technically, it's not accurate...Portland is actually 1-9 in the playoffs when Nurkic plays. They were 1-4 last season against the Lakers and Nurkic was healthy when the Pelicans swept Portland. But Nurkic did play 17 minutes in a game the year before that when he tried to come back from a late season injury, but couldn't perform I've paid attention to that because inevitably, when a good playoff team traps, doubles, and triples Dame all over the floor in the playoffs, and the Blazers wilt badly because of it, some people will inevitably excuse the failure by saying if Nurkic had been healthy, the result would have been different but it hasn't made any difference when Nurkic was healthy. Still the same failures. The other side of that is the only time Portland had any real success in the playoff since the Aldridge era is when Kanter was the starting C I like Nurkic, but his health is not dependable and big men just don't impact games like they used to unless it's some once in a decade unicorn like Embiid or Gobert
To revisit this, here is the comparison for Nurk vs Eubanks https://stathead.com/basketball/pcm...urce=bbr&utm_medium=sr_xsite&utm_id=eubandr01 Eubanks makes the minimum. Not sure why he was given the contract he got. Nurk is what his numbers have been over his career. It is insanity to think differently.
Barton was given up for scraps in the horrible Afflalo deal and has nothing to do with this. Plumlee is now sitting with about double the WS for his career over Nurk so hopefully that argument is put to bed.
Lost the Nurk trade. And to sign him to that deal slashed the achilles of the team. He is un-tradable unless you throw in sharp and/or take back even an even worse contract of John Wall magnitude. I would rather have given them Ant and Nurk for Westbrook and FRPs.
I disagree that we lost the Nurk trade. I think the reason most of us, me included, get so frustrated with Nurk, is that the talent is there to be dominant. We've seen it. Ability to put up stats in 5 key areas. It's the lack of concentration finishing at the hoop, and the lack of availability with the injuries that's most maddening. But the skillset is there, and i believe, if, he can stay healthy (big if right now), he can be a key contributor going forward. Because when Nurkic is dominant, the Blazers are a very hard team to defeat.
Why in GOD’S NAME would we want to fo anything but tank from here?!?!?! Shut him down for the season. Heck I’d love to see Dame shut down. Id be ecstatic if we lost every single game from here on out.
And it still wouldn't guaranty anything. All that losing last year didn't get the Blazers the rights to land Banchero. Sharpe may, or may not turn into the next big thing. He is a very exciting player who i want to see take the next step next year. He has too. As for this year, the Blazers are in the developing business of the current young assets, and a big part of that is trying to make the playoffs. Instilling winning qualities by not mailing it in by Tanking. Houston has got tanking down to a T. They have the inside track to landing Wemby, along with the Pistons and Spurs. But they are instilling a lot of bad habits by doing this. The best thing for our youngsters is to play along side Dame and see, what devotion to your craft is all about. It's about putting in the work, and bringing the desire to succeed every day. Not mailing it in, in hopes of a great savior . The Blazers may, or may not make the playoffs. But working hard to try, is better than giving up, any day, any way, any time, EVER!
Career? Sure. This year, it's very close... Nurk is a better defender, there is no doubt about it. But between his availability, how he is misused and his offensive struggles his production is not worth his salary, where Drew is a great value for the money.
Sure, it doesn't guarantee anything. Do you believe there is a more than 0.0000000000000000000000000000001% chance we win a ring this year? If not, it only makes sense to accumulate assets whether or not we do the drafting is irrelevant, increasing our pick chances/rank is simply the ONLY move that makes sense. I'm not talking about Wemby, this is a stacked draft especially at **drum roll** the wing position. Therefore, NOT tanking is downright idiotic at this point. I disagree wholeheartedly with the tanking is a bad idea logic. Tell that to the SAS when they mega tanked for Duncan, Celtics trading their big-3 when the writing was on the wall, Sixers now in the top 4 in the East via tanking, Phoenix parlaying Bridges (tanky tank!) into KD along with what? draft picks. If tanking was a bad idea why have so many teams done it and had it yield success? It's beyond foolish to risk injuries and worsen our asset base by attempting to get smoked by Denver/Memphis or whoever comes out on top in the first round for what? For jack, that's what. We aren't winning the first round if we even get there, that ship sailed months ago when our record got so bad we locked in non-HCA. Tanking last year was absolutely the right move, and it's even more so this year with the loaded draft.
That is with Nurk playing twice as many games and at a salary that takes up over 10% of the cap. Drew is at the minimum.
Nurk is low mileage so far....he's been parked for half his Blazer career....we didn't lose the Nurk trade in my view...Plumlee didn't light up Charlotte by any stretch although I like the guy. I'm not big on backtracking comparisons when random injuries happen to players regardless of talent. Nurk can play better than he was before he got hurt this season. When he's on he's a double double machine and he's an anchor in the paint. Unless you get Embiid or Jokic, you're going to find him hard to replace given the alternatives. Nurk's contract is not bad given what the market will dictate with the new TV money. We'll see how he looks with the new guys but he looked good with Winslow next to him early on. '
Nurkic is 28 years old in his 9th NBA season. He really has only established a few things over his career: he has major trouble staying healthy; for a C he's bad at offense around the rim; his mental approach is flawed; and his only consistency is wild inconsistency "Bosnian beast mode" was something to see but it sure seems that creature is a shell of itself because of accumulated injuries and leg fractures. Nurkic appears to be much more floor-bound now than he used to be. He's not a rim protector anymore. Still, with his size, being more floor-bound wouldn't be much of an issue if Nurk possessed good BBIQ, but that quality is rarely seen thru the inconsistency and emotional roller-coaster that Nurk seems trapped on Nurkic does make a big difference for Portland's defense but much of that, IMO, is due to a major deficit of defensive length and size on the rest of the roster.
Drew is not a starter....he's barely holding onto a roster spot in the league. I don't think you can compare the two given the circumstances...a healthy engaged Nurk is way better than Drew and if they want to put a contender around Dame they have to pay some tax.....Golden State is paying just under half a billion in luxury tax to "maybe" contend this season. We need another 7 ft back up behind Nurk besides Drew...Drew is a tweener who's blocked shots or tip outs almost always go to the other team.. Nurk can get 20 rebounds...Drew never will. Nurk played his best ball next to Aminu and Winslow.....put a defender next to him and he looks alot better..before he got sidelined Nurk was playing hurt according to Casey so his last small stretch wasn't a good sample size of who he is as a player. I'm hoping he's beasting come playoff time.
winshares is a cumulative stat; more minutes = more winshares. Nurkic has played 3 times the minutes of Eubanks so a 4-1 winshare advantage has to be gauged against a 3-1 minutes advantage so, if you're sticking with a winshare gauge: minutes: Nurkic 3-1 over Eubanks Def. Winshares: Nurkic 4.1-1 over Eubanks Off. Winshares: Nurkic 1.47-1 over Eubanks Winshares: Nurkic 2.46-1 over Nurkic Winshares/48: Eubanks .139 over Nurkic .114 the only category Nurk eclipses his minutes advantage is in defensive winshares. Eubanks wins the other categories and of course there's what you are pointing at: Nurkic is paid 8.5 times as much as Eubanks