This. So much drama on this board sometimes, LOL. No Nurkic shouldn't be the starter the first minute he's here. Stotts is doing the right thing from a management perspective. Give Nurkic time to acclimate and make him fight for the position. He will earn it soon enough.
Exactly. And if he doesn't earn it, we don't want him starting. His NBA career hasn't been exceptional to this point--he has some potential, but he's not a star prospect. People are acting like he is. He may end up starting in Portland because the competition isn't particularly fierce, but he'd likely be a backup on a good team.
We shouldn't forget that Ed Davis is a really good basketball player. If he's our starter, I don't think we're much worse off than with Plums.
I think he can be solid player for us if he stay focus. Right now that all we need is a solid center that plays both ends of the court.
I am not sure anyone thinks he has star potential. He just fills a need. Essentially we always need 3 centers. The big guys can't play big minutes IMO. One always gets hurt or is in foul trouble. I would have preferred to get him without giving up Plums. I think they would have complimented each other. We need one of them to be big and physical against certain matchups, and another to be able to get up and down the court without tiring. The bigger centers seem harder to find. So maybe Neil thinks he can pick the other type up in the draft and develop him. In theory Meyers should have been that 3rd center.
Nurkic is a big time prospect to me. He's 22 years old, but even younger when you consider he picked up basketball relatively late. He's got all the tools to be an elite player, the question with him is more mental. Opportunity helps as well. He forced his way onto the scene as a rookie when Denver wasn't even expecting him to play. He was getting compared to Marc Gasol for his IQ and passing ability. Denver then traded Mozgov and handed him the starting job, and he obviously wasn't ready for it yet (he was only 20 years old.) Then sophomore season he dealt with an injury. He came into this season in shape and started out real well but unfortunately for him, Denver realized that Jokic was the better player. No shame in that, Jokic is elite. Their entire offense is built around Jokic, and it never fit Nurkic because he's a completely different type of big. His time is now. His career can go either way, but if he fails, it won't be because he wasn't talented enough.
Crabbe is a little different as he is a prominent rotation player and avgs near 30m a game. Nurkic doesn't even crack Denvers rotation and avgs under 18m a game. I guess I should have specified and said a bench player that averages under 20m a game.
NO has a history of acquiring guys who play C on other teams' benches who turn out pretty good for us. Both RoLo and Plums looked like career substitutes before we got them, and we didn't have to pay a lot to get them. He drafted DeAndre Jordan as 35th pick (2nd round). I trust him. Big time. Compared to RoLo and Plums, I think Nurkic is going to be significantly better.
I believe I read some where he had 5 years experience before the NBA. So he just learning the game right now. So I think his IQ must be pretty high. More he plays better he will be able to figure out when he should do things on the court.
I still like Leonard, too. He's played out of position at PF when he's really a stretch C. And he's been played sporadically, which has killed his development. The light bulb will go off.
I'm fairly sure the light bulb has already gone off. It's completely dark up there in his head. If we are really lucky, maybe the light bulb will turn back on....
I was really glad to see Ed with a solid double double last night...been a long time..he looked energized
Two guys I would NOT dump now are Meyers and Harkless. Both are on reasonable contracts. I have no doubt at some point Meyers will get his shot back. He also will mature more. Maybe getting pushed around by Nurkic in practice will help. Letting go of Meyers now would be almost exactly like Orlando did when they gave us Harkless.
I would think that Ed will start tomorrow and Leonard will get the first call off the bench, with Nurkic playing spot minutes. Personally, I'd prefer Leonard and Connaughton to play their natural baseball positions: Left Out.
