Quick in The Athletic: Blazers’ Jusuf Nurkic sees opportunity to thrive with Chauncey Billups as coach: ‘This is my chance’
Excited to see Nurk be more mentally locked in, similar to the way he felt Malone was holding him back when he first came to Portland. The bigger question is how long will that trend continue until he hints that Billups is the reason for his struggles?
I read that first thing this morning and I’m all in on the Nurk-Billups Kool-Aid. If Billups has inspired Nurk to show up to camp in great shape, excited to play a bigger role, that’s a huge win over the out-of-shape, worried and somewhat disgruntled guy who showed up for Stotts’ last season. If Billups can change both the offense and defense to make better use of Nurk’s size and talent, that is what could push the big guy towards being the second best player on the team. A big three of Dame, Nurk and CJ, all healthy and being used to their best advantage could push the Blazers to contender status. Pass me another glass of that Kool-Aid.
...when Lillard stressed urgency in the organization he mentioned everyone (not just front office). No better time than now for Nurk to show the same level of urgency. I believe he is the ultimate x-factor this season. Where we go Nurk, we go all.
The Terry Stotts rogue comment was infuriating. Dude had no idea how to channel Nurks talent or mindset. Cant believe we stuck with that inept dude for so long.
Hopefully Billups can do what Malone and Stotts could not...make Nurk a consistent all-star level player.
This will be Nurk's best season as a pro should he stay healthy. Stotts completely underutilized him and he knows that. Billups does too.
no, hopefully, billups can get out of nurk's way and let the man play. That's all the coach needs to do. For all the supposed 'player's coach' nonsense we heard about idiot Terry, the guy repeatedly handcuffed nurk (esp on D) and kept throwing him under the bus whenever he got aggressive.