Porter played in 61 games during his third season in the NBA. On the season, the 22-year-old averaged 31.3 minutes, 19.0 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 0.9 blocks and 0.7 steals per game -- all career-highs. The Mizzouri product scored 20-plus points 34 times and 30-plus points six times, including a career-high 39 on April 24. During the career-high performance, the 2018 first-round pick went 13-for-21 from the field, 8-for-12 from three and a perfect 5-for-5 from the free-throw line. He also notched six rebounds, three blocks and two assists across 36 minutes. The 6-foot-10 forward grabbed double-digit rebounds 16 times, including a season-high 15 during a 118-112 win over the Bulls on March 1. During the contest, Porter went 7-for-10 from the field and 2-for-4 from three en route to 17 points, notching one of his 16 double-doubles on the season. The ex-Tiger distributed multiple assists 23 times, including a season-high five during a 110-104 win over the Clippers on May 1. Defensively, he registered at least one steal in 35 games, at least two steals in 13 games and a season-high four steals during a 109-82 win over the Heat on Jan. 27. Porter also blocked at least one shot in 38 games, at least two blocks in 14 games and blocked three shots on five occasions.

The 14th overall pick in the 2018 draft, Porter came back from an injury-erased rookie campaign to appear in 55 games (eight starts) for the Nuggets in the pandemic-abbreviated 2019-20 season. He showed plenty of promise in his 16.4 minutes per game, averaging 9.3 points with 4.7 rebounds, 0.5 steals and 0.5 blocks -- good for per-36 averages of 20.4 points, 10.3 boards, 1.1 steals and 1.0 blocks. Porter was efficient all over the floor, shooting 50.9 percent from the field, 42.2 percent from three-point range -- leading to 1.1 made threes per game -- and 83.3 percent from the line. Despite minutes being difficult to come by on a strong Denver team, Porter scored in double digits on 22 occasions, including all eight of his starts. Along the way, he posted nine double-doubles. Most of Porter's most productive games came during seeding play during the Orlando bubble, when he received a stretch of full-time run in the starting lineup. On Aug. 3, Porter put up a personal-best 37 points alongside 12 rebounds, a steal and a block against Oklahoma City. Two days later, he dropped 30 points with a career-high 15 rebounds to defeat the Spurs. All told, Porter averaged 22.0 points, 8.6 rebounds, 1.0 steals and 0.9 blocks in the bubble. He went on to serve as a key scorer during the Nuggets' 19-game postseason run to the Western Conference Finals. In Game 2 of the first round against Utah, Porter drew a start and scored 28 points, hitting six threes to go with six rebounds and a block. He ultimately posted 11.4 points with 6.7 rebounds across 23.7 minutes per game in the playoffs.