Watching Houston attempt to function while going all young last year was painful. In the modern NBA, I don't see teams having cores together for 6-8 years, so trying to go all young doesn't make a ton of sense to me. Letting a non-NBA talent start at center makes even less sense to me. Scoot/Ant/Sharpe would benefit from playing next to actual NBA talent vs liabilities.
Looks like Dame skipped the Nurk wedding. Quite a few pics of Blazer people in attendance including Cronin, Roy Rogers, Simons, Nate Tibbets, former Blazer Pau Gasol, Euro legend Dino Radja, etc etc. No Dame though.
My thoughts on Grant and Nurk are similar. Try to trade them for value. If the team can't, start and hold them until they get more value. To your point of sitting quality players to start scrubs, no I don't think that's the right approach. I think that greatly harms rookies and young players we want to develop. The team can be bad even with Nurk and Grant shafting. There's no need to sit them at game 1.
This might align with some speculation that he has personal stuff going on in his life. Hard to know.
the Blazers do Cronin outsmarted everyone by signing a 4 year deal to a starting Center that enjoys the end of season tank. Nurkic can help the Blazers win a few games early in the season. Blazer fans in the Moda Center cheer and get free chalupas. People that work in the Blazers organization say mean things about Nurkic, and he fights back with snippy tweets. Love & basketball and top 5 draft picks, the Bosnian Beast makes tanking fun.
I don't think we should sit quality players. I'm saying that keeping a player simply because he's better than a player like Badji, but still on a bad contract, injury prone, and has a history of toxic behavior is not worth it just because he's better.
- Wife deleted her IG - Wife absent from Dame IG - Dame's children with him only on his IG - Went to France, DR w/o her - Not attending Nurk's wedding - Chauncey's comments: “He’s in a spot right now where he has to make decisions for what’s best for his career and his life. Those decisions aren’t only about basketball.” - That IG story about betrayal (could be Cronin, could be anyone) There are signs of personal issues but there's more than meets the eye.
Nurkic has a history of playing better with younger players who move the ball around. He fits perfectly with the roster the Blazers have now. Nurk's worst days were the small 1-2-3 lineup of Dame, CJ, and Norman Powell. 2 of those players are gone for good, with the other on his way out.
We have an opportunity to dump his contract and make Miami take him. If we wait to trade him, we might have to attach an asset to get it done.
You are certainly correct, but then you are making it Herro and Lowry's expiring coming back and finding any semblance of a rebounder/rim protector. Gotta work Cleveland/Allen or Phoenix/Ayton into the mix. Either would be great for three seasons in my opinion.
I may be in the minority here, but I would like Nurk to stay tbh unless we get something very good back for him. Always thought he has been underrated by a large part of our fanbase.Again haha sure I am one of a few with that assessment but alas. Anyways, congrats to him on his wedding and we shall see what happens.
2 things that bug me about him. 1 is under his control, the other isn't. 1) lackidasical and inefficient play. 2) too injured.
I think/hope more fans can actually appreciate what he brings to the team. If Portland had even a remotely passable alternative - then I could see the reasoning for moving Nurk. It's absolutely asinine to suggest that we dump Nurk just to get rid of him when he's the only player on the team taller than 6-8... I understand and agree here. Unfortunately hes the best option (by far) that we've got
I don't like the fact that Nurk seemingly refuses to finish strong around the basket and as the biggest big in the game it's almost unforgivable. I do not like the fact that Nurk has great court vision but seemingly refuses to make the easy pass to the open man but instead tries to make it fancy and ends up fucking up what should be simple assists. I think Nurk's moodiness has been managed very well by Dame and I don't trust him to manage it himself without Dame. I think Nurk is a terrible fit for Chauncey's system which draws him away from the hoop and think he needs a coach who is more flexible and allows him to drop coverage at least most of the time. I also think that ideally Nurk would be a backup or a situational starter along with a smallball C.
