Jusuf Nurkic had a productive seven seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers, but his career took a turn for the worse following his trade to Phoenix in 2023. He struggled to find his footing with both the Suns and later the Hornets.
To make matters worse, this summer, he was called out by Bosnia and Herzegovina head coach Adis Beciragic for his poor conditioning while playing in EuroBasket. Beciragic said that Nurkic was "out of shape" and "can barely run."
Nurkic is now in Utah after the Jazz surprisingly gave up Collin Sexton and a future second-round draft pick to land the big man. Given Nurkic's downward career trajectory, the Jazz front office received a lot of criticism for this deal. They were the ones who had to attach draft capital?
Nurkic's lack of speed and conditioning appeared to be a horrible fit for the direction the league is trending in terms of the pace-and-space of the modern NBA. But that surprisingly hasn't been the case this season. I'm not sure what is more shocking: the fact that Utah currently sits 11th in the Western Conference with a 12-20 record, or that Nurkic is playing a significant role in that relative success.
Jusuf Nurkic is finding his footing in Utah
Of course, it's largely been due to Lauri Markkanen's bounce-back season and Keyonte George's breakout -- a strong competitor to Deni Avdija for Most Improved Player of the Year. But as Sam Vecenie pointed out on the Game Theory Podcast, Nurkic is leading the NBA in screen assists and has played a key role in George's improvement in particular.
"I think Jusuf Nurkic has been a big part of [George's] success," Vecenie said. "Nurkic's screening ability -- he's currently leading the league in screen assists... He is just an absolute mountain of a man. He loves to be physical with screens, and he's always great at making contact. He is really good at angling his body with pin screens to make it very difficult for defenders to get around him. That little bit of separation has helped Keyonte be able to get to the basket a little bit more easily."
This season, Nurkic is averaging 9.3 points, 9.6 rebounds, 4.2 assists, and 1.3 steals on 48/30/51 shooting splits. While his scoring hasn't increased since the Phoenix and Charlotte days, he's drastically improved his rebounding and assist numbers. Blazers fans know that Nurkic is an underrated playmaker at the center position. He finally found a good landing spot to play to his strengths after bouncing around the league.
Portland already has its center of the future solidified in Donovan Clingan, so they shouldn't regret trading Nurkic by any means, especially since they landed Toumani Camara in the process. But it's still great to see Nurkic continuing to extend the longevity of his NBA career, since it was certainly in question there for a bit.