Debut of the Bosnian Beast – The Perfect Nurkic
By Minh Dao
Recently acquired Bosnian big man Jusuf Nurkic made his debut against the Utah Jazz in Portland’s last game before their much needed all-star break.
If there was one word to sum up Nurkic’s first appearance, it would be “promising”.
‘The Ox’ had a quality start to his Blazer career logging 21 minutes, and posting 13 points, 7 rebounds as well as 3 steals and a block. Nurkic went 5/5 from the field and 3/4 from the charity stripe while showing off his whole arsenal. He finished +18 in a game where the Blazers lost by 23. What does that say about his effectiveness?
Diving into the tape, we can see that Nurkic carries a lot of weight out there. No, not just his body size but his overall presence on the floor. He was a deterrent at the rim disrupting shots as the second line help. He battled inside with the likes of Derrick Favors and Rudy Gobert and was able to adequately ‘drop down’ on pick and rolls to defend driving guards. Most importantly, he held his position and acted as a brick wall while maintaining his awareness and distance to his man on PnR sequences.
Must Read: Blazers Added Toughness with Nurkic
This is something to watch going forward. As a burlier fellow, he won’t keep up with guards. But as long as he stunts the guard long enough for his guard to recover, he will have done his job. Defensive and rebounding won’t be an issue either. He boasts a career rebounding rate of about 18%. Per-36, collecting 12 rebounds a game which puts him on par with the likes of Karl-Anthony Towns, Kevin Love and DeMarcus Cousins.
The only small downside was that he was a bit wasteful with the rock. A couple of his turnovers were from poor entry passes, but others were a result of careless possession management. You’d expect these tendencies to decrease, however Nurk has had issues with this in the past.
Offensively, Nurkic was Very Efficient
He netted his 5 baskets in a variety of ways:
- Off an Allen Crabbe miss, Nurkic snagged the offensive rebound, gave a cheeky spin move and finished with the left hand. It was smooth and Favors got manhandled inside.
- Side hand off pick and roll with Damian Lillard. Sequence started at the right ’45’ on the arc after a nice pocket pass where Nurkic took it to the hole with aggression, bowling over Gobert in the process. BEEN A LONG TIME since I’ve seen a Blazer big do this.
- High pick and roll with Lillard. Dante Exum sends Lillard away from the Nurkic screen, but Nurk pops out anyway, catches and makes a nice 19 foot jump shoot. He has got this sort of range, and hopefully it translates to an improved free throw percentage. Wouldn’t mind him stepping out to three as well.
- This is where the Bosnian really showed his grit. Isolated post-up on the left block. Blazers clear it out and the big fella goes to work. Nurkic takes two POWER dribbles into the chest of Favors and puts up a jump hook. Probably should’ve been a foul as well.
- His last field goal was a thing of absolute beauty. Not only did he cause the turnover, but he then gets in the running lane. He cuts into the lane where he catches the ball at the free throw line, takes a dribble, then spins to his left and kisses the ball off the glass. If you’ve got league pass, I highly recommend you watch this one.
Nurkic displays a multitude of tools that should get Rip City excited. He may not be 100% from the field every game, but you can expect with an increased workload that he can be very productive. His per-36 statistics for this game alone would’ve been 22 points and 12 rebounds.
The eye-test would attest to the fact that his conditioning needs work. He lost 35lbs in the off season and is at a slimmer 280lbs. The combination of the Blazers’ fast pace (10th in the league) with Nurkic only logging 16 minutes in the past 10 days will play a major part in his minutes in the near future. He just needs consistent playing time in order to get into game shape. After coming from Denver who criminally underutilized him, it’s understandable he needs to get some runs in before he’s in 31-35 minutes a night shape.
When Nurk gets to that level of conditioning, watch out. The true Bosnian Beast will be unleashed.
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