Whenever we watch the Blazers play, all we see are his butterfingers and dumb fouls, but Nurk is quietly our best player in the early going:
lets be honest, nurk has become scapegoat for our fans and while some of the fans frustration is understandable (due to his injuries, which causes him to miss time and therefore affects the team or him missing easy shots at the rim and to lesser degree butterfingers and fouls), the hate he gets online has gone far away (but then again, that same people were calling for dame lillards head), so theyre not really objective, to say the least nurk has regressed when it comes to ppg, but he never averaged less shots per game with the blazers, than he is now, so thats why his ppg numbers are down, but if you look at his statistics, youll see that hes slightly improved: - his efficiency has gone up (career high) - hes rebounding the ball better than ever (career high) - hes improved when it comes to fouling, he seems under control so far - in the last couple of games, weve seen nurk use up an under and pump fake moves in the low post and is taking his time, playing patiently (all of this is is new, thank you roy rogers) - moves his feet and defends on the perimeter and covers a lot of space really well (which is also new thanks to the new defensive scheme) i love nurk, but im also one of his biggest critics there is and im telling you, its so sad to see some blazers fans get on his back for missing easy shots at the rim (which is frustrating and criticism is warranted), like thats all nurk does, while completely ignoring other things he does well on both ends of the floor... hopefully this trend continues and we see even bigger improvement in his game as the season progresses that being said, im really intrigued if he could keep carrer high in efficiency while averaging more shots per game and maybe hell get more shots per game if his efficiency keeps getting better and better, but from what we know, both chauncy billups and nurk said that hes working on his finishing every day and if roy rogers is the man behind it, which he clearly is, we can only regret that he didnt come earlier to our coaching staff, nurk wouldve improve his game earlier
Zeller is the perfect example of the type of player Portland falls in love with. Every year there’s some average rotational dude with a cute personality that’s supposedly ready to bench the quality starter that can’t do anything right. For example, there was someone on here ready to play Snell over Roco a couple days ago.
Right, which makes Nurk look even better! Look how the team sucks when his stand-in comes in. I don't understand why the team is sucking so much with Zeller - he seems to do all the right things. Just not remotely intimidating? I dunno.
Plus Minus on its own is not a good measure because it depends so much on who else is on the floor with and against you and it requires huge samples sizes.
exactly I like stats but most actually require, at minimum, half a season to gauge anything valid. +/- is one of those
as for Nurkic, yeah, he does some things that are irritating, especially his consistent offensive impatience in the paint. but if you're going to go with C that isn't some superstar like Enbiid, AD, or Duncan, a guy like Nurkic who protects the rim, rebounds very well, sets good screens, and occasionally make a great pass has lots of value. I mean, how would you rank current NBA C's? Jokic Embiid Kat Gobert Adebayo Sabonis then, where would Nurkic rank among this group? Christian Wood Deandre Ayton Valunciunas Myles Turner Vucevic' Jarrett Allen Clint Capela
Can BOTH Sabonis and Turner be centers? What makes Nurk different is his sheer mass. I love Jarrett Allen, for example, but he's a stick. Same with Christian Wood.
It is a 100% accurate measure of how the team has done while the player is on the court. Now, what lesson we draw from that is up to us, but it's inadvisable to draw a lesson about how much an individual player is contributing without a sample that is both varied and large in size.
True, anyone can draw what they want. My point stands that they shouldn't draw much of anything from a 10 game +/- and it explains how Zeller could be doing pretty good with a terrible +/-.
sure...Portland goes with 2 SG's and simply calls one the SF ok I think, however, that mass has become less and less important compared to mobility. Now, Nurk uses his mass well in rebounding, and in setting screens. But not so well for dominating the paint on offense. Guys like Allen and Adebayo are a lot better equipped to defend the perimeter on switches pros and cons I guess. I just think that Nurkic fits into that 3rd group and it probably depends on what the team needs as to which player is 'best'
When Nurk plays well the Blazers seem to play well. When Lillard plays well the Blazers seem to play well. Funny how that works. You can do the same thing by adding the other three starters. It works with Bench also.
Zeller hasn't impressed me in the last couple of games, Nance at C was worse but Nance with Snell was much better (against Indiana, didn't watch the Lakers game). He needs to keep trying hard and if we decide to look elsewhere for minutes (Nance, Snell) then so be it. Regarding Nurkic he would only get better as the year gets along cause as always he came back from Bosnia fat, but he is showing signs of getting in shape
