Nickel: There’s a lot to appreciate about Bobby Portis this season, including how he reworked his jump shot

There’s a lot to appreciate about Bobby Portis this year, and 82 things to appreciate about him this week. But there’s one thing that maybe has been overlooked a little bit this whole time he’s been in Milwaukee: his shot.

The 6-foot-10 power forward actually changed it a lot, with the help of someone he affectionally call an “OG.” Marcus McCarroll, who first met Portis almost 20 years ago, has two winter coats. One for his hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas, and another for Milwaukee.

“The Arkansas one doesn’t work well enough in Milwaukee,” McCarroll said with a laugh.

In February during the all-star break, Portis didn’t rest – though he had every reason to. Instead, he met up with McCarroll, his longtime friend, mentor, fitness trainer and former youth coach. McCarroll came to Wisconsin to work with Portis, taking advantage of the down time by putting in the extra work, even if it meant sneaking out to the gym late at night after rest.

Bobby Portis played in every game this season

And that work is partly why, for the first time in his career, Portis played in all 82 regular-season games this season.

“It’s been cool, man, just to be available for my team,” Portis said after practice early this week. “Knowing that I’m going to be out there, ready to go.”

During the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season with the New York Knicks, Portis played all 66 games, but this year really stood out. For a Bucks team riddled with injured players, Portis was reliable, always there, always ready to contribute. 

As the Bucks spent Tuesday and Wednesday preparing for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference first-round playoff series against Indiana on Sunday, they were without injured Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo. So coach Doc Rivers focused on two scorers and playmakers, Khris Middleton and Portis.

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And Portis, who averaged 24.5 minutes per game, embraced the opportunity. He’s ready for the postseason. He credits the Bucks training staff, his work ethic and playing with Team USA in the national basketball program last summer as his reasons for playing in peak form all year.

“I’ve been hoopin’ since July,” Portis said, “you feel me; I’ve been hoopin’ for a minute. Came into training camp already ready to roll. I was in the best shape of my career. And I think it kind of showed throughout the season.

“You know I play hard, so … to play with energy every night. It was great.”

Putting in the work to improve his shot

But McCarroll emphasizes that Portis’ work journey goes way back before then, back to when he started strength training at age 15 seriously.

The best way to tell Portis’ progress, especially offensively, is in his shot. Portis used to sometimes put the ball almost over his head – in his college days, his early days as a pro and even when he got to the Bucks for his first season in 2020.

Now, Portis’ shot is pretty, whether coming from the post or outside. He’s shooting 40.7% on three-pointers and 54.5% on twos. Remember when he said he used to work on that baby sky hook to exhaustion until he hated it? Well it’s part of his shooting arsenal now.

“It was like a reverse process for us,” McCarroll said. “We had a trial and error, we were trying to understand the shot before, instead of studying the shot and trying to tweak it. We did it backwards, but I like it now.”

All that work took years.

“Absolutely had to tweak his shot just a little bit,” McCarroll said this week in a phone call. “He had the on-top-of the head release. And it wasn’t so much about his accuracy, but he would let it go at different points a lot of times, or he wouldn’t have his hips under the ball. So the timing mechanism was off a little bit.”

Portis and McCarroll sought outside help and opinions. They tried a lot of different things.

“We really focused on that that year that we came into Milwaukee to work on our shot,” McCarroll said. “It took years to get to that point where we could go in and change a shot, you know. I tell kids it’s hours and hours you got to put into it to make it feel natural and be able to do it repetitive times over and over and over and over and over again.”

Portis also does a good job of bending his knees with that shot, especially when he’s open.

“It’s more of a balance thing – I try to make sure that I’m on balance best as I can,” Portis said. “Shooting is all about form and balance, not leaning to the left or right.

“Nine years ago when I come into the league, it was kind of funky. I was bringing it over my head to shoot. … My form is way different.”

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Rivers, who has openly coached Portis from Day 1, it seems, on how he wants him to approach his shooting against various defenses –  and not rushing –  also seems impressed by Portis. He said he always thought highly of him, but coaches and players form opinions about others in the league, and those opinions could be misguided at times.

“It’s an example of you don’t know a guy until you play with him or coach him. I knew he could shoot; I didn’t know he could shoot, you know what I mean?” Rivers said.

NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award

As for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year Award, Portis will probably get a lot of votes again this year. Will it be enough to finally win it? That’s unclear.

“I’m cool with who I am and I impact winning at the highest level,” he said.