Maybe. Maybe not. That by itself is not the reason to get a new center. Perhaps adding a really good 4 like John Collins, Siakam or Simmons can give you insurance on Nurk's health.
there really isn't much difference in nurk this year compared to years past. Even Per 36 numbers are fairly identical to how he has been all his career.
i don't see a contract year bump, just more of an effort by his teammates to make him a focal point. if we can have him maintain this level of engagement when Dame returns, Nurk is easily going to be worth extending.
This 'year', no. But people aren't basing it on the entire year, but rather what he has done in the last 12 games where his production, and especially rebounding, has soared. Take the games before that, and everyone was quite happy to have him shipped out. The question is, can he continue his recent run, or is this just convenient timing for a player looking for a payday that hasn't really had a sustained run like this before?
And that is the question. When Dame comes back and is taking 20 shots, and whomever is left of CJ/Norm/Ant is taking another 15 shots a piece, will Nurk be happy with what is left? Will he continue to dominate on the glass, or is that only tied to him getting more touches?
i think it's more of a Chauncey/Dame/CJ problem than Nurk's. Most big men need touches to stay engaged. Myles Turner, or whomever we get to replace Nurk would have a similar issue. Even Rudy Gobert with his one post move complained about not getting the ball.
In the last 12 games, Nurk is averaging 17.4 ppg and 13.4 rpg. He also had a 12 game stretch earlier in the year where he averaged 9.75 ppg and 7.9 rpg. One of those I'm happy to re-sign. The other, not so much. Yes, Dame/CJ being out for much of the last 12 games gives him more touches, but that just won't be the case on a good team going forward. He is going to have to produce at a higher efficiency level with what he is given.
if there was any player who tried to keep Nurkic involved in the offense it was Dame. IMO, A lot of Nurkic's issues earlier in the season was Billups insisting on running Dame off the ball a lot. It was bad for Dame and it was bad for Nurkic. There were other factors certainly, but prior to this season, Nurk fever was aided a lot by the synergy Dame and Nurkic had
nurk never had this many post ups and there are two options really: either chauncey wants him to post up or ant is voluntarily giving him the ball there was no post ups for nurk when dame was there and to me it looks like it was dame who ran the offense, not chauncey and he decided not to give the ball to nurk on the block to me, ant & nurk have better chemistry than dame & nurk (not in terms of understanding each other better, but rather in terms of passing the ball to each other)
traditional post-up offense seems fairly obsolete. Teams aren't winning championships in either conference using post up offense. Sometimes with PnR, but back to the basket big men are half dinosaurs besides that, Nurkic isn't that good at post-up anyway. It's 24% of his offense this year but he's only in the 40th percentile. For comparison: Ayton scores 20% of his offense and is in the 63rd percentile. Embiid scores 33% of his offense on post-ups and is in the 86th percentile. It's 27% of Valuciunas's offense and he's in the 58th percentile. It's 43% or Robin Lopez's offense and he's in the 63rd percentile. It's 21% of Jokic's offense and he's in the 79th percentile. It's 22% of Porzingis offense and he's in the 45th percentile just looking thru the numbers of C's who generate 20% or more of their offense on postups, Nurkic has about the worst PPP. It might make Nurkic feel better to get those shots but it's not getting Portland good results
I’d be disappointed to lose Nurk. His offense is coming around and love seeing us going inside for some easier shots late in the game. Come playoff time that’s crucial and something we’ve been missing. If we can just add a a super athletic forward and thin out the guards i think this team would be drastically better. Another scrappy forward that can double, trap hard, and switch defensively
Not so sure? Another serious enough injury to miss significant time drops his value. Then you have to wonder how much is he really worth?
nurk was having a career season after he got 4/48 contract, season in which he broke his leg then he missed the following season (2nd year of his contract) and came back in the bubble then he was dealing with family issue, came out of shape to the trening camp, suffered wrist injury, missed time, came back, did well in the playoffs (except for fouling) and now hes having a career season
By that standard, maybe we can get Anthony Davis for Tony Snell and filler? Big guys are going to miss games. That's just the way it is. We just have to deal with it.
listen to charles barkley, forget the analytics analytics might not support it, but nurk is clearly playing better with the bigger role
I agree... Listen to the guy (Barkley) who had us coming out of the West the last few years when the numbers suggested otherwise; he knows his stuff.
