3 reasons why the return of Jusuf Nurkic is huge for this Trail Blazers team

If Damian Lillard is the heart and soul of this Trail Blazers team, Jusuf Nurkic is the engine room. Why is Nurk’s return next month so huge for this team?

Though there has been a slight uptick in play over the last week or so, this Trail Blazers team is still short-handed. Lacking fundamental skills all over the court, they only have one fit center and two fit power forwards at the moment.
When the casual fan thinks of Jusuf Nurkic they probably think about thunderous dunks and massive rebounds. Nurkic will do those things for this team, but maybe not right away. Also, it’s the things that don’t register on the boxscore that he is so good at. It’s no surprise that a lot of the things this team are lacking in this year are things that Nurk does so well.

Passing

Nurk is a great but underrated passer. Though the recent version of the Blazers hasn’t been a great passing team, they at least had some semblance of ball movement last year with Nurk on the court. They ranked 25th in passing compared to a paltry 30th this year.

This year, per cleaning the glass they have only one player who ranks well in their position when passing the ball, and that’s Skal Labissiere who has only played around 500 minutes. Contrast this to Nurk, who was in the top ten in his position for assist percentage last year.

Nurk’s passing from the elbow, out of the post or from offensive rebounds is élite. He has a great eye for cutters and he also cut his turnovers down the last season too.

This team isn’t going to turn into the Golden State Warriors when Nurk returns, but he will get guys open.

Defense

Don’t look at the box score to assess a player’s defense. That is the first thing that fans get wrong when trying to assess a players impact on the game. Steven Adams from the Oklahoma City Thunder was recently quoted on a podcast saying he was happy when his blocked shots went down as he knew that meant he was impacting the defensive end before it came to a shot attempt.

This type of defensive impact is only possible with impeccable positioning. This is Nurk to a tee. He is an organiser on the backline while also having great hands. He positions himself well in the pick and roll and covers drives from both smaller and bigger threats well. He is an excellent post defender and loves the dark arts down low. Though you shouldn’t use the box score as a way of quantifying defense, Nurk still fills it up from time to time.

Last season he was in the top 20 centers for both block and steal rate. Not an easy task.

His excellent defensive rebounding combined with being one of the best boxout guys in the league, meant that this Blazers team was a much better version of itself when he was on the floor last season.

Offense

Nurk’s impact on offense is spread across a few areas. The first is getting to the line, though he isn’t one of the best finishers at the rim, he can get there and he get’s fouled regularly. He is crafty with his finishes and due to his size and strength often gets fouled in the paint.

He also draws so many fouls because of his excellent offensive rebounding. Nurk was also in the top ten in centers last season for offensive rebounding.

Last but not least is his screen setting. Nurk is a great screener. This season Damian Lillard is having to create his own shot at a record rate due in part to not having his big man Nurk to set solid screens above the arc. Nurk’s threat as a roll man is also big for this team. Last season he finished at almost 55 percent as the roll man in pick and roll possessions.

Nurk may not be able to do all of these things in the first week that he returns, but he has plenty of skills that don’t require him to be overly physical on his return from injury.

Nurk will still make a difference right away to this team, and they need it now more than ever.