I guess if you believe what the Denver GM said, he didn't really care about the draft pick because he can't keep all the young players he has now. So yes it seems like Nurk's value to the Nuggets was low and they just wanted him gone, but maybe they really liked Plumlee's skill and thought he would be a good fit.........and didn't care about the extra pick. I agree it seems odd but we will know more this summer when they negotiate with Plums.
Maybe he didn't need to grow up, but just wanted to force his way off the team into a better position elsewhere. His inability to suck it up in Denver and be a team guy has probably added tens of millions of dollars to his lifetime earnings. It's made him adored by the city of Portland. It's brought him all the glory he was never going to get mopping up after Jokic. Hard to find a better example in the NBA of a guy benefiting from being an asshole. Which, frankly, I have absolutely no problem with. Stubbornness, arrogance, greed, a little vindictiveness, manipulation---you see the way this guy sets screens? You see him flop? You see how he forces his way in the middle of the paint and tells people "no" at the rim? Notice him wagging his finger? He's the kind of guy who wants to bully people around on the court. I'm not surprised that he was willing to also bully Denver management into giving him what he wants. He got what he wants, and you know, he was right. He was totally right. The NBA is a business, and he did what he did to maximize profitability for himself. I'm glad he's on our side now.
Maybe his agent told him to read 'The Prince' by Niccolo Machiavelli, and he learned a thing or two. Or maybe it was Phil Jackson.
Nurk knew he was too good to sit. He went from starter (which he earned btw) to getting 5-10 minutes within a month. That didn't happen because of a bad attitude. That happened because he had a couple rough games. Nuggets didn't let him play through his mistakes and told him to take a seat. I don't actually blame them for doing that, no reason to stay patient when you have a Jokic as well, but at the same time if I'm 22 years old, know how good I am, and at the beginning of my career (aka need to play so I can set myself up financially for the rest of my life), I might have gotten upset as well. The guy just wanted to play. All this other crap about him being a cancer or whatever is hearsay, because if you read Malone and Connellys comments about Nurkic, and his attitude, they contradict that narrative. Similar with the way a bunch of his teammates in Denver said goodbye to him.
I don't know what happen in Denver but the way he plays you find minutes for him you don't have DNP behind his name. This was Malone fault that Denver lost him and made his trade value was lost. Yea Nurk properly could handle little better than he did but I am glade he having fun for us.
That doesn't mean he acted professionally though. If the situation was reversed I doubt you'd be so forgiving if a Portland guy pulled a similar stunt.
The backstory I love about the Nurkic signing is that we are half a game from knocking Denver out of the playoffs ....that's his redemption...fact is we have no idea what problems were going on in Denver...I look at is as them fobbing off Raymond Felton on us for Dre karma....they owed us!
“It’s not good,” Nurkic said. “When you (don’t) play, and you feel not part of the team, it’s not fun. Especially when you started from the preseason – how many games, I don’t even know. And you just come to the game (one day) and you’re not in the rotation and nobody tells you anything. So, it’s not my control. I’m going to do what I can do; come here, work every day hard and be professional like I should be.” Malone, meanwhile, has been complimentary of Nurkic’s work ethic. The Nuggets coach never expected Nurkic to take a reduced role with a constant smile, but he says he’s been impressed with how the center has gone about his day-to-day business. “Nurk has been terrific,” Malone said. “He’s been working his butt off; his attitude has been great. I wanted to reward him (by playing him against Minnesota). Not just playing him to play him, but I knew that he could help us win.” http://www.denverpost.com/2016/12/29/jusuf-nurkic-reduced-role-denver-nuggets/ Or just go with the other narrative.
We wrung our hands over Jermaine O'Neal for years. How is the situation different? He was trash here. He demanded a trade. We traded him. He blew up in Indy.
In all of this I hope Dame realizes that shitty players you are besties with are still shitty players. Not Plumlee, liked him but this team needs to get better.
