The Jusuf Nurkic experiment in Phoenix has officially gone from bad to disastrous. Not only did the Suns have to trade away draft capital to land another center in Nick Richards, but now reports are coming out about Nurkic's lack of relationship with Suns' head coach Mike Budenholzer.
Say what you will about Deandre Ayton's time in Portland, but it looks a whole lot better than what's happening on the other end of that trade.
It's clear that it's now in the Suns and Nurkic's best interests for the two parties to move on from each other. However, similar to Ayton and Portland, Nurkic's contract makes finding a trade partner much more challenging. That is unless one of their recently acquired first-round picks is attached to a deal.
HoopsHype's Michael Scotto reports that "the Suns are exploring using a newly acquired pick with Jusuf Nurkic to land a starting-caliber or high-level rotation player."
Mock trade has Jusuf Nurkic returning to Portland
Kevin O'Connor recently presented a hypothetical trade that brings Nurkic back to Portland on The Bill Simmons Podcast.
Here is the deal in full:
The first-round pick would come from one of the three first-rounders (2025, 2027, 2029) the Suns acquired from Utah in exchange for their unprotected 2031 first-round pick.
The Suns' decision to split their pick into three separate assets led many to believe the move was directly tied to a potential Jimmy Butler trade. However, NBA Insider Mark Stein on The Stein Line notes that Phoenix made the deal "without a specific follow-up move lined up."
That also aligns with what John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 recently said on X (formerly Twitter):
The 3 draft picks from Utah had zero to do with Jimmy Butler. Everyone thought that was tied to Jimmy, but it wasn't. 1) They expect to be good in 2031 so they felt they could make the trade which is risky. 2) They need picks to fill out the roster or make trades. https://t.co/Fc0YA9ReZE
— John Gambadoro (@Gambo987) January 28, 2025
Williams' reported trade value has been multiple second-round picks, but this offer still seems fair for both sides. The first-round pick is extremely late, and Nurkic is a negative asset at this point in his career.
The Blazers don't need to bring in yet another center. They also shouldn't want to have Nurkic on the books for $18.1 million this season and $19.4 million next season -- especially when Williams is cheaper and more productive -- unless there's significant draft capital attached to make it worthwhile.
Portland values Williams highly and isn't going to move him just for the sake of trading him. Is a late first-round pick enough to part ways if they also have to take on Nurkic? That's hard to say, but it's a reasonable proposal that both sides should at least consider.