“An abundance of persistence and an assist from Michael Porter Jr. are paying off for Zeke Nnaji ahead of his fifth NBA season.
“Honestly, the player on the team that made me really like understand how much I need to work is Mike,” Nnaji said after Denver’s 124-94 preseason loss to the Thunder on Tuesday. “MPJ, he comes in every night and seeing him come in every night, it was inspiring.”
If a player on a max contract was working like that, Nnaji figured he should follow Porter’s lead. Even if he was tired, sore or slightly banged up, he wanted to be in the gym. Nnaji and Porter would often head to the gym around the same time, 7 or 8 p.m., and go through drills or play one-on-one.”
petarisawesomeo
Yeah Zeke is a good reminder that growth and development are not linear. I finally gave up on the idea of him becoming a contributing role player late in the regular season, but credit to him to continuing to work hard and hit a critical mass where it has started to show up on the court. Last night’s game really solidified for me the idea that Zeke is a different and better player than what we have seen from him in previous years. The Suns game could have been chalked up to playing against scrubs late in a preseason game. Doing the same thing against OKC starters definitely makes it feel legit.
Ultimately this may be Zeke’s last season in Denver regardless; an improved Zeke plus his contract can be useful in a trade to bring in more shooting, plus the team probably views Holmes as a less expensive replacement for the backup 4 spot. Either way, his growth will be extremely valuable early in the regular season as PWat comes back from injury.
LACIRCA2044
Tbf a big reason Zeke looks good this preseason is he’s not playing the 5. They’ve been forcing him to the last 2 years and he just doesn’t fit that role, he’s not big enough or athletic enough and cannot track the ball for rebounds. The team needs 3 point shooting and he does seem to offer that
FernBlueEyes
Love to see Zeke is healthy
Lol69HaHaHa
I think MPJ has become a really underrated player because of his contract.
Yes he gets payed a lot, but reasonably speaking he is a 30M a year player anyway.
He is legit only overpayed a couple of milion realisticly speaking.
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This article by Vinny Benedetto is not paywalled.
“An abundance of persistence and an assist from Michael Porter Jr. are paying off for Zeke Nnaji ahead of his fifth NBA season.
“Honestly, the player on the team that made me really like understand how much I need to work is Mike,” Nnaji said after Denver’s 124-94 preseason loss to the Thunder on Tuesday. “MPJ, he comes in every night and seeing him come in every night, it was inspiring.”
If a player on a max contract was working like that, Nnaji figured he should follow Porter’s lead. Even if he was tired, sore or slightly banged up, he wanted to be in the gym. Nnaji and Porter would often head to the gym around the same time, 7 or 8 p.m., and go through drills or play one-on-one.”
Yeah Zeke is a good reminder that growth and development are not linear. I finally gave up on the idea of him becoming a contributing role player late in the regular season, but credit to him to continuing to work hard and hit a critical mass where it has started to show up on the court. Last night’s game really solidified for me the idea that Zeke is a different and better player than what we have seen from him in previous years. The Suns game could have been chalked up to playing against scrubs late in a preseason game. Doing the same thing against OKC starters definitely makes it feel legit.
Ultimately this may be Zeke’s last season in Denver regardless; an improved Zeke plus his contract can be useful in a trade to bring in more shooting, plus the team probably views Holmes as a less expensive replacement for the backup 4 spot. Either way, his growth will be extremely valuable early in the regular season as PWat comes back from injury.
Tbf a big reason Zeke looks good this preseason is he’s not playing the 5. They’ve been forcing him to the last 2 years and he just doesn’t fit that role, he’s not big enough or athletic enough and cannot track the ball for rebounds. The team needs 3 point shooting and he does seem to offer that
Love to see Zeke is healthy
I think MPJ has become a really underrated player because of his contract.
Yes he gets payed a lot, but reasonably speaking he is a 30M a year player anyway.
He is legit only overpayed a couple of milion realisticly speaking.
Future MIP incoming