Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic returned in the NBA bubble after 17 months away from the game. His comeback couldn’t have gone any better.
Jusuf Nurkic broke his leg in the 2019 season, playing for the Portland Trail Blazers against the Brooklyn Nets. The date this horrific injury happened was 25th March of 2019. On the 31st of July 2020, he returned to the court in a win over the Memphis Grizzlies.
There were a lot of questions around Nurkic’s return.
Would he still be the same player? Would he be as strong? Would he still be nimble and be able to make the same impact on the court?
Could he even play the same role he did in the last Blazers team he was a part of?
All these questions were answered comprehensively as Nurkic returned with a bang.
I’ve included playoff stats in this, to show more of a sample.
13 games, 13 starts
14.4 points, 10.3 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.4 steals, 1.3 blocks
47.6 percent from the field, 23.8 percent from three, 84.5 percent from the line
Firstly, Nurkic returned in the type of shape that we hadn’t seen before from him. His basketball reference profile says that he weighs 290 pounds. Nurkic did not weigh that amount when he returned to the court in the NBA bubble. It was reported in some places that he had lost 30 pounds, and it showed.
He had extra lift on his dunks, and before he had to play crazy minutes when Zach Collins went down injured, he was blocking more shots than you would usually expect. His finishing at the rim, though it was a small sample, was also at career-high levels.
The passing was also there. His excellent court vision was on show as he dimed up teammates from the post or found backdoor cutters from the perimeter.
What makes his return all the more impressive, was his minutes load. His highest minutes per game average was in the 2018/19 season where he averaged 27.4 a night.
In his return in the bubble he averaged 31 minutes a night, a great effort considering how long he had been out, and the injury he was recovering from.
Defensively, his positioning and rim protection was great as usual. Nurkic though, did still struggle with his match fitness. This was reflected in his high foul totals as he struggled in some of the nights where he had to play an entire fourth quarter for example.
Nurkic’s shooting range was also pleasing to see. In his entire career prior to his injury, he had only hit three three-pointers. In the bubble, he hit five in total. His stroke was excellent, and he shot them with confidence when he was wide open. This development is significant for his game. As he does hang out on the perimeter a bit initiating offense, he will have opportunities for these open threes.
He won’t shoot many to start off with, but being a threat out there opens things up for his teammates.
Defensively, when he was a fit lineup next to him, fans will be able to see how he really fits back in on that end. I’m confident that he will be the defensive lynchpin just like he was before he got injured, but this is a different Blazer team.
Gone are the defensive pieces Nurkic had next to him when he went down with that terrible injury. Now, Nurk just has Gary Trent Jr., Zach Collins and potentially Trevor Ariza as defensive pieces. There will be more pressure on him as the only strong defender of the front-court.
Though it was a small sample, Nurkic’s return was a huge success. He was huge on defense, he finished better at the rim, and he showed the great passing that’s been one of the hallmarks of his time in town.
He now has a nice long offseason to work on his conditioning and three-point shot.