Denver Nuggets rookie forward Michael Porter Jr. sprained his left knee in a minicamp scrimmage Wednesday evening and is not likely to play for the team in summer league action at Las Vegas, according to the Denver Post.
The upcoming summer league was finally a chance to see Porter play after he missed the entire 2018 season while recovering from a back injury while he was at Missouri. He was drafted 14th overall in the 2018 draft.
The Nuggets’ first summer league game was scheduled for Friday.
The injury is not expected to be serious and Porter should be ready to play well in advance of the 2019-20 season opener.
The anticipation for Porter’s debut had been so high that the team had sent out his highlights during Wednesday’s scrimmage via Twitter. The post came before his injury occurred.
Porter played in just three games at Missouri in the 2017-18 season, starting one. The 6-foot-10 forward scored 10 points per game with 6.7 rebounds.
He spent last season absorbing the NBA game from the Nuggets’ bench.
“It was amazing for me to be able to spend this year to learn the game and be around these guys,” Porter said, according to nuggets.com. “I learned a lot. Just being around the NBA lifestyle, getting used to the travel, seeing how hard these guys play and the recovery involved. It’s been really good and I think it will really benefit me in the long run.”
—Field Level Media