped up in a major way. He appeared in 61 games (and started in 54 of them) for Denver and averaged 19.0 points. 7.3 rebounds, and 1.1 assists in 31.3 minutes per performance. In the process, Porter established himself as a legitimate go-to guy on the offensive end for the Nuggets, and clearly a player that the team has extremely high hopes for.
Porter’s ability to serve as a secondary scoring option alongside reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokic will be especially important during the upcoming campaign, as Nuggets guard Jamal Murray continues to recover from the torn ACL that he suffered last season.
This is the second major extension that the Nuggets have handed out this month. Two weeks ago, the team also agreed to a four-year, 92 million dollar extension with forward Aaron Gordon after trading for him in March. Denver’s top four players — Jokic, Murray, Gordon and Porter — are now locked up for the new two seasons, at least. Jokic is next in line when it comes to an extension, as he’ll be eligible to sign a supermax next summer.
