No. 3: Jusuf Nurkic’s 2021 All-Star appearance chase —— COLD
Last month, Jusuf Nurkic joined Let’s Get Technical with former Blazers greats Rasheed Wallace and Bonzi Wells, as well as Gerald Brown. During that episode, he made one of his individual goals abundantly clear: he hopes to become a first-time All-Star this season.
Just like McCollum, there’s a legitimate case to be made for Nurkic being the second-best, or even the second-most important player on this year’s Portland team. But unlike McCollum, the competition that Nurkic could see himself up against feels more intimidating.
Consider this list for example, and remember that Nurkic needs to crack the top six of this group.
The locks: LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Kawhi Leonard, Nikola Jokic
The close-to locks: Paul George
The competition: Kristaps Porzingis, Zion Williamson, LaMarcus Aldridge, Rudy Gobert, Brandon Ingram, Karl-Anthony Towns, Draymond Green, DeMarcus Cousins
So, he’s a top-10 big in the NBA. But will that necessarily be enough to overcome other centers, power forwards, and small forwards? A bit more difficult.
There are no guaranteed locks, but in counting 27 All-Star appearances between James, Davis, and Leonard, and accounting for Jokic being arguably the No. 1 center in the NBA, it’s a difficult sell, even for the most optimistic of Portland Trail Blazers fans.
The NBA’s culture showed how much it valued the Blazers’ abilities when it watched them steal the No. 8 seed in the Orlando bubble … and still proceeded to give the New Orleans Pelicans the second-most primetime games on TV.
What exactly does that mean? When fans are tuning into the NBA, they’re going to be more likely to be building impressions watching key competition such as Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson — no longer on a minutes restriction, mind you — than they will be in watching Jusuf Nurkic on League Pass.
At the Orlando bubble’s outset, Jusuf Nurkic was putting together numbers that had rarely been seen in NBA history. In the first four games, he averaged 22.0 points, 11.0 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 1.5 steals, and 3.0 blocks per game. The question becomes, how sustainable is that over a half-season?
Rudy Gobert has shown us that you don’t need gaudy statistics to snag All-Star appearances. But Nurkic will need to return to his standing as a feared rim protector, and in turn, the Blazers need to become a feared team in the Western Conference standings.
He certainly has the talent and proven production. But it’s difficult to see him overcoming that with so many perennial All-Stars and household names ahead of him. At least for the time being.