After Romar was fired, Porter, Sr., went back to Missouri for an assistant’s job under new Tigers coach Cuonzo Martin. Soon after, Michael, Jr., and another talented son, Jontay, committed to Missouri. So that makes two sons, two daughters and one father on one school’s teams.

(It’s big-time college basketball, folks. Stuff like this happens all the time.)

Anyway, Michael, Jr., returned after four months after the microdiscectomy, which repaired his L3 and L4 verterbrae, to play in the NCAA Tournament. Understandably, he was rusty, making just 9 of 29 shots in two games, and the Tigers went out in the first round to Florida State. But that did nothing to impact Porter’s standing as a potential pro.

NBA people will want to see Porter’s medicals in Chicago at the pre-Draft camp. The question is whether they will get them. They know that Porter almost surely won’t participate in drills or workouts, though he could hold individual meetings with a handful of the highest teams in the Lottery.

“You would think they’d share medicals with teams in the top five,” a Southeast Division executive said. “That’s probably his basement. If he was healthy, he could be 1-2. It’s going to come down to the medical. When he came back he was rusty. He was still able to show teams he was healthy enough to play. The rust is going to wear off. He’s too young for the rust not to wear off. The basketball piece will be just fine. He should be able to play in Summer League.”

For teams in the top half of the Lottery, pulling the trigger on Porter will not be a no-brainer.

“From a basketball standpoint alone, based on his college career, you’d have to be clairvoyant to figure this kid out,” a Southwest Division exec said. “There was nothing in those two (post-surgery) games. Can you see he’s six nine, and can shoot it? Of course. But he wasn’t athletic in those games. The doctors and the experts on the back are going to be crucial in figuring this kid out. Having said that, how far is he going to fall? Is he going to be four to nine?”

Porter is not a great athlete. But his ability to shoot at his size is going to be hard to pass on.

“The way the game is played right now, he does the stuff that clubs like who are successful,” the Southeast exec said. “That’s kind of where the game is. Everybody’s not going to be a talent like (Joel) Embiid or Ben Simmons who dominate the game in other ways. The game is on the perimeter, and he has perimeter skills. He can pass and dribble. And he already has the stroke. History tells you your shot is only going to get better in the pros.”

Defensively, opponents will no doubt go at Porter to see if he can move laterally. Yet those who champion him are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

“Guarding is just about what’s in a person’s heart,” the Southeast exec said. “If he’s tough, he’ll figure it out. Defense is a team concept. You can think I have this great guy like Tony Allen, but if Tony Allen knows the other four guys aren’t going to cover his butt if he gets beat, it’s a team concept. If he goes to a team with good defensive principles, he’ll figure it out.”

Villanova’s Bridges a Kawhi in waiting?

There are, by contrast, very few questions about Mikal Bridges, who has been a favorite of many regardless of their current Draft position. The all-Big East first team selection showed significant two-way ability in helping Villanova to the title; he finished third in the Big East in steals (1.3) last season, but was also a force at the offensive end: per sports-reference.com, Bridges was third nationally in win shares (7.7), eighth in the country in offensive rating (132.5) and 18th in 3-point percentage (.435).

With two championships in three seasons at Villanova, and being a key contributor to the second, Bridges has a lot of fans at the next level.

“The kid at Villanova is, perhaps, among the best two-way players in the Draft,” another Southeast Division executive said. “He guards multiple positions, while having the capacity to drop 22 points, too. Dare I say, think Kawhi Leonard. The knock on Kawhi Leonard when he first came out of school was he couldn’t shoot, and wasn’t that athletic. He didn’t have an explosive jump. Now, he is incredibly long, but this kid has that same type of length, and he’s got some hops.“

Mikal Bridges proved he could be a key piece on a championship team in college.

There, Bridges played very much a team game, where everyone shared the ball. The alpha male was point guard Jalen Brunson. When Bridges gets to the NBA, scouts will want to see if he can assume a similar kind of role on his new team.

“He was on a great team, so he had to fit in,” one scout said. “He can shoot it. Now he’s showing I can coexist with other great players. You’ve got (Donte) DiVincenzo. You’ve got Brunson. When he gets to the next level, who knows if he becomes an All-Star? But he showed he could co-exist with the national player of the year. He’s not going to do something he’s not capable of doing. And he’s not afraid. He can lock a guy down if he needs to. He can make a shot. He can stretch the floor.”