Well.....if they know more than they're letting on, then that tells me that he's not healed yet. This is not hard for GS. They either know he's playing, and if he's not, then they just have to play semi-skilled, and they'll win this series easily. Trying to bait them with supposed smokescreens and tight-lipped bullshit in this case isn't going to work for Stotts. If GS sees at game time that he's not playing, they'll just shrug their shoulders and do their thing. And if Nurk IS playing at game time, they use the book they planned for him. Not difficult for GS to do. This tells me that Nurk is not yet healed. The doctors know this, but are just stalling for some reason. They are probably arguing with the coaching staff, Nurk/Nurk's agent, and trying to balance the impact not playing him has on this team.
If they knew Nurk wasn't playing wouldn't they have listed him as probable and held him out last moment?
I agree that the "smokescreen" idea is way overblown. I think the Blazers are really just choosing to make their decision as late as possible, because more information (how he's doing today and tomorrow) is better than less information. And if it gives the Warriors less information, great, though I don't think that's the primary motivation nor will that have much impact.
If they knew he wasn't playing they wouldn't even let him practice, the assumption being his leg hasn't healed. And he's not just shooting. He was asked if he had any contact and he said he has.
There is only more day, his leg isnt going to get any more better then it is today by Sunday. Either it's healed enough for him to play or it's not. Nurk has said if it were up to him he'd be playing from game 1 forward, plus he is practicing, shooting around, his leg is fine
The entire injury was a smokescreen. After whooping Denver and creating a little distance (plus the tiebreaker), we knew we'd get in and wanted to rest the big fella as one big smokescreen. Having a rested and healthy big man and not letting GS understand our system with him was our best chance to shock the world.
Yes. He needed rest more than anything and they used a very minor but existing injury to convince Nurk to rest.
It's also funny they announced the injury at the exact time Denver lost their game (forget who it was against, but it was right after they lost to Portland.)
If Nurk practiced today, then they will want to evaluate the leg tomorrow before deciding about Sunday. That seems pretty normal.
I tried checking Bosnia-Herzegovina local news articles hoping that Nurk leaked that good good to his local news papers, but no luck. They are keeping this shit on the down low.
I don't know man I've checked what seems like every local news site and found nothing more than articles mentioning that nurk is "waiting for the green light". Have you actually seen something or are you speculating?
...it's "official", he is playing in Game 1!!! --> https://www.blazersland.com/nurkic-will-play-game-1-vs-warriors/
Haha I don't know whether or not to be happy because of how great this is, or pissed that you led me on!
