The more we go to him, play through him, the more comfortable he is going to get, and the higher his shooting percentage will become. Stotts has to keep going to him on a nightly basis, get him started. He is the reason we beat the Warriors. We didn't really go to him against the Jazz in those losses. He makes a difference. He is young and he will only get better. I believe Nurkic can be the next Sabonis for us.
Gobert had about 7 blocks at the rim by halftime it seems.....Gobert gets credit for the Jazz rim protection in my book...he cancelled Nurk's efforts both games. ..trying chip shots against Gobert is not going to have desired results most nights...he blocked CJ about a million times it seems
The Warriors miss JaVale McGee more than they probably thought they would....rumor has them signing Robin Lopez soon to shore up the paint
They didn't go to Nurk much. He could have used his weight, pounded it inside, and got Gobert in foul trouble.
https://www.nbcsports.com/northwest...hool-weapon?amp#click=https://t.co/Jvomtn3aM4 Coming into the season, Jusuf Nurkic was supposedly going add a three-point shot. Instead the latest addition to his arsenal is coming in the post where “New Nurk” is honing an old school game with recent flashes of effective, bruising post play. In Oakland last Thursday, Nurkic roughed up Golden State for 27 points and 12 rebounds. Two nights later, in the rematch against Golden State in Portland he put up 21 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. Then on Sunday night’s blowout win over the Philadelphia 76ers, he added 17 points and 10 rebounds. For the season, Nurkic averages 4.5 post ups a game, according to NBA.com. But over the past three games, the Blazers have fed Nurkic inside, giving him 14 post touches a night and allowing him to body smaller players with a his back to the basket game. “I realized I need to be more aggressive,” Nurkic said. “And I have to be more patient when teams play really small and try to play in the post more.” Obviously much of Nurkic’s success in the post is matchup-based. Neither the Warriors nor the Joel Embiid-less 76ers had a center who could match Portland’s big man inside. The fact that the Blazers, who have been mostly post up averse over the past four seasons, continually fed Nurkic inside is noteworthy. It’s an important change of pace for an offense that is heavily reliant on pick and rolls. “I think it’s really good for Dame (Lillard) and CJ (McCollum) and the other guys to kinda free space,” Nurkic said. “Usually (the other team) is doubling them in the pick and roll. My job is just to help them with that.” Nurkic has scored inside in nearly every way, spinning past Amir Johnson, plowing through Kevon Looney and going right over the top of Draymond Green. But he isn’t only looking to score on the block. Nurkic has commanded double teams and found teammates with passes when extra defenders arrive. Nurkic has always wanted to post up more with the Blazers. Last season, he stopped just short of complaining about the lack of post ups on a few occasions. But truthfully, he wasn’t patient enough or skilled enough with his off hand to be a consistent low block option. He has spent much of this season working with Blazers assistants on finishing with his left hand and scoring through contact. “I think he’s slowed down a lot and he’s just playing a much smarter game,” Damian Lillard said. The Blazers offense isn’t hopping in a time machine with a back to the basket behemoth leading the attack. But Nurkic has shown enough improvement with his skills and decision making on the block that the Blazers can rely on that option when they need it. “Obviously the two games against Golden State he was very effective,” Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. “And it’s very encouraging, but it’s part of his growth. He’s gotta continue it.”
Kind of a dick. How about running the offense through him like you did in two games against the Warriors? For all the success we had against the 76ers, we didn't go through him like we did the two previous games.
this stat/tweet has been posted a lot over the last few days "when Nurkic has a usage rate of 25% or higher, the Blazers are 12-2" on the surface, that looks like a revealing stat. But it's context-free so I wanted to test those 14 games: * Thu, Oct 18, 2018 - Lakers (home) - usage 36.6%; 17 minutes; 16pts-9reb-0ast; FG's 50% (Javale McGee) win * Sat, Oct 20, 2018 - Spurs (home) - usage 27.9%; 23min; 12pts-8reb-2ast; FG's 50% (Jakob Poeltl) win * Thu, Oct 25, 201 - Orlando (road)- usage 29.9%; 30min: 18pts-10reb-1ast-3blk-3tov; FG's 50% (Nikola Vucevic) win * Sat, Oct 27, 2018 - Miami (road) - usage 28.7%; 24min; 5pts-7reb-0ast-3tov; FG's 29% (Hassan Whiteside) loss * Tue, Oct 30, 2018 - Houston (road) - usage 30.5%; 24min; 22pts-10reb-2ast; Fg's 70% (Capela) win * Sun, Nov 4, 2018 - Minnesota (home) - usage 28.7%; 23min; 19pts-12reb-2ast; FG's 73% (Taj Gibson) win * Thu, Nov 8, 2018 - Clippers (home) - usage 29.6%; 23min; 16pts-9reb-3blks: FG's 33% (Marjanovic, Harrell) loss * Sun, Nov 11, 2018 - Boston (home) - usage 29.5%; 28min; 18pts-17reb-3ast; FG's 57% (Al Horford) win OK now....we are only 13 games into the season; Portland is 10-3. I've underlined the games where I think Nurk's usage rate had a major impact. That's only 4 of 8 games. Also, 5 of the 8 games were at home. In other words, I'd say that context at least brings into question how connected Nurk's usage rate is to blazer wins * Fri, Nov 23, 2018 - Warriors (road) - usage 29.1%; 28min; 22pts-7reb-1ast; FG's 53% (Lonney, Jones) 28 point loss * Fri, Nov 30, 2018 - Denver (home) - usage 28%; 29min; 17pts-11reb-2blk; FG's 47% (Jokic) loss * Thu, Dec 6, 2018 - Phoenix (home) - usage 28.5%; usage 23min; 9pts-14reb-2ast-2tove; Fg's 33% (Ayton) win * Sat, Dec 8, 2018 - Minnesota (home) - usage 30.1%; 29min; 22pts-11reb-4ast-3stl-4blk; FG's 70% (Gibson) win * Fri, Dec 14, 2018 - Toronto (home) - usage 27.2%; 27min; 11pts-9reb-7ast; FG's 27% (Ibaka, Monroe) win * Mon, Dec 17, 2018 - Clippers (road) - usage 25.1%; 29min; 20pts-3reb-7ast; FG's 67% (Gortat, Harrell) win * Wed, Dec 19, 2018 - Memphis (home) - usage 27.3%; 21min; 8pts-7reb-5tov; FG's 33% (Gasol) win * Thu, Dec 27, 2018 - Warriors (road) - usage 29.7%; 25min; 27pts-12reb-4ast; FG's 57% (nobody) win * Sat, Dec 29, 2018 - Warriors (home) - usage 28.9%; 32min; 21pts-19reb-7ast-5tov; FG's 57% (nobody) loss * Sun, Dec 30, 2018 - Philadelphia (home) - usage 30.6%; 21min; 14pts-7reb-4tov; FG's 64% (Amir Johnson) win the first thing is the 12-2 mark was not correct. Blazers are actually 13-5 when Nurk has a usage of 25% or higher. That's still good though however, 25% is a pretty high usage rate for a C and Nurkic is hitting that mark in half of Portland's games, so I don't see anything egregious in Nurk's usage. As I said earlier, I underlined the games where I thought his usage likely had a big part in wins. I imagine people could argue for other games like the Toronto game when he had 7 assists; but I tend to discount usage impact when a player has 4 or 5 turnovers or shoots under 35%. In other words, I'd say only 7 of the 13 wins really came from Nurk's usage. I'm open to arguments for other games though another factor is that 12 of the 18 games were at home, and it's a lot easier to win at home. If it was 9-9 instead of 12-6 or the home/road ratio the usage stats would be a little more convincing bottom line is, even though Portland is 13-5 when Nurk hits that usage mark and 8-11 when he doesn't, I'm inclined to think there are other important factors at work. But it is interesting that Portland generally does better when Nurk is a pivot point for the offense.
Funny because coming into the league that comp was thrown around. He’s always had natural all around talent to go with his physical gifts. Just think about it, ten years ago he wasn’t even playing the sport! We should be building around Dame and Nurk. Every move should be with those two in mind.
Which Game was Nurkics best blazer game so far? 28/20/8/6 against the 6ers or tonight against the Kings?
We can build around Dame and Nurk. As long as he stays healthy, that extension this summer was an absolute steal which should help Neil build more talent around the two. We've been throwing it about this year that Nurk is better and more important to our team than CJ on this forum, but this game will help bring it to the mainstream. It should make Neil's job easier to let CJ go and not receive any nonsense backlash.
Yes, it would be nice to pair AD with Dame and Nurk but if you can get a transcendent talent like AD you give the Pelicans whatever they want other than Dame.
