What a difference - Bear Nurkic making a BIG impression

I absolutely love what Nurk brings to both ends of the floor, but I recently figured out why I like the team so much more with Nurk on it:

Passing and Cutting.
We had some of it with Plumlee in the high post, but it wasn't very effective. After all, it's not like Plums is a threat to shoot or back in from that position. So, all of the cutters were guarded, and the offense sputtered.

With Nurk in the low post, the defense has a choice: get picked apart by cutters, or single team Nurk. Nurk LOVES hitting cutters or players abandoned on the perimeter, but Nurk also LOVES being single teamed and Actually Looks Forward to using his size and strength to back them in. We have seen that he can effectively back in the best post defenders in the league.

tl;dr The ball moves more often and more profitably with Nurk as part of the offense - this is why I am re-energized by the team.

p.s. The Blazers suck a lot less on defense with Nurk, too, which is what I've been really hoping for.

 

That's a nice sign. Hopefully it continues.
Just remember, we are still in the honeymoon period.

 

I don't know Scalma, I think we need much more to go along with those other 4. I think we need an excellent shooter at PF who can also play D. Otherwise Vonleh should be fine. He can play D and rebound.

 

Yeah I mean that would be ideal, but is it an absolute must for us to be successful?

Vonleh plays defense and rebounds in spurts. If he consistently played at the level he's shown flashes of, he'd be the answer.

 

Curious if any of you stat guru's have been tracking our defensive numbers compared to the rest of the league since Nurk arrived.

 

I spent too much money on it to burn it.

 

No worries. I still have a Telfair jersey. Haha

 

Define "successful". If we got an Ibaka or a Draymond Green type PF to go along with Harkless and Nurk in the front court.......we could be very successful. (assuming we tinker a little with our bench) I think I prefer that scenario over a scoring SF who might need to take the ball out of Dame and CJ's hand. I have done a 180 on my wish list. (Since we added Nurk)

Get the right starting PF and we are good to go.

Ibaka was the 24th pick and Green was the 35th.....

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_player#Basketball

Wikipedia has an article for every link. Good old Wikipedia really covers the waterfront. It's not your father's Britannica.

 

what if Kawhi demands to be traded here and wants number 11?

 

Please don't.

Please.

 

I really want an old school Drazen Petrovic jersey and an old school Rod Strickland jersey....then an Andre Miller jersey..working my way up since I've never bought a player's jersey before. As to new jersey's...I love the white sleeved ones...good luck jerseys..I'm really surprised no journalist has asked Nurkic about Petrovic...the guy is a legend in Bosnia.

 

I think to be safe neither of you should be allowed to buy one!

 

I get it. I just think because he talks about all the different things he did in that game, he used it that way

 

I am exactly with you. I think we are good to go with the right PF and some tinkering of the bench. I do think Turner is part of the core too though. We will still need his perimeter ball handling at times, and he was turnign the corner to becoming quite efficient and learning the system before he got injured. I think he will be just what we need as a 6th man.

Wake up. Just wake up. The odds of me burning the jersey is better than him demanding a trade here. And I am not burning it on the serious, I never would. lol.

Hey, don't start making us out to be the jinxspeeds of the forum now. I am seriously thinking about it and I think that if I don't he will fail. If I do he will succeed, so its almost a must do I am thinking.

Meyers was doomed from the get go. Nurk has already shown foot skills and court awareness that Meyers doesn't even dream about, because he doesn't even know they exist.

The failure was not our jinx, it was our poor assessment of Meyers' future as an nba player! lol

 

I agree on ET. Even though Harkless and Turner are two different types of SF's, I put them in the same category when considering a PF to go alongside them. Meaning neither are dependable outside shooters, thus the need to find a PF who is.

Now if we did elect to go with a scoring SF then we can get away with a PF who is more focused on just D and rebounding. Either will work with Nurk, I just think since we already have Harkless ( and ET) getting a good stretch 4 might be easier.

 

Loving Nurk!!

 

There's some dudes that could fit that billing that we'll have a chance to take. Markannen, Lydon, and Leaf come to mind.

 

vonleh is currently at 35 percent and did shoot 48 percent from the college 3pt. line on 1 attempt per game.