Anyone else out there getting some serious MPJ vibes from TMB lately?
TMB is short for Trevon Mykel Brazile. He’s the former Arkansas Razorbacks star the Nuggets landed with the 35th pick in last month’s NBA Draft. And he spent much of the last 6-8 days or so looking a heck of a lot like the second coming of Michael Porter Jr.
From July 10-16, over three games with the Nuggets’ Summer League squad, the 6-foot-10 forward averaged 18.7 points, 8.3 rebounds, 4.7 defensive rebounds, 1.3 blocks, with 3 3-point makes on 6.3 attempts. In that span, TMB shot 9 of 19 from beyond the arc, including a 6 for 12 line against the Thunder, on whom he dropped 32 points this past Tuesday in Sin City.
Brazile’s MPJ-like Summer League — A
Now there are caveats here, granted. One, it’s summer ball, where rec-league defensive rules apply. Two, from a talent perspective, Vegas is the kind of final week of the NFL preseason all the time — many of these dudes won’t make an Association roster.
For context, Julian Strawther averaged 4.5 treys in two Summer League appearances with the Nuggets two years ago, and 3.2 treys the summer before that. Hunter Tyson was a Vegas monster, and that didn’t exactly carry over much into the fall and winter.
Although not even Strawther or Tyson managed to pull together the kind of numbers Brazile just did in one seven-day span. In fact, no Nuggets Summer League player in the last 20 years has done what Brazile’s been doing.
Brazile is the only Nuggets player since the summer of 2006 to average at least eight boards and three 3-point makes per game while also logging at least two appearances in Denver blue. That may not make him the next MPJ, but that’s not nothing, either,
And if you want to keep chasing the Porter-Brazile comparison, their rookie measurables aren’t that far off. At the most recent NBA Draft combine, Brazile checked in at 6-foot-9-and-a-half without shoes and sported a 7-foot-4 wingspan with a standing reach of 9-foot-1 inches. He posted a max vertical of 41.5 inches and clocked the shuttle run in 2.71 seconds.
MPJ at the 2018 combine: 6-foot-9-ish without shoes, 7-foot-and-a-tick wingspan, standing reach of 9-feet and change. His college coach, Cuonzo Martin, once described the former Nugget’s vertical leap in the winter of 2018 as around the 40-inch range.
Porter Jr. grew up in Columbia, Mo., and attended Mizzou. Brazile played high-school ball in Springfield, Mo., about 160 miles southwest of CoMo, and played his freshman season of college ball for the Tigers before transferring to Arkansas.
We’ve got some big-time college hoops wonks on the Grading The Week crew. They usually described Brazile in recent weeks as having insane upside — shooting range, length, handles, quicks, hops, the works — who also occasionally goes missing for stretches during games. And sometimes during big moments.
“Head on the rim above the square, blocking shots, flying. How about being able to make a 3‑point shot? All the intangibles that they’re looking for in the league,” Arkansas coach John Calpari said via the Razorbacks’ official men’s basketball ‘X’ feed. “Being positionless. Being able to guard multiple positions. Being able to switch … I love coaching him, and I’m telling you — his ceiling, where he’s going to go, I’m going to say it again: 40‑inch jump. Flies up and down the court. He’s 6’10” with skill. Someone’s going to get a heck of a player.”
If the last week of Summer Ball highlights are a harbinger of what’s to come, the Nuggets are the someones who might’ve landed one of the steals of the draft.
Betts, McCaffrey rep Denver at ESPYs— A
You couldn’t pay most of the GTW staff enough to sit through an entire ESPYs award show, although we loved that the 2026 edition had a little Denver flavor, once all was said and done. Former Grandview star and NCAA women’s hoops national champ Lauren Betts took home “Best College Athlete – Women’s Sports” honors, while ex-Valor Christian standout Christian McCaffrey notched “Best Comeback Athlete” honors.
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