Hey I thought we would make a new thread where we discuss how Nurkic is doing in his return during this restart. So what did y’all think about his performance last night? What did he do well? And what could he work on?
I thought he look good look confident in his shots and grab the boards. The 15 footer he took look good.
Little slow to react on switches and let TJ Warren walk him down a little too easily on a pull up jumper. Think he got caught out of position a couple times in help. The one I remember most was he was a step late getting up on McDermott coming off a stagger that led to a foul. Overall though, looked great. Conditioning looks to be there. Showed the improved touch and patience as a finisher that we saw before he went down...jumper looked smooth. His passing allows us to get to our 5 out delay and elbow stuff more often. Dame and CJ should see more assisted 2 opportunities and think Nas could really be unlocked here too if he cracks the rotation. We also saw the effect his screening has. Dame and CJ got multiple clean pull up 3's off. And if teams choose to get out high on the pnr or full out blitz, his short roll passing comes into play and could be an even bigger weapon than it usually is with better spaced lineups than having ET/Mo/Chief at the 3/4. So happy to have him back.
Well said sir! I agreed with everything you said. I do kinda wonder if some of those defensive play where he was out of position was more due to them not having any scouting report. And also since he been out of the game so long his timing will be off. But that will come back with time. Offensively he was solid, even the 3 point shot he took looked solid even though he missed. Overall I truly do feel like Nurkic for the most part has not lost a step, but at the same time it feel like he has so much more to offer. I am excited for him
Nurkic continue to prove why he’s a better center than Whiteside. He has not lost a step. His defense was way better than the last game. Literally only thing he need to work on is shooting efficiency which he will get to eventually with more game experience
Nurk is better than Whiteside BUT.... We need Whiteside as part of this team! It’s has potential as being a great 1-2 punch and they can play together as well.
They do have the potential to be a great 1-2 punch at center. But they have no potential to play together. Offensively they’re limited in what they can do, and it would create less space for Dame and CJ to operate with. Defensively it’s even worse, Nurk and Whiteside may be able to prevent shot at the rim but team will drive and kick out for 3s like what we saw today. Remember 3 point is worth more than 2.
Their first experiment looked fine to me, especially considering they were without their best player. Outplayed Toronto in the first half while they had Gasol. The rotations out to shooters should get better the more they play together.
Nurk is such a great passer. Great court vision. He made a great pass to Whiteside yesterday that could be a preview of thing to come. That play could be unstoppable. To me, the key is continuous player movement. Can't afford to stand around. Must continue cutting to the basket so Dame, or Nurk have quality options to pass to.
NOT just pleasing, awesome too! Did you see who was laughing about it all and who was visibly pissed? ohhh he is gonna trigger half the NBA. LOVE it. Bout time we had a bad boy. Him and Collins are gonna turn the corner from us being some church chior team over the next year, but still within the Dame discipline. Im excited@!
Feel-good story from ESPN on Nurkic return: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29562198/what-jusuf-nurkic-gained-losing-year-injury
