Right now I would trade both of them at deadline. I wouldn't offer either them contract next season. One Nurk is not the right center for the type defense there trying to play. Roco is not a lock down defender he pretty good off ball defender but he commits to much off ball and loosing his man.
in his introductory press, chauncey said he wants nurk to score more or that he can score more, whatever he promissed him bigger role, even if he meant hes gonna use him more as a passer, im not seeing it so far, its no different to how stotts used him and the usage itself doesnt seem bigger chauncey made a lot of promises to nurk & powell, but if dame and (especially) cj keep shooting as much as they used to, im not sure how its going to work
powell has an injury so lets hold out on him, but i cant say i disagree with Nurk. I think the thing is Coach is realizing how uncoordinated Nurk is. He is okay when going downhill but anytime he needs to sidestep, change direction, etc it looks like a big oof of a move and he is dizzy or drunk or something. Im also not sold on him with this style on either end of the court. Sometimes promises are made based on ideas that are proven to not work so then the pose has to be shifted. I would not be surprised if Billups ask for a trade to acquire a more mobile center that will fit his ideas better. Nurk has an ego head case. Must feed off the crowd. Pouts. Complains to refs… more and more not happy with him. Makes a good play and puts his hand to his ear instead of run back on defense. Sick of that shit. You arent jordan and your not hulk hogan!
Covington had 6 straight seasons averaging 12-13 ppg on solid percentages and good threes when we acquired him. Last year that dropped to 8ppg, now he is at 4. The 13ppg great help defender was well worth the two late first round picks. It seemed like we finally got the good wing Olshey has been trying to get since we lost Batum/Wes. This version we are seeing now of Roco is possibly worse than either Aminu or Harkless and doesn't deserve to start. Either Roco improves or the door is open for Nance/Nas to push him out of the starting lineup.
Dame's shooting 3.2 less FGA's a game than last season; CJ is still MeJ and is shooting 1 more FGA a game, with a much higher usage rate and much lower assist rate...and much higher turnover rate the problem with going to Nurk is that he's a turnover machine so far. His career turnover rate is 15.7%, and his highest mark in Portland has been 18%, but he's at 25% right now (Nance has been even worse; his career turnover rate is 12.7%, but like Nurk, his mark this year is 25%). Now, these are all tiny sample sizes so one ot two turnovers can dramatically change percentages. I think we'll have to make lots of allowances for what Billups says he wants to do vs what he does. His first coaching job, anywhere, was in LA only 11 months ago. And he's only 3 games into his first head coaching job. He had lots of theories about what a team should do, on both ends of the floor. But those theories are butting up against the realities of the roster. And one of the main realities of the roster are players with years of experience who have established their games. Changing styles for veterans will be a ragged process, at best; and success is not guaranteed at all. Billups is apparently already re-thinking his Dame-off-the-ball plan. Necessity may cause him to modify his 'involve-Nurkic' plan Dame has developed kind of a balance between shoot-first and pass-first. He will at least attempt to get other people going. But the other two ball-handlers, CJ & Simons, are shoot-first guards all the way. That combination is going to make it difficult to consistently involve Nurkic
im sure you ignore my post in spite, but don't ignore the possible facts. Cj shooting more is probably in direct correlation with our best player having the worst start of his career. Im fine with it. If his shoot cools off, then address the mej concern. Until then his is our only steady bucket st the moment. Ride with it until someone else steps up.
could be...but Dame's best shooting game was the Phoenix game and in that game (Dame actually had a better TS% that game), CJ shot 8 more times than Dame did; played 4 more minutes though. Still it was Dame at 2.3 minutes between shots, and CJ at 1.6 minutes between shots apparently, Chauncey is already talking about getting Dame more touches and more looks, so it isn't just going with the hot man by the way, lol...be thankful I only spite you rather than smite you
in his press on media day, nurk said dame & cj will take less shots, but it will help involve other players more (im guessing him and powell the most) but i wonder if thats what chauncey billups said or just nurks wishful thinking
Dame wants to play off the ball and the only question is if he hasn't gotten used to it *yet* or if he'll never get used to it and needs to get back to running the offense
But, I will also say this about Dame, his defense improved immensely, he is a lockdown one on one defender, for example, I don't think any of Kennard makes were against Dame. Instead of adjusting with Roco on Kennard, Chauncey should have put Dame on him
Huge disappointment. I tried to blame his slippage last season on Stotts. That excuse no longer flies.
I think Covington is a good lesson or reminder that you don’t trade 1st round picks for role players.
Especially not role-players who are 30+. High-quality role-players become low-quality role-players awfully quickly with even a little slippage.
