Michael Porter Jr. criticized the Nuggets’ play calling and got called out for it

Oh man.

When Michael Porter Jr. finally got playing time for the Nuggets this season, he showed out.

He didn’t make first-team All-Bubble for no reason. He’s an absolute bucket and should have a pretty bright career ahead of him if he’s able to stay healthy.

But, despite all of that, he overstepped his boundaries a bit on Wednesday when he publicly called out Nuggets coach Mike Malone’s play calling in a post game press conference.

Porter Jr. had 15 points in the first half of the game but went without a shot in the second half. Porter was clearly frustrated that the Nuggets offense went away from him.

When speaking to the media after the game, he voiced a bit of that frustration by saying they needed to get more players involved outside of Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray — you know, just their two best players.

“That’s really up to the play calls, that’s really up to the coaches. Who they want to put the ball in who’s hands. We kept going to Jok and Mal, and I think they’re two amazing players. You can never get mad at that. But I just think, to beat that team, we’ve got to get more players involved, we’ve got to move the ball a bit better. We can’t be predictable against that team.” 

Sheesh. That’s not a good look at all. This isn’t going to go over well.

It’s pointless to debate whether Porter Jr. is right or not here. He’s complaining about all of the touches going to the team’s two best players, but that’s kind of just how basketball works.

What’s more concerning here is that he was willing to air this grievance out publicly without talking to his team and his coach about it first or just going through a film session to see why they might’ve went away from him. He’s just calling them out.

It wasn’t a good look. Damian Lillard called him out for it.

So did Kendrick Perkins.

This just isn’t a good look for Porter — especially when you dive into the numbers.

Jokic and Murray are the Nuggets’ offensive fulcrums and they’re getting most of the touches because of it. But it’s not like they don’t pass the ball. You know who doesn’t, though? Michael Porter Jr.

So, yeah. Not the greatest look. And definitely not the time to do something like this when your team just fell into a 3-1 hole.

Hopefully, they can hash this thing out and get back to playing good basketball again.

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