Michael Porter Jr. declared for the NBA Draft on March 26th, and today, as also expected, his brother Jontay Porter has also declared. The difference between Michael and Jontay as of right now is that Michael has obviously signed with an agent, officially ending his college career. Jontay hasn’t yet, so what does that mean? His college career isn’t quite over yet, as Jontay will have until May 30th to withdraw his name from the NBA Draft and make a decision to return to Missouri or not.
Good luck, #️⃣1️⃣1️⃣ pic.twitter.com/v0XZ9hMadg
— Mizzou Hoops (@MizzouHoops) April 5, 2018
Jontay Porter averaged 9.9 points, 2.2 assists, and 6.8 rebounds per game and was named to the SEC All-Freshman Team and was the Co-Sixth Man of the Year in the SEC. A current NBA Mock Draft projection has Jontay in the second round (Sports Illustrated) at No. 33 to the Atlanta Hawks (https://www.si.com/nba/nba-mock-draft-2018).
As for Missouri, Jontay was a significant piece of Missouri’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2013. It will be a huge blow for this team if he indeed decides to go pro, looking to replace major contributors in Jordan Barnett, Kassius Robertson, Jontay Porter, and not having the talent of Michael Porter Jr. If Jontay is NBA bound, Missouri will have four open scholarships heading into the 2018-2019 season, which would make for an intriguing offseason as far as possible recruits and grad transfers go. Some big names to keep an eye on will be Webster Groves’ point guard Courtney Ramey (Missouri’s top recruiting target); Evansville grad transfer guard Ryan Taylor (who led the Missouri Valley Conference in scoring at 21.3 points per game), and Illinois transfer guard Mark Smith (former top 60 recruit).
