After canceling a workout for lottery teams due to a hip injury, Michael Porter Jr. has been cleared for second pro day evaluation by lottery clubs in Chicago on Friday, tweets Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports. Teams traveling to Chicago understand the purpose of Porter’s showcase tomorrow is a medical/physical evaluation, Charania adds.
It has been an odd 24 hours for Porter, who is widely expected to be a top-10 – or even top-five – pick in next week’s draft. The Missouri product originally canceled Friday’s scheduled workout due to a strained hip and spasms that prevented him from getting out of bed. Porter underwent an MRI shortly thereafter which showed a “positive review.”
“After being shut down to do strengthening/core stabilization work for his first 4 weeks in Chicago, and then being ramped up as hard as he was the last 3 weeks, Michael developed some inflammation that wrapped around his nerve and caused massive spasms,” a statement from his camp read. A later statement noted that if he passed another evaluation today, tomorrow’s medical evaluation would carry on as scheduled.
The Kings, Grizzlies and Mavericks appear to be the most interested teams in Porter with the Bulls lurking at No. 7 if he falls that far.
Bet he drops to Chicago.
Bulls
Michigan product? Cmon now
If the kid is healthy it’s absolutely impossible to not draft him. He fits everything a team should be looking to build with,size,versatility,athleticism,length, and a perimeter jumper.
Absolutely impossible? Since even the most generous mock drafts have him going 4th, I don’t think it is absolutely impossible for the top 3 teams.
Not to mention the fact that you can’t exactly guarantee health for someone that played a grand total of 53 minutes last season.
It’s only a draft, not the end of the world, he’s got an enormous potential, he can be a superstar, I don’t think his health issues are that important, not like a knee or ankles, ACL, achilles tendon… this are much worst injuries for a baller, I would take the risk any day of the week & twice on Sundays, high risk high win, anyway no one can blame you for taking the best player. & if it fails for health reasons, well there is another draft next year, that is why it is called a lottery, you never know who is gonna blossom, bust or wreck their career through injuries, so take your pick.
MPJ is most definitely worth the risk, having said that hopefully all the useless GM’s pass on him & Philly can pick him up at the #10 & he can be the stellar piece we need to put together with Simmons & Embiid for the big three.
Hips & backs are arguably worse than knees & ankles, if only due to less experience in sports injuries for hips. They have knees figured out. Porter has to be dropping to some extent.
Back injury would be enough to scare me away. Obviously hope he can get healthy and have a productive career, but wouldn’t want my team to draft him
He could be Simmons or Embiid or he could be Kerry Kittles or Greg Oden. Medical red flags at 19 are scary, I think I’d pass.