Periodically throughout this season, I have watched highlights of Nurkic's big games against the 76ers and Nuggets. I just cannot believe this is the same player. I'm not trying to be a troll, quite the opposite actually. I am trying to analyze the data since we have a pretty sizeable sample at our disposal now and hopefully, we can find some optimism along the way too. Here are the things I noticed when comparing this year to last year: 2017: Nurk is obviously bigger, but do you see the way in which he conducts himself on the court? He really is a beast. He dunks, takes it to Steven Adams even, shoves people around in the paint, and asserts his dominance and full weight on people when backing down in the post. (Granted there are a few of his garbage throw-up shots strewn about in there too, but mostly aggressive positive play in which he look engaged and actively passing). 2018: Fast forward to today, he plays like he wants to be the Unicorn or something, but he's playing like a Donkey. I don't understand, is he still getting used to his body or something? Here's where I'm optimistic: He's 23! Give him time to get used to his body. We obviously are on a win now timeline with Dame and CJ, so let's ride this out Rip City and get the Bosnian Beast to be the best version of himself because we are at our best when he is too. Here are the highlights if you're interested:
I think comparing his run last spring to this year is kind of an apples to oranges comparison. For one thing, he seemed to be playing like he had something to prove which elevated his play above his own historic norms, so probably wasn't sustainable. Secondly, if people will recall the last twenty games were against some fairly inferior competition. Lastly, Stotts hadn't quite gotten his hooks into him yet and ruined his game -- he was just sort of out there playing on instinct and keeping it simple.
He has totally changed the way he plays this season. Last year he pounded and took it strong. Every time down they fed him on the high post and he held that ball one handed like a grapefruit and Sabonisqe. The offense really flowed through him. I don’t know if it the weight loss or coaching or both but it’s toattly different this season. He skips around like a ballerina, is flippant with his shots, rarely is square to the basket while shooting and isn’t passing the ball to cutters like last year. Granted half these turned into turnovers but I chalked that up to experience playing together. Still gave me some flashbacks of Sabas. Perhaps team management had scared of what became of Oden by putting on weight and had a knee jerk reaction, pun intended, that Nurk needed to be lighter, quicker and more nimble to avoid injury. I feel like he can still play last years style at a lighter weight but he needs to play tougher and finish at the rim instead of trying to flip it in from 5’. Until he can get back to this he has lost the Bosnian Beast title in my eyes.
I'll take a heavier Nurk for less minutes than this version. Some players just play better when they throw around their weight and our an anchor. Whats with this finesse shit we're seeing out of him this year?
I was going to post my own Nurk thread. Thank goodness we have one. Even if the Blazers win this game, I've seen about all I want of Jusuf. Trade him for anything. Why, when he's only 23 and he gives you a skill set ideal for this team? BECAUSE HE'S A DOG! He plays hard one game out of five. He plays a lazy game, with floaters and finger rolls. He doesn't hit the offensive boards aggressively. The only thing he does well consistently is set picks. He just plays so lazy. I've coached players like that, and very seldom does it ever click with them. I've tried to be patient.
I’m trying to be patient. I don’t know maybe I’m just running on reserves from last years nurk fever.
I hate to kill the guy. I really do. A big part of my criticism stems from the fact that I think he seems like such a good personality fit with this team and community and, when he decides to play like he wants it, his game fits in just as seamlessly. What he can be makes him ideal. Then I watch a guy go out and continually play to his weaknesses and it makes me actually (cringe) wish for DeAndre Jordan because you know what you are going to get from him every game, even if he isn't a particularly good fit here in so many ways. Ed Davis should be starting right now; he's earned it. I won't continually criticize Nurk. But until he finds his motivation, I am going to be tired of his act.
In the 3rd quarter, I said, we'd have 10 more points by now if Nurkic had simply dunked all those shots he missed 6 inches from the basket. I blame Stotts for not telling him to do so. He's very good at creating shots by dribbling it to the hoop, but wastes the effort when he bobbles it away. Plumlee used to do the same because he didn't have the strength to finish, while Nurkic does. Due to that common pattern, I put it on Stotts. The 6th foul was a bad call, though. The Boston commentators said so.
Ive been preaching how a lot of this board overrates Nurk and been getting killed for it. He consistently makes HORRIBLE plays in crucial game situations that are inexcusable. Another point blank miss that could of put us up 8. If you can get good value for him do it.
I agree with this. Does everybody wanna pay a shit ton for nurk when he has shown his signs of being lazy and inconsistent or do you want a proven big man who will work hard in the paint every game like DJ? Nurk has shown flashes of something special but I have had enough. Portland fans want him to be the next sabonis and that shits not gonna happen. “He’s only 23”, okay? So? Doesn’t matter though, knowing how this organization handles shit, we will pay him a ton and he will under perform and we have yet another bad contract on our hand. I would rather keep ed Davis around than nurk. I’m over the bullshit skipping around, easy layups missed. Mid range jumpers? Bad fouls. Remember this shit tomorrow too because he’s gonna get worked tomorrow by drummond.
I was with the hype last season. I really was. I wanted to believe in this guy. Even when he started the season bad, 10 games in I said okay okay just stick with it he will come around. He hasn’t. I don’t understand. I really don’t. Then people point out the great games he has once in a while like yeah that’s great, how about consistency maybe? Most of the roster is already inconsistent. Guys fall in and out of rotation so fast on this team I’m surprised turner hasn’t come off the bench. That’s why good teams like Boston thrive. Brown and Tatum are consistent. Shit, a couple of those guys I have never heard of in my life today and they were hitting important shots. Then people wonder why dame and cj have to iso. It’s easy when you look at the supporting cast.
The funny thing is we probably could of had Drummond last trade deadline or at the draft, they were shopping him and then he came out and beasted this year.
People say give the ball to nurk down in the post. Oh really? You wanna see that? He already misses wide open layups and you guys think the answer is him on offense in the post? Good one.
I don’t wanna look but anyone know how many 2 point or less losses we have had of the top of their head?
He wasn't absolutely putrid in this game. Reasons we lost: #1 Our guards couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, except for McCollum only in the 1st quarter. #2 It seemed like every Celtic big man made long shots with ease, while only Harkless did for us. #3 Nurkic was only the 3rd-biggest reason for the loss. In the box score per minute, our best players were #1 Harkless, #2 Nurkic, and #3 Davis.
