Michael Porter Jr. Sets Denver Nuggets Record For Most Three-Pointers Made In A Season

Over the past two seasons, Denver Nuggets starting small forward Michael Porter Jr. has arguably been playing the highest caliber basketball of his life, with his pivotal role in the team’s championship run last year standing out as both his and his team’s crowning achievement during that time.

In the Nuggets’ recent March 21 win against the New York Knicks, Porter stuck another feather in his cap of career achievements, as he passed former Denver sharpshooter Dale Ellis to claim the franchise’s all-time record for the most three-point shots made in a single regular season.

This level of production is great news for the Nuggets, who in 2021 signed Porter to a five-year rookie maximum contract extension amounting to $17255 million, per Spotrac. That deal kicked in last season, and is guaranteed through 2027.

Consistent with the Nuggets’ team-first ethos, about which head coach Michael Malone recently said their “culture is being selfless, getting over yourself,” Porter deflected his record-setting accomplishment away from being just an individual achievement, instead crediting his fellow players for his success.

“That’s a testament to my teammates,” Porter explained in 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.”

By hitting his 193rd triple of the 2023-24 season in that game, Porter surpassed Ellis’ previous record of 192, which had stood since 1997. And with 11 Nuggets games remaining after Denver’s Saturday matchup at the Portland Trail Blazers (in which he added one more triple), Porter will have ample opportunity to pile on and, in all likelihood, put that record fairly well out of breakable reach for the foreseeable future.

In fact, a Nuggets player draining 170 or more threes in a season has only happened seven times, and Porter is responsible for three of those instances, joining Ellis, Randy Foye (189), J.R. Smith (180) and Jamal Murray (172) among Denver’s only other players to do so, according to Stathead.

For his part, Murray holds the Nuggets’ all-time three-pointers made record at 972, having passed Will Barton’s previous leading tally of 804 just over a year ago. And with a career total of 624 triples – over 300 fewer than the record, as Murray himself shows no signs of slowing down – Porter will not be within reach anytime soon of claiming that title from his co-runner.

Even so, Porter’s growing body of work from behind the arc is building the beginnings of a case that he may ultimately become the Nuggets’ best three-point shooter in franchise history.

To date, Michael Porter Jr. has played 257 games for the Nuggets since being drafted in 2018. His 624 three-pointers in that stretch are the most that any Denver player has had in a 257-game span in franchise history, albeit with Murray coming in a close second at 621, per Stathead.

Just as encouraging as Porter’s three-point volume, however, is his efficiency. Setting aside the 2021-22 season, in which he only played nine games and was clearly impacted by injury before having to undergo season-ending surgery, Porter has shown great consistency in his three-point shooting from the start, averaging over 40% from deep in every fully participatory season of his Nuggets career, and 41.2% overall.

And while mention of the back issues which caused him to get red-shirted his rookie season and miss most of 2021-22 – and also raised enough red flags on draft night to drop him into Denver’s range at the 14th pick – casts at least some shadow of doubt over his long-term physical viability, this season he has looked healthier, stronger and more durable than at any stage of his NBA career, as evidenced in part by the fact that he’s played the third-most games (and the most among starters) and the second-most minutes of all Nuggets players this season. With such signs pointing to the positive, and if he remains both in good health and on the Nuggets, Porter could well have the opportunity to end up with Denver’s all-time three-point record, barring a trade or departure in free agency.

One area of his three-point shooting where Porter clearly has additional room for growth is in the playoffs, where his career average on three-pointers drops from 41.2% to 37.2%, as defenses get stingier and scheme for him more specifically.

The Nuggets will be greatly relying up Porter as a release valve to knock down the wide-open shots that are inevitably generated out of Jokic and Murray two-man game actions, which consistently draw in defenses and produce great looks for open shooters.

But considering he’s been looking more up to that challenge than ever this season, the Nuggets by extension have to be feeling good about their three max players in Jokic, Murray and Porter being in the pole position to not only repeat a championship run this season, but to be in contention for years to come.