Per Jon Rothstein, Michael Porter Jr. has been fully cleared for all basketball activities.
I didn’t see that coming.
Jimmy Dykes said he won’t play
Why risk it! He is out of shape and hasn’t played in a live since since November and only played 2 minutes! He may come in and get off a few shots but I don’t see him being effective especially on defense.
If he was my son he would not play!
He is declaring for the draft. So, this is his only chance to play college ball. Should he pass on that?
Unless he comes out and looks absolutely amazing, which is unlikely, he’s not going to do anything but hurt his draft stock and risk further injury. Like Army said, he’s only played 2 minutes since November. It takes guys months of conditioning to get into the proper shape to be able to play at this level. Their season is going to be over in a month or less anyways. I’d focus on getting 100% if I were him and getting ready the combine. How he does there is going to be what determines how high he gets drafted.
I would assume he has been practicing on his own so he may surprise us
At the moment the hype is on elite NBA potential…why ruin that by playing?
Knowing Arkansas’ fortunes, it’ll only take a week for him to get back into elite form.
I follow a Missouri beat writer with the Columbia Missourian who’s around my age (@Alec_Lewis). He’s been all over the MPJ stuff and is a good follow if you would like to keep track leading up to the Missouri game. MPJ had been seen in the university rec center shooting around several times well before yesterday’s news. Nothing strenuous obviously, but working on his shot quite a bit in his spare time.
He’s been seen shooting around outside the rec center as well. Shhhhhhh
unless you guys are thinking he has potential to make his injury worse, then there is no way he should not play because of his NBA potential. Proving his current status and then how much he progresses before the succeeding draft probably earns him money. I think he will be physically capable and will just for certain make him viable this draft or at worse prove he is back for the next draft. Kid is never going to be a redshirt senior or junior. His money will come after his rookie contract and might as well burn that as soon as possible. Mizzou on a tournament run powered by him is pub and more that is likely directly translatable to money. I don’t see an injury waiting to happen from coming back. He might even get over any mental hang up by testing himself in real play and being self-convicted that he is ready. Body type predicts he can pull this recovery off.
I’m sure that things are much different at 18 but back injuries are tricky. Playing in a shoot around and practice is usually much lighter than going to work in conference play. He could dominate or he could drop his status by playing against a level of competition he has not seen yet in his career after being out for so long. His projection is so high that I doubt he can better it by playing unless he showed dominance at this level.