Porter Jr. getting his point across

Michael Porter Jr. wasn’t shy about voicing some of his disillusionment when the Nets began the season with seven straight losses and 11 defeats in their first 12 games.

Now, the Nets’ strongest contender for a spot in the NBA All-Star Game is grinning from ear to ear.

All it took was for Brooklyn (6-17) to go 5-6 over its last 11 contests, with Porter leading the way in scoring in each of those victories. 

“He always has a smile on his face,” Nets coach Jordi Fernández revealed after Porter put up 35 points to go with nine rebounds, three assists, two steals and a blocked shot in Brooklyn’s 119-101 rout of New Orleans on Saturday in front of 17,055 fans at Downtown’s Barclays Center.

Porter matched his season high in scoring by going 14-of-23 from the field, draining half of his 10 3-pointers and making a pair from the free-throw line.

It was the 6-foot-10 forward’s third straight game with at least 30 points, matching the career-high streak he put together in Denver last February.

Porter spent his first six seasons with the Nuggets, who grabbed an NBA title in 2023 behind Nikola Jokić, Jamal Murray and the then-24-year-old Missouri native.

Traded to Brooklyn last summer in the deal that sent Cam Johnson to Denver, Porter has been hard at work trying to bring a winning pedigree to the youngest team in the NBA.

The Nets got five first-round picks in an historic haul during this year’s NBA Draft and have several other developing players of note that are forming a 21-and-under club on the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush.

Porter has lifted Brooklyn to wins in three of its last four contests. He took a rest for Thursday’s home loss to Utah before torching the Pelicans, who lost their sixth in a row while the Nets continued to press past their dismal start. 

Fernández, an assistant with the Nuggets before moving on to Sacramento prior to getting hired here last year, can see the difference in a player he worked alongside as a rookie.

“When I was in Denver he was the youngest,” Brooklyn’s second-year coach recalled. 

“It’s a big change now. It’s not easy to find your voice, but he’s doing it,”  added Fernández. “He’s leading by example. It’s pretty impressive. He embraces his teammates and talks to them, especially the young guys. That means a lot. That’s very important for our identity.”

Porter, who has never reached All-Star status, is emerging as Brooklyn’s clear front-runner for consideration.

He ranks  13th in the league in scoring with 25.8 points per game and paces the Nets with nearly a blocked shot per contest. Porter has already cracked the 30-point plateau eight times this year, establishing a new career high in that category on every occasion.

Always quick to deflect praise to teammates, Porter did the same when asked about his ongoing offensive onslaught. 

He pointed to center Nic Claxton’s growth as a multi-dimensional player, one who has become more adept at finding his teammates after penetrating the paint.

“We’re getting better at reading defenses. We’re learning each other’s games more. He’s looking for me more. We’re flowing better,” Porter said after Claxton put together a triple-double with 13 points, 11 boards and 10 assists on Saturday. 

“It’s all reads.” Porter added. “These guys make it easy. We’re getting at reading the offense”

It’s hard to imagine the Nets having a functional offense without Porter and Cam Thomas working side by side.

Brooklyn’s shooting guard has been out since Nov. 5 with a left hamstring strain that limited him to only 25 games a year ago. 

Porter has clearly had more shots since Thomas went down, but the quantity of those attempts hasn’t outweighed the quality.

Through his first 19 games in Brooklyn, Porter is hitting nearly half of his shots and almost 40% of his 3-pointers. He has drilled 17-of-33 from beyond the arc in the Nets’ last three wins.

And he’ll be at it again Friday, when the Nets visit Dallas.

“Growing up, playing basketball, I was a rhythm player,” Porter noted. 

“I was a tough shot-maker and I was a rhythm basketball player and once I feel in rhythm, then I feel very comfortable taking difficult shots.”

Knowing he’s assured of touching the ball on virtually every possession is something new to a player that had to be the third, and sometimes fourth, option on a team that was challenging for a title the last several years.

Here in Brooklyn, the offense has been flowing through Porter.

“I just felt like in Denver, you know, we were so stacked. A lot of guys had to have a lot of sacrifice, and I just didn’t really feel, you know, in rhythm all the time,” he ceded.

“Because we had so many weapons and some of those tougher shots that I’m capable of making, I think we could probably find a better shot in Denver.”

He’ll get all the shots he needs going forward in Brooklyn. 

And he’d like to share the ball more if the Nets can keep winning and finding ways to defy those who had them tanking for more high picks this year rather than contending for relativity and winning results.

“These guys make it easy,” insisted Porter.

“You know, if two guys come to me, it’s easy for Clax’ to just keep it and go to the rim and dunk the ball. So I just feel like we’re getting better and better as a team reading that offense.”

Tip-off in Dallas on Friday is slated for 8:30 p.m. ET.

The game will air locally on the YES Network.

NOTHING BUT NET: Not to be forgotten, veteran back-up center Day’Ron Sharpe had 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting in 19 minutes off the bench during Saturday’s win. He also piled up three rebounds, three assists, a steal and a blocked shot. … Noah Clowney and Terance Mann each had 10 points against the Pelicans. … After visiting the Mavericks, the Nets will return to Barclays to open a three-game homestand vs. Milwaukee on Sunday.