Not sure if you took Sin's comp as insulting, or even if Sin meant for it to be insulting (I don't think so), but Kaman was a pretty damn good player when he was a Clipper. I wouldn't be upset at all with Nurk ending up being peak-Kaman. I do think he'll be better - he's more powerful at the very least. I want to say he's bigger, but I'm not sure if that's true. I don't remember clearly, but I don't recall Kaman being a good defender - so that's another area where I think Nurk will end up being better. But Kaman had terrific foot work and was incredibly nimble and had a decent mid-range jumper.
I don't really see the peak Kaman/current Nurk similarity to their games. Granted I mostly only watched the Clips when he was scoring at will against the Blazers, LOL. That mid-range turn-around was a key element in Kaman's game, and I remember him as being nimble around the basket. To me Nurk is more of the "beast" he markets himself to be. And his passing is really fun, like Sabas light. I don't recall Kaman's passing on the Clips, but on the Blazers he was a total black hole. When Nurk rolls to the basket he's like a freight train. Maybe he scores, maybe he loses the ball, but it's exciting
A Kaman comparison is not an insult. Nurk and Kaman's post moves and footwork are very similar. Kaman had a nice jumpshot, could pass, decent rebounder... Kaman has averaged 20/10 per 36. I think Nurkic can be better than Kaman, but we only saw him for 20 games.
Kaman's best year was not the year he made the all star team. He scored more that season, but his best all around season was his 5th year in the league at age 25. That was the one year where he put it all together and set his career highs (by a wide margin) of 12.4 RPG and 2.8 BPG. He also averaged 37.2 MPG that year, but only played in 56 games. If you look at the advanced stats and per36 numbers for Nurk in the 20 games he played with the Blazers, Nurk's advanced stats were comparable to Kaman's in terms of TRB% (19.7 vs. 19.7) and BLK% (5.2 vs. 5.6), but he was better in other areas such as PER (21.1 vs. 17.5), AST% (17.7 vs. 9.3), STL% (2.1 vs. 0.8), etc. In both cases the sample sizes are small. Kaman was not able to sustain that level of overall performance (his shot blocking REALLY dropped off after that year), but he did have a long, productive career and was an all star two years later. The good news is that Nurk at 22 was already putting up better numbers than peak Kaman at 25. Therefore, as far as the comparison goes, I'd have to say that Nurk's floor == Kaman's ceiling. BNM
P.S. How dare we compare Nurk to a WABC. We know they all suck - or at least we've been told that. BNM
Nurk isn't an attention whore, I don't think. This is the first time in his pro career he was fully embraced and loved. He's just giving back. At least that's how I see it. I love it. He's one of us now. Gimme more!
Calling him an attention whore is one way to think about it, the negative way of thinking. Bet he wouldn't call him that to his face.
You didn't like it? I was thinking perhaps "Bob", but I settled on "Jim". Bob Nurkic just doesn't have the same ring to it.
