Otto Porter Jr. Rumors: Magic Unlikely to Buy out SF Despite Interest from Teams
March 25, 2021
The Orlando Magic plan to keep the recently acquired Otto Porter Jr. despite "multiple teams" eyeing the forward in the event of a buyout, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported earlier Thursday that Orlando had acquired Porter, Wendell Carter Jr. and two first-round picks in exchange for Nikola Vucevic and Al-Farouq Aminu.
After exercising his $28,489,239 player option during the offseason, Porter is set to become a free agent after this season.
The 27-year-old has averaged 9.9 points on 44.1 percent shooting and 5.5 rebounds for the Bulls this year. He is in his eighth NBA season.
The Washington Wizards selected Porter with the third overall pick of the 2013 NBA draft. He played five-plus seasons in the nation's capital before being traded to Chicago in Feb. 2019.
Injuries have kept the Georgetown alum off the floor more often than not since then. A foot ailment sidelined him for 51 games in the 2019-20 season, and he recently missed 15 games as he dealt with a back injury.
Porter has showcased what he could do when healthy for Chicago, averaging 17.5 points on 48.3 percent shooting and 5.5 rebounds during the 2018-19 season after the trade.
Now, we'll see if he can return to that form in Orlando, which marks Porter's third pro team.
