Over the last two seasons, Denver Nuggets starting small forward Michael Porter Jr. has likely been playing the best basketball of his life, with his key part in the team’s title run last year standing out as both his and his team’s pinnacle achievement.
Porter added another feather to his cap of career accomplishments in the Nuggets’ recent March 21 victory over the New York Knicks, passing former Denver sharpshooter Dale Ellis to earn the franchise’s all-time record for the most three-pointers made in a single regular season.
This sort of output is wonderful news for the Nuggets, who will sign Porter to a five-year rookie maximum deal extension worth $17255 million in 2021, according to Spotrac. That deal went into effect last season and is guaranteed until 2027.
Consistent with the Nuggets’ team-first ethos, about which head coach Michael Malone recently stated that their “culture is being selfless, getting over yourself,” Porter shifted his record-breaking accomplishment away from being solely an individual achievement, instead crediting his teammates for his success.
“That’s a testament to my teammates,” Porter said during his on-court postgame interview. “I’m playing with great players, it results in a lot of open looks, I just gotta knock ’em down.”
Porter broke Ellis’ previous record of 192 triples set in 1997 by hitting his 193rd of the 2023-24 season in that game. And, with 11 Nuggets games remaining after Saturday’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers (in which he added another triple), Porter will have plenty of opportunities to pile on and, most likely, put the record out of reach for the foreseeable future.
