I'm really curious, is there any data at all that supports this? here are Nurkic's usage rates in Portland: 2016-17 25.7 2017-18 26.4 2018-19 24.7 2019-20 24.0 2020-21 22.3 so then, somewhere in the 25% range the usage rates of Nurkic (in Portland) & other C's: Nurkic 25% (estimate) Gobert 16.1% Adebayo 19.6% Jokic 25.5% Sabonis 22% Capela 18.4% Vucevic 25.1% Steven Adams 15% Embiid 33.9% KAT 26.9% then, you have FGA/100-possessions + (TS%): Nurkic 20.0 FGA - estimate (.533) (higher in Portland) Gobert 11.8 (.662) Adebayo 15.2 (.608) Jokic 22.0 (.613) Sabonis 18.1 (.581) Capela 16.0 (.624) Vucevic 23.9 (.540) Adams 12.3 (.596) Embiid 26.5 (.596) KAT 23.2 (.620) and, assist/turnover ratio: Jokic 2.28 Adebayo 1.78 Vucevic 1.56 Sabonis 1.53 KAT 1.14 Nurkic 1.03 Embiid 0.89 Adams 0.87 Gobert 0.83 Capela 0.77 so then, among those 10 C's, Nurkic had approximately the 4th highest usage rate and the 5th highest FGA/possession marks. But offsetting that is that he had the worst shooting efficiency (TS%) of all 10 C's. Worse, is that his mark was significantly lower than any other C but Vucevic (who has shot nearly 1200 more three's) and when it comes to passing efficiency, Nurkic was 6th in assist/turnover ratio. Now, that's not all passing turnovers obviously. Big guys get called for lots of offensive fouls and they have dribbling turnovers. But that's true for all of the C's, not just Nurkic. It's also true that Nukic has demonstrated better shooting efficiency the last 3 years or so. But again, that's true for the other C's as well the point being I don't see any evidence that Stotts underutilized Nurkic. Nurk had a high usage rate and a high FGA rate compared to other Blazers not named Dame or CJ. Now, maybe Billups can figure out ways to 'better' utilize Nurkic and increase his efficiency. That's needed because if Nurkic just jacks up his usage and FGA without increasing his efficiency dramatically, that's a bad thing. You can justify Jokic and Embiid and Sabonis and Adebayo getting more touches. I'm not sure you can justify the same for Nurkic, especially now with Powell on board
It's pretty obvious why Nurkic was frustrated with Stotts last year, and Malone benched him for Jokic. Acting like he's just someone who's going to automatically blame his coach is a bit unfair.
I think for Nurkic, it's more about him not being properly utilized. I don't think the numbers you posted have any bearing on what Nurkic is actually saying. A possession where he has a shot drawn up for him that allows him to get a clean look around the paint is reflective of the coaching staff utilizing him. Nurkic having to call for the ball in the post 12 feet away then work his ass off backing down his man for a tough mini-hook is not. They reflect the same in terms of usage rate but one is a coach trying to utilize Nurkic as a scorer while making it easier for Nurkic to be one, and the other is Nurkic having to call his own number (which was pretty much all the offense was last year). Stotts ran no cross-screens or block to opposite elbow backscreens for Nurk. No wrinkles to help him get cleaner looks inside. This could've led to more offensive foul turnovers than it would for big guys in other systems. I'm not sure. And while Nurkic had some assists, half of them seemed to come off of Dame or C.J. running to the ball and Nurk handing it to them. That's an example of Nurkic's passing ability being underutilized and the offense relying on Dame and C.J. to create everything and hit tough shots instead even though Nurkic might've gotten an assist and raised his usage rate because of it. I thought it was pretty obvious that Stotts didn't utilize his passing and playmaking enough. Defensively is another story. Nurkic looked great trapping/hedging screens and Stotts elected to put him on an island in drop scheme. His pick-n-roll defense was underutilized. And then in the playoffs, Stotts puts him on Jokic 1-on-1 to start the series (which I would've done), but then didn't provide any sort of help to make it easier on Nurkic. We'd hear about Nurk going "rogue" to trap a screen and normally the results were better than when Nurkic dropped even though the rest of the defense wasn't set up to rotate behind big help at the POA. If I was Nurk, I would've been pissed that my coach wanted to run the same scheme all year long even though it didn't work which just put me on an island having to deal with a guard and a rolling lob target coming at me in a 1 v 2. I would've been even more pissed if I then trapped a couple times, forced turnovers, and my coach just said "he went rogue" and went right back to running the same scheme that had us 29th in defense. Numbers don't tell the story.
I mean, when it's a thread that's based on an article where Nurkic (indirectly) trashes Stotts, what do you expect?
i dont know what the problem was between nurk & michael malone, but it was a big problem given that malone flew to bosnia & herzegovina to visit nurk and it was before jokic took over his job, so whatever the problem was, nurk himself said there is good and bad blood with denver nuggets, but he never had issues with teammates and everyone could see that after his very first game against denver, when everyone on that team hugged and congratulated him on a great game he had terry stotts was part of the problem, injuries were part of the problem and nurk himself was part of the problem (stupid and consecutive fouling, coming to the training camp out of shape last season, although he said he was dealing with family issues and wasnt focused on basketball)... now it looks like stars have finally aligned for him and im expecting an all-star level season from him and i urge some people on this forum to keep the same energy towards nurk be true to yourselves and dont be hypocrites
I explicitly said that Billups might utilize him differently than Stotts did. That's quite possible but I was talking about the narrative that Nurkic was "under-utilized" by Stotts, which had been repeated around here a lot. What those numbers show is he wasn't. here's another set of numbers...touches/minute: Dame 2.27 Nurkic 2.16 CJ 1.91 Simons 1.63 RoCo 1.46 Kanter 1.42 Powell 1.22 Melo 1.22 Rudy Gobert 1.18 Deandre Ayton 1.51 Joel Embiid 2.27 Julius Randle 2.22 KAT 2.05 Giannis 2.12 Adebayo 1.92 AD 1.91 Sabonis 2.71 Jokic 2.91 Nurkic was 2nd on the Blazers on touches/minute. He was actually closer to Dame's rate than CJ's rate. And he had a higer rate of touches than KAT, Giannis, Adebayo, and Anthony Davis
My advice? Take everything you hear from Nurk and Billups with a grain of salt. Let’s wait and see if all these comments amount to anything. The off-season is all about talk, the season is about action.
that may be true, but this 'new' utilization of Nurkic is all theory at this point. Maybe it's not 100% theory because there does seem to be a sizable share of faith it will unleash some different version of Nurkic. 68% theory and 32% faith then. Maybe the faith is well placed, but there's little in Nurkic's game to this point suggesting he'll be some wizard as a high post hub. He's sure not dominant in the low post
No matter how much he’s in shape or whatever, it still doesn’t change the fact that he can’t finish around the rim accurately enough for someone his size. Does that change with a new coach and better attitude and better conditioning? Doesn’t seem likely.
I don't agree, but I guess time will tell. If the pattern holds, he'll have a great year next year. We'll see how things go in years 3-4 under Billups (if that happens). I certainly hope he can turn into a top 5 center, that would be huge for us.
The best version of Nurk mentally and physically is obviously a huge plus for this team. Skeptical that a bigger offensive role and playing ball screens more aggressively is better for the team though.
too late. after reading this, i went straight to the fridge snd drank the pitcher. I can wipe some off my lip for ya though!
100%... His role also appears to be dictated by his availability. You're not going to base your offense around a guy who's not someone you count on. It seems like he's mostly upset with his offensive role, but his per/100 numbers have been significantly better in Portland than Denver and his best 3 seasons have been his last 3. This thread makes it seem like he's been massively regressing the last couple years while coming back from long term injuries.
Chauncey needs Nurk to watch this before every practice and game and every night before he goes to sleep.
Lets see how he starts to react when he gets pulled for lazy passes and ticky tack fouls. Lets see him dunk the ball. Lets see him follow the game plan and play the right way. Lets see how Billups reacts when Nurk starts doing things that he isn't supposed to be doing on the court? We'll see how this goes? Talk is cheap. Do it on the court. Show up in shape. Stay healthy and play a full season. Then we can talk about Nurk being in a better frame of mind. Until i see these things it's all pre season hype.
