The difference between 53% and 59% is quite substantial. Certainly when it comes to home court advantage in the first round.
A lot of the impressive part of that "Nurkic record" came last year, when Nurkic was playing over his head. I'd love to see him return to that level, but right now it's looking flukish.
Huge changes in his game were made to give him better health. I am trying to be a little more reluctant to bash him. He has to find his game with a new style and size. Right now he has about a 1000 minutes playing this way. It's starting to mesh. Give him this season and another summer w/training camp. You might be pleasantly surprised.
I have a choice to not freak out or expect much more than first round beat downs by Golden State until 2020, I just hope we have someone better in place to make the roster and financial decisions by then. I might lose it a little if I suck it up and except the bad contracts are here for the next two years just to see them overpay more scrubs in 2020.
And games are for putting your players in the best position to succeed. This forum was up in arms when Nurk was getting block touches after block touches early in the season. Why? Because it led to turnover, after turnover, after turnover. Now Stotts gives him a couple touches a game there but will move him around. It's the right call... If you remember in the OT game Portland recently played Nurk was getting touches in the 4th quarter on the block after the pick and roll. Only to have him throw a cross court pass which Batum was just intercepting. Happened three times in the 4th quarter, and once to start OT. Nurks game is not mature enough for Portland to go down to Nurk time after time after time.
