I for one gotta eat a little crow, I got on Nurk pretty bad last year for what I saw as soft play around the rim but he has definitely established himself as our second best player. If we can turn CJ and other assets into a borderline all star wing I’ll feel pretty good about our Big 3.
The first play is not what Im talking about at all. He doesnt even get within 5 feet of the hoop on that cut at all. That's a screen designed to get him the ball 12 feet away from the rim. Im talking about a legit opposite weakside block cross screen. Every other play the passer is way to high up the court to get a good deep entry pass. It's literally a baseline cut off a screen that isnt far enough to the weakside. I guess you could call this a cross-screen set, but they're all pretty bad, and far, far, far too rare.
I'm not going to get into why you're overrating the effectiveness of a cross screen which when well defended, results in the type of catches he's already receiving. Instead, answer some of these questions for me... Is Nurk five feet away with a guy on his back a powerful position for Nurk? Is it more powerful and better leveraging the other players players on the floor than say a mid post catch where he can better survey the D, draw help and hit cutters/shooters? What about an empty side pnr where he can catch with momentum heading towards the basket and with full vision of any potential help defense? It's no coincidence Nurk is having his most efficient, most positively impacting offensive season of his career...
It's much more effective than these sets. These sets make it so the defense doesnt even have to guard Nurkic well in order to get him 15 feet away from the screen. No ball reversal, poorly placed screens and entry pass angles, it's just ineffective at best. Yes, 5 feet away is the perfect distance away for his hook, and is much easier to get a layup out of. In these poorly positioned sets (the idea in itself isnt bad), he has to bust his ass trying to back his guy down to 5 feet, sometimes cant, and if he does it wears him out right before his hook. Yes, it should open up more because the defense will likely overcompensate more since Nurk is more of a threat the closer he gets to the hoop with the ball. But Nurk as a scoring threat is almost automatic lately when he gets deep post up position. Im not talking about pick n roll. I like our Dame/Nurk pick n roll. I don't know what that has to do with having sets designed to get Nurk close looks around the rim. Yes, it is no coincidence he's improved. Nurkic has been working his ass off, has a lot of unfulfilled potential, he's only 24, and Dame does a good job at setting him up.
I don't even like the idea of a cross screen. My response / video is more about refuting your idea that Stotts doesn't run anything specifically for Nurk. I don't care if he's five feet away from the basket. A contested shot with his back to the basket is far down the list on the most effective, most efficient ways to use Nurk plus use his presence as a screener / finisher to open things up for the other players on the floor. You can respond to this if you want, but I'm done arguing about this.
You're probably the only person that thinks it's better for Nurkic to have the ball 17 feet away from the rim instead of 5 feet. That set is so bad at getting up Nurkic in a good position that it doesn't even count. The point of a cross-screen set is to get Nurk the ball with deeper position than simply walking the ball yo the court and throwing an entry pass. This doesn't accomplish that. But I've complained about the quality of some of Stotts sets before so I guess we can add this to the list.
Here you go again explaining to me the point of a cross screen like I'm some fucking idiot. And I swear man. You are so deep into your Stotts hate that it's completely warped your expectations of what is and isn't good coaching. I really question how much NBA basketball you watch outside of the Blazers sometimes.
Walton has the ball at top of the key all the time as the Offense went through much of the time, but he also posted up and hit the boards, block shots etc. Stotts is a Ramsey disciple in a since as he loves a motion offense with a passing big man.
I like Nurkic in different spots. Theres just times where we try to feed him post up scoring opportunities and he's 17 feet away from the hoop. Itd be nice to have a set designed to get him the ball with deep position.
There's ways Stotts gets Nurk deep catches without needing someone to screen for him. Like a side pnr, where he's even likely to have a smaller player switched onto him.
I remember Walton would get down low after up top and he and Luke would play keep away they with Bills back to the hoop.
Nurk having the ball up top as a passer with an option to kick wide and recieve a backscreen (angled to the hoop, not towards the short corner) is another set design I'd like to see.
I'm going to answer these questions. Yes, Nurk is proving over and over again his back to the basket game is becoming a real weapon and he can draw fouls. Also, he's going to suck the defense in which can make for open shooters. Maybe you don't want to run that play every time but that leads me to my answer for question 2. I love the idea of getting nurk the ball about 10-15 feet away from the basket whether it's the mid posts or not anywhere in that "arc" I think there are interesting ways to use his passing skills and I'd like them to spend a lot of time running offense through him there, but that doesn't mean that's the only offense they should run. The PNR with dame and Nurk has been really effective for the Blazers I don't have a problem with that. It's interesting to me I think with any offense you want to see a multifaceted attack, I don't want them to run cross screens for Nurk every play, but I don't want them to go to Nurk every play either, I think they should be doing all the things you mentioned above and then have plays for other guys as well. I started this whole "thing" by saying I think Stotts deserves some credit, in my opinion, he's actually done a pretty good job of changing the offense to go through Nurkic more, the last 4 weeks or so. The offense is a lot less stagnant in my opinion. I know they played a couple frustrating games vs Denver and Sacramento and while I think they were both "winnable" nobody bats 1000 so I suppose I can move on from those games and hope they learned from them. I certainly have my problem with Stotts coaching, but it's been nice to see Nurk turn himself into a very, very good player this year and for Stotts to let things go through him.
