When Afflalo first came here from Denver he said how great the locker room was in Portland and that it sucked in Denver...Stotts is a real players coach in the way Steve Kerr is....some coaches have tempers and micro manage everything...Nurk likes playing for Stotts and being in our locker room...most players do
I used to work with a (great) guy who was born with a very short left arm (birth defect) that could be described as T-Rex like. The guy is a helluva golfer, guitar player and duck hunter......and (true story) he absolutely swears he can swim circles around Michael Phelps......
I think the thread title needs some editing - take out "true pick and roll": "Nurkic is the best player Lillard has played with".
finally watched some game replays with nurk. dude is awesome. as much as i loved plumlee this trade was a steal.
I will add that the "reality" of the situation is both the coaches and GMs in DEN and PHI completely mishandled the situation. The reason Noel and Nurkic saw their values "crater" was because they were completely misused. The talent was clearly there, in both cases, but it's hard to show what you can do, or get into any kind of rhythm, when you have no clear role and don't get consistent playing time. Both of these guys are just 22 and by the time they were 20 had already shown they were starting caliber centers in the NBA. For them to see their playing time ridiculously curtailed and racking up DNP-CDs was ridiculous and what drove their value down. But look at them now. Nurk is the toast of the town in POR, with the Blazer winning 5 of their last 6 and DAL is 5-1 in games Noel has played. BNM
There has been a lot of discussion about how Nurkic's presence has helped Vonleh's game. I'd like to propose that it has helped Dame's game as well: Pre-Nurk: Dame goes around pick, realizes he's now guarded by TWO players. Post-Nurk: Dame goes around pick, realizes he's now guarded by ZERO players.
Nurk just presents so many problems for other teams. You have to put somebody big out there to guard him or he'll just destroy people on the roll, in the post, rebounding, etc. Anybody big enough to contend with a 280lb 7'1 bear isn't going to be that fleet of foot, so isn't going to want to show on the high pick. So you can forget about trying to trap those picks anymore. And by the time the guy guarding Dame on the pick finally circumnavigates Nurkic, well, Dame has already released his shot. These two guys were just meant for each other.
The Blazers have found their third scoring threat, and their enforcer, and rim protector, all in one player.
The pick and roll with dame and Nurk is damn near unstoppable. Puts an insane amount of pressure on a defense. We could literally run it every possession. The only thing a team could hope for is Damian misses the wide open look, or Nurkic bobbles the ball. This also highlights Dames playmaking ability. He almost always makes the right read. Contrast with CJ, which can be best described as a work in progress.
Spoelstra: “There's less than five players in this league that you have to do something different on your pick and roll coverage. Lillard is obviously one of those guys. To be able to score basically 50 on 21 shots on the second of an early back-to-back just shows you his efficiency. Doing something different schematically, that’s on me.
The team should incorporate PnR like Malone and Stockton did. It's the oldest and most reliable play in the game.
Just need Nurk to refine his postgame a bit, and extend his range this summer. It's unstoppable as is, but adding a 3pt threat just spaces the floor that much more for Dame. And as a backup play, we can post Nurk on the elbow and have Dame/CJ cut off him. What an incredible addition.
Yeah, I was just thinking that I would like to see some more variation on it. Throw in the side pick/roll, with some different pick/cut options on the weak side that will get CJ/Hark/Crabbe involved even if they don't receive the ball.
