This is Nurk's third season ending injury due to some issue or the other with his legs (2 on left, 1 on right).
On the plus side for a Robinson/Duncan scenario, with the timing of Nurk's injury, I don't see how the Blazers can get a medical exception to sign a one year rental next year, and I think Collins is more than a year away from having a chance at being a dominant big. However, I can't quite imagine a Dame led team not making the playoffs, even with, and especially when the odds are stacked against him.
seems like it's a day for extreme views it took PG13 more than 8 months to return, and he was really not close to himself when he did; and he reportedly had no ligament damage. Nurkic plays at 70 pounds heavier than PG and training camp is only 7 months away. Expecting Nurk back when next season starts just doesn't seem realistic. but it's not all doom & gloom either short term, there's still a chance that Portland can have a feel-good end to this season. Dame could lead them to HCA and even a 1st round win, especially if CJ returns and plays within a motion offense instead of going hero-ball. Blazers could play well and dedicate the rest of the season to Nurk. Yeah, that's a bit of good-ship-lollypop but why not hope for that? as for the summer, unfortunately, Blazers are still constrained by the 2016 contracts...that hasn't changed, They'll still start the off-season only 4M or so under the tax line without counting free agents Aminu, Hood, Curry, Layman, and Kanter. That's the hole Olshey dug and I question if he has the objectivity, humility, and the flexibility to address the issues, but maybe he'll surprise me I do know I'll have no patience at all with any 'trade Lillard' bullshit
We will get a one year rental for a mid-level exception to fill in and we will still be decent. To be honest this season I expected us to get hammered in the playoffs by Jazz or Thunder, only really with a decent chance against Clippers and Spurs and I still reckon we could have a shot at beating either of them. We will be out of contract hell in 2020 too so might be positioned to make a good run in 2020-21. We would do well to trade CJ for 2-3 rotational players who are cheaper than him but probably won’t do that.
Even when PG came back he wasn’t the same until the following season. Which means if Nurk came back around Xmas it would most likely be on limited minutes and he probably wouldn’t be the same guy until the 2021 season. With all these questions going into the 2021 season I’d really like to get Dame to sign that extension sooner rather than later.
The Ringer with a bold prediction https://www.theringer.com/nba/2019/3/26/18282338/jusuf-nurkic-injury-portland-trail-blazers Assholes. This Paolo Ugetti character is about to get destroyed on twitter.
That pic was completely unnecessary and he's already getting killed for it. But I didn't need some unknown national writer telling me my team is done not even 12 hrs after this brutal blow. It was not needed.
Don't laugh. Losing with Nurk might have forced changes. Now, the franchise has a built in excuse to do nothing....again. Once the cameras were gone, I honestly suspect Olshey and Stotts were high-fiving each other.
I hate this topic title and the OP opinion cause it's too bleak and such and do not get me wrong i can understand it to a degree but let's not throw in the towel for the rest of this season and next just yet. I will concede this season any chance at a ring is gone but to want to throw away next season pisses me off a fan would even say / think this even before we see what happens in this offseason. Could this vision of the future happen sure it could but more then any summer before we find out just how good or bad NeO is by how he tries to handle finding a replacement to fill this giant hole left by his injury. Also if you really want to say blazers are screwed and have no hope please stop being a Blazer fan and go be a Warriors , Lakers or but just go away and i do not want to see another post from you again.
Ok... NO and Stotts were not high-fiving each other... I assume you're joking but sheesh. My point was just I don't think it's giving up on next year if they don't make huge changes this summer. At least now that Nurk got hurt anyways. I also think any success in the playoffs will be met with, well if nurk was healthy... Any failure will be met with, yeah but they didn't have Nurkic. Which will lead to NO / Stotts saying let's just be patient, let Zach develope and see what we look like with Nurkic next year. They have some expiring's they may be able to move at the deadline next year. So my question for @hoopsjock was more or less why does he think this injury might make them more desperate for a move this summer? I mean maybe HJ is right and it will prompt some action, I just at least at the moment don't see it that way and was hoping for an explanation, though I could've phrased the question better.
I actually feel the opposite. I have a feeling because of this they'll be forced to be aggressive this summer using the expirings and draft picks in hopes they're still in position to make the playoffs if Nurk can come back at the end of the year. Adding a LaMarcus Aldridge type player is probably more realistic now. Or at the very least landing a DeAndre Jordan or someone like that with the MLE. We don't have to worry for next year how certain players would fit with Nurk.
