Otto Porter

[Kanyewest]

Very impressed with Porter this preseason. He may even make me regret saying that we should have drafted Noel over him. He has a smoothness of motion that reminds me a bit of Scottie Pippen.

I'm not going to get too excited just yet. We'll see how he looks once the scouting report comes out. I'm also concerned about that stick-figure lower body. I hope he can hold up to the grind.

Serious question: What evidence is there to show that skinnier players are less durable? This one of those truisms that may or may not actually be true. I wish b-r was set up to search by height/weight.

Also, Noel came into the league skinnier than Porter and with known injury issues. It will be interesting to watch what happens.

[dlts20]

Is Otto Porter athletic enough to play the 2

Trying Porter at the 2 was literally the first thing they did when he was rookie in summer league last year. It wasn't a good fit for him. I think he's purely a 3 in the Tayshaun Prince mold, but a significantly better shooter. Once his on-ball defense matures, he'll be a pretty complete player IMO. Probably not prolific in any one area, but complete.

forgot all about that butt I hope that isnt Witt's line of thinking without even trying again. He was a scared rookie thrown on the court with a bunch of guys who never played togther before, who dont know the system and with an downright awful pg. He's also asked to be the star their while he is a role player for us right now. Give him a look.

Plus he can play the 3 on O while PP plays the 2 but he can still guard the 2 on defense. It was also Witt himself who said he doesnt really have 2's & 3's but instead he has wings and they are interchangeable. He doesnt need to start but he deserves to get more than just PP's backup minutes. The same with Dre. Both should get more then just the backup wall & pp's minutes

[stevemcqueen1]

Very impressed with Porter this preseason. He may even make me regret saying that we should have drafted Noel over him. He has a smoothness of motion that reminds me a bit of Scottie Pippen.

I'm not going to get too excited just yet. We'll see how he looks once the scouting report comes out. I'm also concerned about that stick-figure lower body. I hope he can hold up to the grind.

Yeah that smoothness stands out to me too. Beal is kind of like that too. But Otto even more so. He just kind of glides around the floor, searching for shots. Never looks like he's really trying hard to get to a particular spot. Looks comfortable improvising too. That's where I think his upside trumps the pure 3&D player like Ariza. Porter is a very instinctive scorer and he's got a good inside-out arsenal. Much better than you'd expect from a guy who is mainly just going to be expected to serve as a third or fourth option and play defense.

I think that smoothness is what lulls you into thinking he's a lot less athletic than he really is. His combine numbers seemed a lot better than what he showed on court. But then you'll see the athleticism from time to time when he catches a tough lob or gets up high to block a shot or pick off passes for breakaways.

He does have very skinny legs. I'm concerned about him just getting bodied up and moved around and having to foul a lot.

[nuposse04]

Very impressed with Porter this preseason. He may even make me regret saying that we should have drafted Noel over him. He has a smoothness of motion that reminds me a bit of Scottie Pippen.

I'm not going to get too excited just yet. We'll see how he looks once the scouting report comes out. I'm also concerned about that stick-figure lower body. I hope he can hold up to the grind.

Serious question: What evidence is there to show that skinnier players are less durable? This one of those truisms that may or may not actually be true. I wish b-r was set up to search by height/weight.

I can't speak to athletes, but one function of muscle mass in a normal person is to absorb some degree of shock or trauma. Some people have stronger bones outright then others but generally, muscle does serve some protective purpose as well.

http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=a00112

I imagine that concept of shock applies for fractures derived acutely as well. I did a google scholar search and couldn't come up withing anything definitive. It is an interesting topic, I'll look into it some more but I think the physiology would err on the side of having your players have an "adequate level" of muscle mass, what that level of muscle mass is...I don't know :/

[stevemcqueen1]

Is Otto Porter athletic enough to play the 2

Trying Porter at the 2 was literally the first thing they did when he was rookie in summer league last year. It wasn't a good fit for him. I think he's purely a 3 in the Tayshaun Prince mold, but a significantly better shooter. Once his on-ball defense matures, he'll be a pretty complete player IMO. Probably not prolific in any one area, but complete.

forgot all about that butt I hope that isnt Witt's line of thinking without even trying again. He was a scared rookie thrown on the court with a bunch of guys who never played togther before, who dont know the system and with an downright awful pg. He's also asked to be the star their while he is a role player for us right now. Give him a look.

Plus he can play the 3 on O while PP plays the 2 but he can still guard the 2 on defense. It was also Witt himself who said he doesnt really have 2's & 3's but instead he has wings and they are interchangeable. He doesnt need to start but he deserves to get more than just PP's backup minutes. The same with Dre. Both should get more then just the backup wall & pp's minutes

I would want Porter guarding forwards. Guarding twos would take him too far from the rim IMO. He can be a useful rim protector and rebounder with that length and knack for positioning.

[Nivek]

Very impressed with Porter this preseason. He may even make me regret saying that we should have drafted Noel over him. He has a smoothness of motion that reminds me a bit of Scottie Pippen.

I'm not going to get too excited just yet. We'll see how he looks once the scouting report comes out. I'm also concerned about that stick-figure lower body. I hope he can hold up to the grind.

Serious question: What evidence is there to show that skinnier players are less durable? This one of those truisms that may or may not actually be true. I wish b-r was set up to search by height/weight.

I can't speak to athletes, but one function of muscle mass in a normal person is to absorb some degree of shock or trauma. Some people have stronger bones outright then others but generally, muscle does serve some protective purpose as well.

http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=a00112

I imagine that concept of shock applies for fractures derived acutely as well. I did a google scholar search and couldn't come up withing anything definitive. It is an interesting topic, I'll look into it some more but I think the physiology would err on the side of having your players have an "adequate level" of muscle mass, what that level of muscle mass is...I don't know :/

That makes a lot of sense, but it then begs the question: What's "adequate"? And, could carrying "too much" muscle mass could contribute to injuries because the higher weight might increase the stresses of jumping and landing. Maybe being lighter reduces those effects somewhat.

Also worth considering is that Porter is just 21 years old. Odds are, he'll put on another 15 pounds pretty naturally over the next couple years.

[dobrojim]

Maybe what some are describing as gliding around the court I have a different
definition of - He seems to have really good instincts or intuition about where
he needs to be on the court. He's long and now appears to be showing that he
has a decent to good shot out to the 3 pt line. I don't think we need to worry
about him not playing esp to start the year with Beal and Webster both out.

re weight - at the 3, I don't think it'll be much of an issue. He'll fill out
in the fullness of time. He is almost exactly the same age as Beal ie a young pup.
Noel's weight could be a bigger issue given that he presumably will be a post player
and needs to be able to hold his ground.

[nuposse04]

I can't speak to athletes, but one function of muscle mass in a normal person is to absorb some degree of shock or trauma. Some people have stronger bones outright then others but generally, muscle does serve some protective purpose as well.

http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=a00112

I imagine that concept of shock applies for fractures derived acutely as well. I did a google scholar search and couldn't come up withing anything definitive. It is an interesting topic, I'll look into it some more but I think the physiology would err on the side of having your players have an "adequate level" of muscle mass, what that level of muscle mass is...I don't know :/

That makes a lot of sense, but it then begs the question: What's "adequate"? And, could carrying "too much" muscle mass could contribute to injuries because the higher weight might increase the stresses of jumping and landing. Maybe being lighter reduces those effects somewhat.

Also worth considering is that Porter is just 21 years old. Odds are, he'll put on another 15 pounds pretty naturally over the next couple years.

Just for the record, I am in accordance with you, I think Porter will add on the proper weight within the next few seasons as well.

I do think it is reasonable to think he may fade towards the end of this season if he doesn't find the time to add any more girth...but I do expect the eventual return of a *healthy* Webster to ameliorate that.

As to what is adequate for the NBA game, obviously you want guys with lean muscle...how much of it...ehhh I guess that is also a function of a players bone density and predisposed genetic factors. I think the SAFE route for all NBA franchise is to encourage healthy weight gain for their young players. So long as they don't add so much muscle that is detrimental to their mobility/athleticism it shouldn't be an issue.

One study done on women:

http://www.thebonejournal.com/article/S8756-3282(02)00739-1/abstract?cc=y

basically post menopause women want to maintain back muscle because they should be more prone to vertebral fractures afterwards.

It would be an interesting study to do moving forward, but there are a lot of parameters that would have to be accounted for and done over a long period of time, plus the funding...

For now, I'm content with Porter's trajectory

[LyricalRico]

I can't speak to athletes, but one function of muscle mass in a normal person is to absorb some degree of shock or trauma. Some people have stronger bones outright then others but generally, muscle does serve some protective purpose as well.

http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=a00112

I imagine that concept of shock applies for fractures derived acutely as well. I did a google scholar search and couldn't come up withing anything definitive. It is an interesting topic, I'll look into it some more but I think the physiology would err on the side of having your players have an "adequate level" of muscle mass, what that level of muscle mass is...I don't know :/

That makes a lot of sense, but it then begs the question: What's "adequate"? And, could carrying "too much" muscle mass could contribute to injuries because the higher weight might increase the stresses of jumping and landing. Maybe being lighter reduces those effects somewhat.

I agree that the thought of an ideal bone-to-muscle ratio makes sense. IIRC correctly, Greg Oden said one reason for his knee problems was the pressure of his enormous quads on his kneecaps.

[fishercob]

I went to the game, Wall was extremely impressive. Nene/Gortat when on will destroy most teams in the East with their physicality. Neither of them were very serious after the first quarter.

I'm excited to see Pierce school Porter throughout the year. Prefer to keep Pierce as a starter for a number of reasons.......obviously the first being he's a HOF player who still has a few years left. The second is Porter has proven absolutely nothing as of yet. Kwame Brown dominated summer league and preseason one season.

If they keep John Lucas 3rd, I'll be devastated........the guy is just Maynor level awful.

In an ideal world, it's not an either/or. If the Wiz had a little more health and depth on the wings, Porter and Pierce would make a nice pair up front in spots. I noticed on the Ft Belvoir practice telecast that Wittman made specific mention of Pierce's versatility and that he showed last season how effective he was as a stretch 4.

While injuries to Webster, Beal and Rice will limit/delay it, I'd love to see lineups like:

Wall-Beal-Porter-Pierce-Gortat
Miller-Rice/Beal-Porter-Pierce-Nene
Et Cetera...

Witt also mentioned in the last week or so that he envisions Otto playing the 4 in future seasons once he gets some more "froot loops" on him.

I believe in Otto. Very excited for his opportunity. I think he's got a ton of confidence right now and he's going to play well.

[keynote]

Okay, I'll take a few swings:

- I think this is the season for Otto to come out of his shell.
- It looks like his bros are beating him to the pizza.

[hands11]

Our buddy is back with a video.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7R-K9FOmRI[/youtube][/quote]

[JWizmentality]

Okay, I'll take a few swings:

- I think this is the season for Otto to come out of his shell.
- It looks like his bros are beating him to the pizza.

What you have seen...cannot be unseen.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

My thought:

It hasn't been that many years since this kid Otto Porter went trick or treating for real.

[The Consiglieri]

Hoping and praying Porter proves me wrong concerning being an idiotic draft pick with Noel still on the board, and in general. Loathed the pick, still do, but praying I'm wrong, and considering his work ethic, and mental make up, if he has the talent to do it, he will, and that's the only question, he'll definitely work hard enough.

Preseason gave me a tiny bit of hope, fingers crossed, if Wall-Beal-Porter came through, we could become a legit target for free agent front court guys, particularly considering all 3 are unselfish, and team oriented, they aren't Kobe's. Would be really attractive to a FA.

[dobrojim]

I liked what I saw from OP last night. He will make a positive contribution this
year barring another injury.

[Donkey McDonkerton]

DAMN, porter is ripped!

[nate33]

While injuries to Webster, Beal and Rice will limit/delay it, I'd love to see lineups like:

Wall-Beal-Porter-Pierce-Gortat
Miller-Rice/Beal-Porter-Pierce-Nene
Et Cetera...

Yeah, when Beal and Webster are both back, and with Otto playing like a legit rotation-caliber player (if not a legit starter), it's really going to force Randy to play Pierce at PF just to get him minutes.

I would love to see a minutes breakdown like this:

SG: Beal(34), Webster(14)
SF: Porter(28), Webster(12), Pierce(8)
PF: Pierce(20)

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Porter could be an even better player than Beal some day.

(Posted to facilitate discussion, pro and con).

[BruceO]

Porter could be an even better player than Beal some day.

(Posted to facilitate discussion, pro and con).

as a prospect, when I compare him to guys who were within our grasp like kawhi and Paul george I liked him more than them. last year happened and I started second guessing myself saying he isn't athletic and he can't shoot so those guys are better..

but what can those guys do better than porter when they were in the same stage of development. He had equal size and length as they did so no advantage there and that's an advantage the rest of the elite small forwards have had. having porters exact length and height. weight is an issue for now and strength but we seen durant and Davis coming in skinny and getting stronger. In fact It's a good thing coming In skinny with a frame that can add weight cause you won't have weight gain problems later.

He is just as Intelligent If not more from a basketball iq perspective. I think kawhi has a good mentality as well and a relentless nature and focus. but I think porter is better offensively and kawhis numbers have not peaked to a very high number.

defensively those other guys are elite at this stage of the game. They both have a high steal rate of about 1.8 per game. porter is trending towards being good.

overall I hope to compare to those guys and the opportunities they've got I hope they play porter 30 minutes a game. He doesn't make mental mistakes, is solid and plays both sides of the game. In that time he will get or if hope he gets 13 ppg on 47/38/80 shooting. 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 spg and 0.8 bpg to be on pace to become like those other guys. already I think he can do all those things at that rate. only thing he's lagging behind is rebounding.

If you gave me those three as prospects id have a hard time picking. porter got picked earlier than all of them and achieved more In college.