Michael Porter Jr. shared his honest thoughts on Tuesday about one pitfall of playing with Nikola Jokic.
Jokic has been the Denver Nuggets’ savior and the team’s playmaking savant, capable of making passes not even some of the best point guards in history could have conceived. Jokic is the Nuggets’ offensive hub for a good reason — the man is just that good.
But Porter believes playing with Jokic has somewhat hurt Jamal Murray’s reputation throughout the Kentucky guard’s career. During a recent appearance on “The Old Man and the Three” podcast, Porter was asked about fans not appreciating Murray as much as they should.
“When you play alongside Joker, I don’t know if this is just all of Serbia or if it’s just fans in general, but they’ll just call you a Joker merchant,” Porter said. “They’ll think you’re only good because you play with Joker. He obviously makes players way better. In a lot of cases, he makes players better.
“But as you see, even without Joker, Jamal [Murray] can go score 40. Peyton Watson. Certain players, as good as Joker makes them, they’re still good basketball players by themselves. Because Joker has been so healthy throughout his career, people just don’t give Jamal the credit he deserves.”
Murray earned his first All-Star nod this season, which coincided with Jokic spending a career-long stint on the injured list. While the Murray-Jokic tandem will go down as one of the most iconic duos in history, Murray proved he could keep the team afloat for a lengthy stretch even without his Serbian co-star.
However, Murray would probably be the first to tell folks that fan perception hardly matters when taking into account that Jokic is the biggest reason he owns a championship ring.
Porter was talking about Murray, but he must also have been thinking about his own reputation. The Brooklyn Nets forward has played at a near-All-Star level as well since leaving Denver and becoming a first option on a young team. Porter had been used mostly as a spot-up shooter with the Nuggets, which was his ideal role when sharing the floor with Jokic.
Jokic undoubtedly elevates players around him, but that doesn’t mean some of his talented teammates over the years haven’t had to make sacrifices for the good of the team.
